Flora Yukhnovich: The Venice Paintings

Flora Yukhnovich

‘I love paint. I think it’s delicious. I find it the most thrilling, exciting stuff. I like the idea of it being excessive and luxuriating in it. And I hope that comes through in my work.’ — Flora Yukhnovich

Since completing her masters degree in 2017, London-based artist Yukhnovich has received acclaim for paintings in which she adopts the language of Rococo, reimagining the dynamism of works by eighteenth-century artists such as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, François Boucher, Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Antoine Watteau through a filter of contemporary cultural references including film, food and consumerism.

A shift in emphasis from predominantly French to Italian influences has, for the artist, resulted in a number of developments and breakthroughs. While Yukhnovich has long been entranced by the idea of the fête galante – a type of painting depicting the wealthy at amorous play in parkland settings that came to prominence with Watteau – Tiepolo’s ceiling paintings have encouraged a more heavenwards focus, bringing with it a change in palette towards celestial blues and pinks and compositions that defy a gravitational pull. Brush marks, freed from describing flesh, become looser, lighter, functioning as directional cues to the viewer.