Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Art emerges from history


By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Artwork by Andrew Romanoff

There are few moments in history so full of culture, riches, intrigue and tragedy as the reign and fall of the last monarchs of Russia, Tsarina Alexandra and Tsar Nicholas, a grandson of Queen Victoria. In 1918, the imperial family was executed by Bolsheviks while captive in Ekaterinburg during the Russian Revolution. Hoping to aid his family, King George V of England sent the H.M.S. Marlborough to rescue his cousin, the tsar's sister, the Grand Duchess Xenia and her family.

Prince Andrew Romanoff, the grandnephew of the late Tsar Nicholas Romanoff, and the grandson of Grand Duchess Xenia, was born in 1923 and grew up in exile on the grounds at Windsor Castle in London.

Romanoff, 85, lives in Inverness, Calif., with his wife, Inez Storer, an artist who shows at Anne Reed Gallery and is doing an art class at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.

In a new book, "The Boy Who Would Be Tsar, The Art of Prince Andrew Romanoff," his remarkable childhood is chronicled. He will appear at the Community Library, Wednesday, Sept. 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. He will show a clip of his recent appearance on the 'Today' show, and talk about his family and about their artistic nature.

A reception at the Anne Reed Gallery will follow the signing, where he and his wife, artist Inez Storer, will be showing their work.

Gallery owner Barbi Reed met Romanoff through Storer, and last year they all traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia together.

"Andrew is such a charming and humble person," Reed said. "Everyone we met was so delighted to meet a Romanoff, from the taxi driver to the pension where we stayed. He was given vodka every where he went, which he then gave to the pension.

"Storer has been a mentor to many, many artists, and knows everyone in the San Francisco art scene."

The book is a compendium of Romanoff's drawings of daily life as done on Shrinky Dink material, a plastic that shrinks when heated in the oven. His original works are rooted in the realm of folk art. He uses these drawings to illustrate the story of his childhood at Frogmore Cottage, a 36-room mansion on the grounds of Windsor.

"The Boy Who Would Be Tsar" contains historical photos and ephemera from Romanoff's collection along with his Shrinky Dink drawings.

"The Windsor grounds made for a fantastic playground, with vast lawns, curving paths along the River Thames, fish ponds, polo fields, greenhouses full of exotic plants," he writes.

Educated at the military Imperial Service College, he served in the British Navy during World War II. After the war, he sailed to the United States in 1949 aboard a freighter with some thoroughbred horses bound for the Kentucky Derby. An American citizen since 1954, Romanoff dropped his royal title, His Serene Highness Andrew Romanoff.




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