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Liudmila Kondakova - Bistro 1900
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You might happen upon Bistro 1900 as you round a Perisian street corner leading onto a light-filled courtyard. The bistro door opened invitingly, with table and chairs set out on a balmy spring evening. Bistro 1900 might be your destination, as it was a century ago for guests alighting from fashionable coaches, now immortalized in the mosaic crowning the dorway. The possibilities are endless when Liudmila Kondakova masterfully lures us with light and color and stunning perspective into the captivating scene of her newest serigraph, Bistro 1900.
Through Bistro 1900, the artist presents us with an intriguing tableau of intricate detail. Light and shadow play on the flowing elements of art nouveau designs incorporated in the delicate mosaic of the restaurant's facade. Window boxes brim with flowers, and festive lights adorn a garland of green. Warmly lit windows draw us into an interior rich in decoration and detail, where paintings, murals and mirrors contrast with commonplace objects of the restaurant trade.
The irresistible whimsy of these themes in Bistro 1900 belies the discipline and intensity of the fine detail that is the hallmark of Liudmila Kondakova's work. Indeed, tracing this to the influence of her training under the guidance of monastic icon painters in her native Moscow, Kondakova has revealed, "The monks shared the secrets of a beauty that lies in the love that goes into each detail, no matter how small or insignificant. In my art, the essence and beauty has always rested in the details."
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