Olga Sacharoff

OLGA SACHAROFF (Tiflis, Georgia, 1889 - Barcelona, 1967).
"Walk in the forest".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower margin.
Measurements: 108 x 103 cm; 121 x 116 cm (frame).

Olga Sacharoff's painting embodies an exquisite synthesis between narrative figuration and a profoundly modern lyrical sensibility, typical of the plastic universe that this artist built in her maturity. In the scene, a couple on horseback stops in a forest clearing, a suspended moment that Sacharoff translates with a delicacy bordering on the dreamlike, without renouncing the penetrating observation of reality.

The male character, mounted on a brown horse, wears a gray suit and a bowler hat. His protective attitude is manifested in the way he directs his gaze towards his companion, who, mounted on a white horse (traditional symbol of purity, but here also of the intangible), brings her left hand to her blue hat with a graceful gesture. Her dress, also blue, seems to be in dialogue with the sky which, although visible, does not structure the space or dominate it: it is rather a tenuous but tangible presence.

The theme of the painting (the stop of an elegant couple on an equestrian ride) is an anecdotal excuse to create a dense and enveloping atmosphere that responds to the particular treatment of the landscape to which Sacharoff has accustomed us. The forest, far from being a mere backdrop, becomes a lyrical protagonist: the trees, the leaves, the grass form a world in itself, defined leaf by leaf with a meticulousness that, however, never falls into the photographic. The brushstroke is vaporous, modulated. As a whole, the natural environment seems to float, as if emerging from a reverie.

There is no defined horizon, inviting our gaze to get lost in the foliage: in the green and sienna symphony of the forest, with no vanishing point. This contributes to the sensation of stopped time, of an expanded instant. This, together with the sifted light and the contained but harmonized chromatism, refers to a highly poetic dimension.

After studying at the School of Fine Arts in Tiflis, Sacharoff moved to Munich in 1910, where he came into contact with German expressionism. The following year he moved to Paris, where his work was initially influenced by Cézanne, and later evolved towards synthetic cubism. At the outbreak of World War I, Sacharoff moved to Spain, where he settled in 1915, first passing through Mallorca and finally settling in Barcelona the following year. In fact, some historians point out that she was the introducer of cubism in Barcelona. From there she collaborated in Francis Picabia's magazine "391", considered the mouthpiece of Dadaism and published in Barcelona. He exhibited works in the Salons d'Automne in Paris in 1920, 1921, 1922 and 1928, obtaining important praise from the press and managing to organize, in 1929, a solo exhibition at the Parisian gallery Bernheim Jeune, one of the most important of the time. During these years she held an exhibition at the Layetanas Galleries in Barcelona (1934) and participated in the Montjuic Salon, of which she was appointed member in 1935. At the outbreak of the Civil War Sacharoff returned to Paris, and in 1939 she exhibited at the Perls Gallery in New York. After the war he returned to Barcelona, and left behind the avant-garde to immerse himself in a naïve taste close to the Catalan noucentisme. His style adopted lyrical and amiable traits, and he put himself at the service of an idealized vision of Catalonia: landscapes, customs, popular types, etc. In general, compositions with multiple characters predominate at this time, depicted with schematic strokes and vivid colors. Chosen by Camón Aznar, he participates in the I Salón de los Once de Eugenio D'Ors (1943), held at the Biosca Gallery in Madrid. Two years later he organized a retrospective of his Parisian work, and in 1960 the General Directorate of Fine Arts dedicated an anthological exhibition to him. In 1964 he was awarded the Medal of the City of Barcelona. Sacharoff also illustrated books, with examples such as "La casa de Claudine" by Colette (1944) and "Netochka Nezvanova" by Dostoevsky (1949). Recently an anthology was dedicated to her in duo with María Blanchard in Bilbao (BBK Exhibition Hall, 2002). Olga Sacharoff is represented in the Mapfre Foundation in Madrid, the Reina Sofia National Center, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, the Museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco Casa Lis, the Marés Museum, the Pablo Gargallo Museum in Zaragoza and the Monastery of Montserrat, among many others.