Baranoff, Anastasia

Desnudo masculino, Marcelo 02, 1995
Pencil drawing on paper
9.8 x 13.8 in
Ballerina, 1990
Pencil drawing on paper
9.8 x 13.8 in
Baba, 2007
Pencil drawing with collage
23.6 x 27.6 in
Diedushka, 2007
Pencil drawing with collage
23.6 x 27.6 in
Rodia, 2007
Pencil drawing with collage
23.6 x 27.6 in

Anastasia Baranoff’s artistic endeavors began at an early age with her family quickly recognizing her artistic talent. At age 14, upon the suggestion of the Artstic Atelier and teacher, Baranoff was enrolled at the School of Visual Arts Regina Paccis in San Isidro, Buenos Aires. She graduated in 1988 and began to exhibit her work immediately. Baranoff expanded her artistic creativity into the field of scenography and set design for theater, film, television, and other media. She worked with major media and film houses, as well as clients such as Kingmills of England, Lacoste of France, and Mercedes Benz of Germany. From 1993 through 1998 Baranoff taught at the Instituto Florentino Ameghino and in 2006, she decided to dedicate herself completely to her art. Working full time in her studio, Baranoff immersed herself in creating her work. Focusing primarily on sculpture and drawing, Baranoff includes oil paintings and mixed media in her body of work.

Countess Anastasia Baranoff was born in 1968 in Buenos Aires, Argentina to a family of nobility. Three of her four grandparents left the former Russian Empire after the Bolshevik revolution, and the family eventually came to Argentina as refugees during World War II. Baranoff’s maternal grandfather, Georgy Dorn, was born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) to an ethnically German family that came to Russia on the invitation of Catherine II in the eighteenth century. Dorn, an avid art collector, influenced Baranoff’s early love for the arts. His magnificent art collection included many important Ukrainian and Russian artists, such as Vasyl Hryhorovych Krychevsky, with whom he was personally acquainted, and Vasily Vasilievich Vereshchagin, while his wife’s family was close with another major Russian artist, Ilya Repin. In her work, Baranoff often explores her close relationship and ties to her family’s heritage.

Artist Statement

My work reflects the experiences and memories of my life.. Baba, Diedushka, Rodia.. all people close to my heart of past and present. I try to re capture their thoughts and feelings through my drawings. Marcelo, one of several studies of the human body, represents a rational being who gives me strength, while Ballerina is full of grace and softness, a remembrance of my own ballet classes growing up.

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