Artwork
The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche
The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche is a print by Olga Tobreluts. It dates from 2016 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
The title of this print is The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche.
It was created by Olga Tobreluts in 2016.
This work is part of a series that Olga Tobreluts originally conceived in the mid-1990s, and she was a leading member of a group that explored different ideals of beauty.
You can learn more about this artist at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Overview
Olga Tobreluts’s 2016 print titled The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche belongs to a long‑running series that began in the mid‑1990s. The work combines photographic imagery with digital manipulation, presenting a staged tableau that references the mythic marriage while echoing the artist’s broader investigations of beauty and cultural iconography.
Subject & Meaning
The image depicts a ceremonial scene drawn from the classical tale of Cupid and Psyche, reimagined through contemporary visual language. By placing mythic figures within a constructed, almost theatrical setting, Tobreluts invites viewers to consider how ancient narratives are reframed by modern aesthetics and media.
Technique & Style
Tobreluts employs a hybrid process that merges photography of costumed participants with digitally assembled architectural backdrops reminiscent of capriccio and trompe‑l’oeil. The resulting composition blurs the line between reality and illusion, a hallmark of her practice that integrates new technologies with painterly concerns.
History & Provenance
The print emerges from the artist’s involvement with the ‘New Academicians,’ a Saint Petersburg collective active in the 1990s that turned away from avant‑garde modernism toward classical and popular visual sources. The series, initially conceived during that period, continued to evolve, culminating in this 2016 edition.
Context
Tobreluts’s work reflects the group’s fascination with a spectrum of visual culture—imperial Russian imagery, Hollywood cinema, advertising, and kitsch—used to interrogate ideals of physical beauty. Her role as the collective’s “professor of new technologies” positioned her at the forefront of digital experimentation in Russian art.
Artist & collection
Artist
Olga Tobreluts makes prints that mash up ancient myths with bold, colorful styles from Russia’s late Soviet and post-Soviet years.
