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nous religious paintings of the Soviet Union.
Through her husband, who was the human rights officer at the American Embassy in Moscow, Purnell met dissidents and refusniks, prisoners of the Communist regime. The face on a nude is the face of one Jewish refusnik denied an exit from the Soviet Union. The sorrow — and the strength — of a persecuted people show in her face.
The drawing and other depictions of the human form on display in the gallery are not traditional portraits.
“I take the facial structure from one person, the eyes from someone else, the body from another, the coloring from another,” the artist explained. “I’ve done straight portraits. I know I can do portraits. Painting this way is more exciting for me...I find my imagination yearns to be set free.”
Painting in composite Unleashes the imagination, Purnell discovered. “I start off with a portrait, with one person, and I take off from the face. I have fun with the face.”
She’s stolen other faces from the old women who brought produce from their tiny backyard plots to Moscow’s private markets, the rare vestiges of capitalism in the communist capital.
“The city of Moscow is tremendously hideous. I’ve never seen anything so ugly — miles and miles of dingy, drab apartment buildings. So the bits of beauty really stood out — the little log houses covered with gingerbread, the decorated windows, the little churches and the old women — the old women were beautiful. The things from the past that were struggling to survive, that’s what appealed to me in Moscow,” sPpmell said.
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