Natta Konysheva, Venus Pavilion on the Island of Love

Natta Konysheva graduated from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute in 1959. In 1974, Konisheva became a member of the Moscow Union of Artists, seeing as she was becoming one of the best-known figures in the unofficial art scene, being widely exhibited in Russia and abroad. She was the winner of the Grand Prix of the Spring Saloon-98, a creative competition for women artists in Russia. In 2000, Konisheva was decorated with a medal from the Russian Ministry of Culture. Konisheva is a representative of, what is known as, the Moscow “strange” artists due to the fact that her creative style is extremely unique. It combines the beauty and the ugliness, describing the hectic and absurd life of the Bohemians, pseudo-intelligentsia, and the romanticism of the lifestyle of the homeless. All of these works are subject to stormy fireworks of colors and the incompleteness of images and themes. Konisheva’s paintings have attracted the attention of well-known European collectors, such as Rene Gera (France). They are also exhibited in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Museum of Naive Arts in France, as well as in numerous private collections in Russia, France, Italy, Germany, and the USA.