The imagery of Anastasia Baranoff emerges via the presence of a categorical figure and a message that needs to be unraveled. From the dialog between the spatial and the temporal that is referred to in the interplay between the chromatic and the achromatic, the figure and its background are linked together in different ways, and the artist, both simple and complex, gives us a clue: we need to stay and see what happens, wait and come along with the action, the thought, and the feelings of the being before us. There is something resembling a quotation here, considered as a vehicle for taking us to another place and another thing that has been told already in a different way, and whose hand is now taken by the artist in order to reach the spectator. Hence, even from out there does it appeal to us for an explanation, starts asking us questions or telling us about something, or just makes us feel or recall something that has taken place, perhaps, in another place and moment of our life… That is all… and one cannot say that this is not much, since the technique sustains, gives a strong support to everything, starting with the portrait performed in a meticulous way or with a simple line that traces this harmonious figure. Ultimately, it is the artist who devotes herself to the creation and gives us her work in the act of love and expression, so that we could get a chance to observe it over and over again in its entire splendor.
San Isidro, October 29, 2008.
Graciela Cesario, Head of the College of Fine Arts Regina Pacis.