A solo exhibition 'Girls Prefer Oilmen' by Azerbaijani artist Irina Eldarova will be opened in the Tsereteli Art Gallery until December 3. The exposition includes about 70 paintings and graphic works, which have already been dubbed by experts as Eldarova's "own novel", who used all possible means to create them - paints, photographs and even poems ...
The central figures of her works are Baku oilmen from Soviet posters and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star, Hollywood 1950's Movie actress Marilyn Monroe.
PhD in art criticism, representative of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow, Nigar Akhundova, told Vestnik Kavkaza: "You know what I like about this exhibition? Its sparkling, absolutely enchanting colors. An lot of humor. A lot of associations. The title of the exhibition 'Girls prefer oilmen' evokes associations with Some Like It Hot (1959) starring Marilyn Monroe, as well as with Bakhtiyar (1955) starring Rashid Behbutov as the main oilman. Today, Irina Eldarova revives this heroic image of oilman".
The artist told Vestnik Kavkaza about the idea of the exhibition: "It's elementary. Girls prefer diamonds. What are diamonds? It's a currency. What is the currency now? It's oil. And girls make a choice. They prefer oilmen. The oilman's figure is the most valuable thing. Who chooses? A beauty! I compared her image with Marilyn, the goddess of the western hemisphere. And the Azerbaijani oilman is a hero of the eastern hemisphere, our legend. The birthplace of oil is Azerbaijan. And the Baku oilman is my hero, both as my personal hero and as hero of life. So I connected them. It turned out a very personal, interesting story for me. "
The significance of the exhibition was appreciated by the president of the National Russian Nobel Heritage Fund, Togrul Bagirov: "Irina Eldarova is a very talented person who has devoted herself to great art. In recent years, she has payed much attention to energy, oil. This exhibition is a major event for Moscow life, for art. There are a lot of interesting works here. But I would like to draw your attention to these works: "Zoroaster" is the first tanker in the world and the "Nobel Prize". These are two paintings from our Nobel Brothers House Museum, which is located in Baku."
The founder of Russia's ethnographic park "Ethnomir", businessman Ruslan Bayramov told Vestnik Kavkaza": "Oil is something usual for any Azeri, Baku citizen. I came here with colleagues and friends to feel the taste of that Baku, the taste of Azerbaijan and, of course, rejoice at our compatriot's success, thanks to which people gathered at this positive event. "
Azerbaijani musician and singer Emil Kadyrov shared his impressions from the exhibition with Vestnik Kavkaza: "These are very bright works, but they should not be viewed in terms of color - they have a very thin line, a fine line of taste, a fine line of the author's intention. When they told me that there would be such an exhibition, with such a title, it made me smile - 'Girls prefer oilmen'. Throughout history, oil has been a base of our capital of Baku, and the title of the exhibition embodies our spirit".
