Flora Yukhnovich and François Boucher: The Language of the Rococo

Flora Yukhnovich, Folies Bergère (detail), 2024, © Flora Yukhnovich. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro and Hauser & Wirth

Flora Yukhnovich (1990), celebrated for her large-scale, semi-abstract oil paintings, has given the language of the Rococo new life. Two new paintings by the artist, made in response to two exceptional paintings by the celebrated 18th-century French painter François Boucher (1703-1770), now occupy gilt frames in a free display at the top of The Wallace Collection’s grand staircase. 

Boucher's paintings are displayed out of their frames, on white walls, like contemporary works of art. Theatrical and tongue-in-cheek, they are prime examples of the Rococo, a decorative and exuberant style favoured across the arts by royal and aristocratic patrons in France and elsewhere from the 1730s.

Flora Yukhnovich and François Boucher: The Language of the Rococo is intended to prompt visitors to reconsider preconceptions, explore how we can connect with the Rococo today and examine the impact of display on art interpretation and historical re-evaluation.