Author: Daria Fedosova
Interpreter: Maria Kurnosova
The exhibition “True Lies” opened on September 28th in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. It continues the conversation about women in art that began in the gallery “The Muses of Montparnasse”. This time visitors will observe the works of Austrian painter Ksenia Hausner.
©Daria Fedosova / Journalist Online
The key to the name of the exhibition lies in Ksenia’s biography. All the Hausner family members are part of the cinema and theater world, and Ksenia is no exception. She spent most of her life working on decorations for performances and festivals, and it was only by the age of forty that she took up easel painting.
Naturally, her works reflect her past in theater. Ksenia herself calls her compositions “pictorial plays”. Indeed, every painting is like a silent scene in a play, a production inspired by reality, a story about truth told through an illusion.
A main entrance, security guards, a cloakroom, people in concealing masks followed by a hall arranged with Rodin sculptures. A long and narrow staircase: the first floor, second, and finally the third - here we are!
Anyone entering the hall is struck with bright and audaciously excessive color. Hausner’s works captivate visitors with flavor: clear-cut and loud colors combined with the same clear-cut and loud brush strokes. This evokes theatricality and embellishment not just in the compositions, but in the technique itself.
©Daria Fedosova / Journalist Online
The references to the artist’s background are both external and internal: often the keys to the ciphers she draws up hide in the history of a world-renowned cinematographer. Here too Hausner clings to the details of а world so familiar to her. And once again the gallery visitors cannot do without extra help: a good part of the walls is covered in explanatory texts.
While walking through the halls and observing the paintings you will eventually notice that the characters portrayed are always women. If there even is an occasional man, he remains strictly in the background. The painter chooses to only fill the women with emotions, character, and inner strength. And this is no coincidence.
Ksenia Hausner deliberately places women in the spotlight. She creates a certain feminine world where sensuality, sensitivity, care, and mutual understanding are in the foreground. One could say that with these characters’ distinct individualities the artist juxtaposes the male and female worlds.
In the works that make up the exhibition Hausner discusses not only gender issues, but also other important social and economic questions. The paintings don’t just speak, they shout out about social injustice and the plight of poverty and migration. The painter did not forget to mention the pandemic as well.
Hausner's art is a sobering brightness of colors filled with rich characters, subtlety, sensitivity, and overwhelming tenderness.
Moscow residents and guests of the Russian capital still have the opportunity to dive into this theatrical world until January 16th. The canvases patiently await new viewers!
