"Animazione"
"Contre-Punto I"
"Legato"
VERA SELL RYAZANOFF "Echo des Absoluten"
till 27th October 2007
Vera Sell-Ryazanoff was born at the fifties as the daughter of the former noble parents Valerian and Tamara, née Mourawskaya, Ryazanoff. One of her ancestors sailed around the world for the Tsar and made history at San Francisco. Both grandfathers were murdered by the Bolsheviks as "enemies of the people".
Vera grew up under difficult conditions. As a small girl she lived at her own alternative world. In her family many gifted artist can be found and Vera continued the tradition. Her artistic education comprised pantomime (Pantomime-Theatre Gedrias Gitis), sculpture (Sergej Konienkov and Ekaterina Beloshova) and painting (Sourikoff Academy of Arts, Moscow).
At the age of 16 she did win a national competition, her works were displayed at Paris afterwards. At the same year she started a workshop for homeless children. At the age of 19 it was closed by the authorities and all works were confiscated.
To earn her living and to help the family she delivered newspapers at night and she worked as an illustrator at an academy.
In 1974 she was arrested together with Oscar Rabin at the famous bulldozer exhibition. Although this was published at the western media this meant the end of her public artistic activities.
At the same year she met Christian Helmut Sell, counsellor for culture at the German embassy at Moscow. They got married in 1975. Only the intervention of the former foreign minister of Germany, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, at his counterpart, the foreign minister of the USSR, Gromyko, made it possible for her to leave the country. Vera Sell-Ryazanoff left Moscow in 1975 and lost her Soviet citizenship. For over 7 years it became impossible for her to visit her parents at Moscow.
Christian Helmut Sell became diplomat at Canada, Portugal, and Australia. For all the years Vera Sell-Ryazanoff did draw and paint, she studied the international art movements and continued to develop her own technique. First exhibitions of these works followed the next years. For a short time she lived a Munich, where she made contact with famous people like the late young genial musician and composer Nicola Economou and David Bowie, Maximilian Schell and the family Furtwängler.
At Australia followed the breakthrough for the artist Vera Sell-Ryazanoff. A certain number of successful exhibitions were followed by fame and the positive critics.
At that time, Vera Sell-Ryazanoff did also create the stage and the choreography of four operas.
Her success was overshadowed by the sudden death of her husband. Vera decided, also she was now German citizen, to stay at Australia. More exhibitions followed and her artistic career reached a high point of success. She was named "Incredible Woman of Australia" and the Gallery l'Agostiniana (Gallery for sacral art at the Vatican) invited her to make an exhibition at Rome.
In 1989 Vera Sell-Ryazanoff met her partner, a Swiss diplomat, and followed him to Morocco and South Korea. Many exhibitions at Morocco and two successful exhibitions at Paris tell about her activities. The exhibition at the Sorbonne at Paris was opened by the world-famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovitch.
In 1996 Vera Sell went to Switzerland together with her partner. Of the many exhibitions there, the two at the castle Allaman and at the castle Gruyere should be named.
Over the years Vera Sell-Ryazanoff has further developed her own technique, a synthesis of classical painting and the third dimension. She often uses sand from the different desserts of the world (red sand from the centre of Australia, yellow sand from the Sahara, black sand from Mount Stromboli, Mount Etna and Hawaii). At certain paintings feathers and shells are embedded. Art and nature are united into a new and unique form of art. The pictures are full of vibrancy, energy and statement.
During her career so far the artist has exhibited worldwide, her works are at the museum of the Vatican at Rome, at the Queensland State Gallery at Brisbane and at private collections like the royal collection of Morocco, at the collection of the Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating and at several international collections.
