Natalia Vyatkina  - Sculptor and Graphic Artist 

was born in Vologda Russia). She graduated from the Moscow  Art Institute in 1971.
1971-1973 she worked in the House or Arts in Riga under the guidance of  the  great Russian sculptor, Slomin. In 1973 she became a member of  The Union of Artists in Russia. In 1988 she won “The best  work of the year” prize with her sculpture ‘Youth’. In 1994 she won a prize in the International Competition of Sculpture and Ceramics in Gualdo, Tadino (Italy).In 1999 she was awarded a Diploma from  the Russian Academy of Arts. Exhibitions of Vyatkina’s have been held in Russia, Italy, Hungary and Germany. Her works are exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Kuskovo Museum in Moscow, in  museums throughout  Russia and in the Gualdo Tadino Museum in Italy, the Miskolcs  Art Museum in Hungary as well as in many private collections in Russia and abroad.
TO HEAR WITH EYES
As you become acquainted with the art of Natalia Vyatkina  you cannot help remembering Shakespeare’s sonnet. The lines of which reflect the distinctive features of  her universe. The soft plasticity of her work is to be listened to rather than observed: “He who has ears...” should, in her case be paraphrased as ‘He who has a soul, let him hear.”
Some of Vyatkina’s graphic works leave an impression of spontaneous  musical lines sketched, accidentally oulining a human body.
The Russian poet Lermontov described the ‘sound of light’ (the harmony... of  planets) as the play of sound in the silent movement of the universe, a blessed order. This is communicated through the works of Vyatkina. Her heroes, whilst creating sounds of heavenly harmony which cannot be heard by a hasty listener, are themselves straining to hear them. Their detached concentration appeals to the spectator: “Verweile doch!” (Wait, stay awhile!). This quotation from Goethe’s Faust is not a random association. The urge expressed by Faust may probably explain why the heads of her characters are so often either bowed (the posture of one straining to hear) or thrown back (the posture of one who is listening and, which is more important, one who has just heard  something).
This explains why the spectator should ‘wait; stay awhile’ and at least try to hear what has so dramatically and positively transformed the faces and the very plasticity of the heroes who stir not by the eyes alone, but with their whole bodies. Such is ‘The Muse” , which, in my opinion, is a  most striking figure. Her scintillating form, as if swayed by the winds of the heaven from where her tender feet have brought her down to the world of humans, her very frailty which is an unmistakable sign of creative perceptiveness combined with her almost monumental solidity - all these features are rendered with a sensivity inherent  in the artist’s female nature. I  would call the subject  “A Self-portrait of the Artist”, and the work itself - the artist’s masterpiece as it embodies the essential traits of the master herself. “The Muse” also refers to what, in earlier times, was called ‘a body imperceptible’. The Muse patronized the imperceptibility which, tranformed by an artist’s hands, acquired such real and  tangible qualities eclipsed in the visible reality.© Valery Mildon 1999