Tamara Nesterova

The Stars Down to Earth...

The works of Tamara Nesterova win over the viewer immediately and for a long time to come with their sincerity, purity of conception, and clarity of execution. They are imbued with the artist’s love and admiration for her heroines and heroes—famous actresses, fashion models, and singers, all those people we are used to calling the “stars” of show business. Nesterova’s masterful touch turns them into our friends and intimates without stripping them of their “stellar” charms. Unbiased, attentive viewers immediately accept and share Nesterova’s point of view for most of them also dream of communing with the world of the stars, of overcoming the unbridgeable gap between their own world and the world of these “gods.” In each piece, Nesterova intuitively and with uncanny precision finds a manner and stylistic membrane that jibes ideally with the individuality of her subjects. And yet in essence the faces of Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, Liz Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Sofia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, "The Beatles", and Ray Charles are a kind of constant because they are consciously borrowed from the canonical images of these famous people found in garish fashion journals and on posters. But it is precisely everything that escapes these established and endlessly reproduced media and advertising images—that is, all those traits in which these idols of millions preserve their purely human side— where Nesterova situates her creative reading of her own “star chart”. Thanks to her employment of collage and assemblage—that is, the incorporation of bits of real fabrics and furs (the clothing of her heroes), beads, imitation jewelry, and even real Swarovski bangles; that is, elements we do not usually expect to find in standard “glossy” images—Nesterova’s works are immediately transformed into an incredibly sincere domestic portrait gallery (a place where we ordinarily find family members and friends) that gladdens the eye and the heart of the viewer. Nesterova has come to accept and admire each of her heroines and heroes in her own way, and that is why in each instance she selects a particular technique, setting, and frame for them.

In some works, the determining factor is a scene from a famous film (as is the case, for example, with Audrey Hepburn, who is depicted in her role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s) or a concert (Ray Charles). Nevertheless, Nesterova enriches Audrey’s film clip and Ray ’s stage performance with a multitude of lovingly conceived details. For example, in her rendition Charles is playing on a radiant veranda; a vase of flowers stands on his piano, and in the background we see blossoming trees, hills, and the sky at sunset. It bears emphasizing that Nesterova imagines the look of her heroes the way she does and no other way for very personal reasons: she does not attempt to imitate or follow anyone. These heroes are hers and hers alone. Hence it is important to her how her idols looked off screen or offstage—that is, not only when they were illuminated by lights on a soundstage or the flash bulbs of cameras, or gazed at by hundreds of fans (as, for example, in the piece where Marilyn Monroe stands before a microphone in front of an American flag, or the portrait of Liz Taylor, who seems to have been captured as she arrived at a high society gathering in an elegant dress and fur boa), but also in private life. Nesterova thus depicts Brigitte Bardot (who in recent years has become known as a defender of animal rights) at home with a large, friendly dog, while Sophia Loren sits as it were before the mirror on the dressing table in her own bedroom.

In another piece by Nesterova, Marilyn Monroe, dressed in an elegant fur hat and fur collar, has paused in thought; her pretty mouth half-open, she listens intently as it were to a melody being sung by a bird with a rose in its beak that flutters nearby, a melody seemingly inscribed on the sheet music that serves as the background for the entire composition. 

In Nesterova’s rendition, the Beatles are apparently at a birthday party: they sip champagne at a table laden with fruit, other refreshments, and a birthday cake with candles (three of them in all); colored balloons dangle from the ceiling.

This same festive mood imbues yet another work by Nesterova, a piece where for the first time she depicted not world-famous celebrities, but her own friends: her newlyweds are attired in grand wedding costumes and shown against the backdrop of enormous pink heart.

Nesterova’s portrait of the late Princess Diana stands apart in this respect. Smiling, the princess looks out at the viewer from a wreath of violets that seem to have been embroidered on a patterned rug. Diana is depicted the way she is remembered by her innumerable fans: it is the privilege of those who die at an early age to remain forever young. An ingenuous and sincere admiration of the subjects of one’s own work is a telltale sign of so-called "naive art". It is worth remembering that throughout the twentieth century it was "naive" artists (for example, Niko Pirosmani in Russia or Le Douanier Henri Rousseau in France) who had a decisive influence on professional artists. It was their "naive" works that moved twentieth-century art forward with their inner freedom, unfeigned honesty, and an expressiveness that sprang from the heart, not the head.

Aside from these qualities, the works of Tamara Nesterova have an unerring sense of taste and a felicitous feel for form. These are signs of genuine artistic talent. Anyone who sees these works by the talented and original artist Tamara Nesterova will be convinced of this fact.  

Andrey Tolstoy.