David Datuna: An Exhibition Opens in Vetoshny.

The SCHUKIN Gallery opens “Eye to Eye” exhibition of David Datuna, a U.S. artist. This is the artist’s first large-scale exhibition in Russia.

The VIP-opening took place in the evening of 17 October. The celebration dinner in “Vetoshny” gathered collectors, artists, actors and other guests including Natalia Vodianova, a model and organizer of the “Naked Hearts” Foundation, who participated in the opening ceremony.

The private view took place at the art center on the following day, 18 October, to gather art critics, artists, journalists writing on arts and culture, and other representatives of the artistic community. Our camera team mini-interviewed the guests: each could tell what he thought of David Datuna’s new works. These interviews will be part of a film about making of this exhibition – spectators will soon be able to watch it in our website.

The exhibition is centered on the portraits of two Russian political figures who ruled the country with a span of one hundred years: Vladimir Putin and Nicholas II. The portraits follow David Datuna’s personal technique, each one covered by a layer of interconnected ophthalmic lenses. Images changed by the lenses acquire new meanings: the portraits face each other but not stand in opposition – they are rather chosen as reference points in the system of coordinates designed for a conceptual analysis of the given period of time in the history of the Russian State. The material for this analysis are also covered by lenses, something which makes the spectator to scrutinize each work.

Several of Datuna’s works from the “Force and Beauty” cycle are demonstrated in a special room: an eponymous exposition is currently opened at the SCHUKIN Gallery’s exhibition in Paris.

David Datuna’s exhibition in the Vetoshny Art Center will stay open until 10 November.