The Hat

Melbourne : the artist, 2001. Artists’ book, oblong folio (505 x 365 mm), finely bound in tan leather, blind embossed on front panel, patterned endpapers, etched title page, 5 folded leaves printed with 9 original etchings, each signed and numbered, interlined with tissue. Limited to 4 copies.

In this handsome folio the artist uses her considerable skill in etching to examine a simple straw hat. Through nine stages she explores her subject from different angles, giving a personal character to her inanimate subject which is delicate, involved and sublime.

Marina Charapanovskaia was born in Krasnoyarsk in Eastern Siberia in 1961, and grew up in Vorkuta in the Komi Republic, far northern Russia. She studied art at the People’s University, Moscow 1982 – 1984 and spent the rest of the decade working in design for government departments, including designing powerful Soviet propaganda posters. Upon the breakup of the Soviet Union,  Charapanovskaia emigrated to Melbourne where her grandmother had been living since the 1960s. She returned to study and completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Printmaking) at the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne University).  Since then she has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions, and won awards from the Kingston City Arts Centre and National Gallery Women’s Association.

A fine contemporary artists’ book from a migrant to Australia drawing upon her memories of childhood.