WASHINGTON, DC.- Dive into the summer season with Natalya Nesterova: Summer Reflections, an exhibition of eleven large-scale shore paintings by Russian-born artist Natalya Nesterova. Chronicling the situations of daily life and ordinary people, these summer seascape paintings depict the characters, costumes, and activities that were traditional at Russia’s southern resorts. Nostalgic of times past and evoking memories of a simpler life, Nesterova’s paintings of people on the street, in parks, on boat trips, at restaurants, or at the beach seem to stop time in its tracks. Natalya Nesterova: Summer Reflections is on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts through August 7, 2005.

Natalya Nesterova (b. 1944) is a well-known and much revered figure in today’s art world. Nesterova’s art was first introduced to the United States in 1988 as part of the cultural and political dialogue established through Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). Although she was not a dissident artist in the Soviet era, Nesterova has painted a world that pushed relentlessly at the boundaries of officially sanctioned work. Increasingly, her vision has been marked by aesthetic and intellectual freedom, and her paintings are filled with quirky touches that are as distinctive as they are familiar. Her use of primitive techniques and brush strokes brings an immediacy to her subjects, disarming with its directness and challenging with its subtle yet powerful emotional content.

Born in Moscow, Natalya Nesterova is the recipient of the National Award in Fine Arts, the Triumph Award, and the Gold Medal of the Academy of Fine Arts. Nesterova has been featured in over sixty exhibitions and her work can also been seen at the Guggenheim Museum (New York), The State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow).

Natalya Nesterova: Summer Reflections was organized in association with INTART (International Foundation of Russian and Eastern European Art, NY), with assistance from the Embassy of Russia, Washington, DC.