The artist Vladimir Dubossarsky began exhibiting during perestroika, and now his paintings hang in the Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pompidou Center in Paris, and in ten other major museums and galleries. At the same time, he himself claims that the role of the artist in life is greatly exaggerated, and the world would not lose anything if there were no Rembrandt. Since 1994, he has been working in collaboration with Alexander Vinogradov - their monumental pseudo-realistic canvases, where they, by their own definition, "do not hesitate to paint a new paradise", are bought in Russia and in the West (and are even already forged). Together, the artists created the Art-Strelka gallery and the Art-Klyazma festival, which Dubossarsky oversaw for several years. In addition, the artist is the founder, co-owner and creative director of the TV-Click Internet TV channel. He loves extreme recreation and Chinese cuisine, and prefers memoirs to fiction. Member of the Snob project since December 2008.
City where I live
Moscow
Birthday
Where he was born
Moscow
Who was born
Father - Efim Davydovich, member of the Union of Artists of the USSR.
Where and what did you study
He graduated from the Moscow Art School in memory of 1905 and the Moscow State Art Institute. Surikov.
Where and how did you work?
Founder, co-owner and creative director of the Internet TV channel "TV-Click"
“When we started in 1994, the world, at least in Russia, was tough and unsightly, dangerous and hard - depressing. And the art was the same - heavy, depressing... And we decided, without hesitation, to paint a new paradise... So positivity is one of the options for our project.
What did he do
He made a full-length film "Full meter".
“The film turned out on its own. I usually shoot… some interesting moments for me… I collect a very large amount of information in the computer. And I realized one day that it can develop into some kind of storylines.
Organizer and participant of many exhibitions in Russia and abroad.
Attracted businessmen and publishers to paint the painting "Where the Motherland Begins" 3x8 m in size at the exhibition "The Lightness of Being".
“We did... a drawing on canvas and painted over some of the knots, showed how to do it. And they chose each of their pieces and worked themselves. And they even started some kind of competition among themselves ... I think that the fact of participation, say, Peter Aven in this project attracted the attention of people from his circle to us, and this is propaganda of modern art.
Achievements
His works are in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (Avignon), the Georges Pompidou Center (Paris), the Museum of Modern Art (Houston) and many others.
Marat Gelman, gallery owner: “These 10 artists who entered the world market are our pride. For example, the works of Vinogradov and Dubossarsky are already being forged in the West.”
public affairs
Member of the Union of Artists.
Engaged in charitable activities: participates in the programs of medical care for children "Operation Hope" and "Life Line" (treatment of seriously ill children), in charitable events of the non-profit partnership "Game 3000" and in the program "Center for Creative Assistance", helping children to join the art -orphans and children left without care; in the Art-Stroyka project (construction of an orphanage in the city of Suzdal). Conducts master classes.
Public acceptance
Winner of the professional award in the field of photography "Silver Wreath".
Received the medal "Worthy" at the 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (together with A. Vinogradov).
Winner of a professional award among artists working in the field of contemporary art, "Companion" (together with A. Vinogradov).
Important life events
“The creative union with Alexander Vinogradov appeared in 1994. But we have known him for a very long time, together ... studied at an art school, then at the Surikov Art Institute ... We decided to make a joint exhibition project, but did not think that it would drag on for so many years ... Since then we have been working together.
“... the plane crashed, which was supposed to fly to Irkutsk. We already had tickets for it, but for some reason we could not fly. That day Oleg [Kulik] called me and said: "Happy birthday!" I did not understand at first, I say: "Oleg, my birthday is not today." He says, "Don't you know? The plane we were supposed to fly on crashed!" I sat down, looked out the window: the sky is blue, the trees are green ... Well, so ... And it’s not clear what to do. Go to the workshop? - Stupid. Go to the cinema? - Also like ... Drink? .. It is not clear what to do ... Rejoice.
Known for being
He organized the Art-Klyazma exhibition project and the Art-Strelka gallery exhibition center with the Starz nightclub.
I'm interested
photo
“I usually shoot not with a video camera, but with a camera. I just always carry it with me and shoot some interesting moments for me.
I love
paintings by Pavel Fedotov
“I ... for a particularly long time always stood near the paintings of Pavel Fedotov. There was always some tension between me and these paintings, which I could not explain to myself when I was little ... I am already over forty. But when I visit the Tretyakov Gallery, I always go to the Fedotov Hall ... and stand there for about twenty minutes - ironically.
work in your workshop
“It is most convenient for me to work in my workshop in Moscow. But sometimes work outside the usual walls gives unexpected results. New conditions allow you to mobilize and feel a different energy. I had to work a lot in Italy, Germany, France, Austria. But home is the best.”
“I like it when a person talks about himself. This is why I love memoirs. …It's like you're just talking to someone you'll never be able to talk to again. It's more interesting to me now than fiction."
Chinese cuisine
Well I don't like
beach holiday
Family
Have a daughter.
And generally speaking
“... a person always has someone to talk to. First of all, he has himself. The most grateful listener. I often talk to myself. And I think that this is normal. I refer to myself with "you" in these conversations."
“I preferred a risky life. Why are there few artists? Because these are people who choose a risky life, an unsecured pension, an absolutely incomprehensible future.”
Viazova, Ekaterina. Alexander Vinogradov, Vladimir Dubossarsky. "Picasso in Moscow" // Art magazine, 1994, No. 5, p. 70
A. Vinogradov and V. Dubossarsky: a conversation with D. Gutov // Art Journal, 1994, No. 8
Balashov, Alexander. Alexander Vinogradov, Vladimir Dubossarsky. "Triumph" // Art magazine, 1996, No. 12, p. 89-90
Argentinian T. Singers of big hack // Playboy. 1996, July-August
Horst, Rieck. Herr Kohl war begeistert // ELLE, 1996, No. 8
Backstein, Joseph. Vladimir Dubossarsky & Alexander Vinogradov // Secession, 1997, June 6 - July 13, p. 24-27
Fiks, Yevgeniy. Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky. Deitch Projects //Tema celeste. 1998
Agunovich, Konstantin. Vladimir Dubossarsky and Alexander Vinogradov. "Christ in Moscow" // Poster. 1999, June 14-27, p. 50
Bode, Michael. The Coming of Christ to Moscow // Kommersant-Vlast. 1999, No. 24 (325), June 22, p. 37
Romer, Fedor. "Christ in Moscow": Vladimir Dubossarsky, Alexander Vinogradov. XL gallery // Results. 1999, June 29, p. 64
Goldin, Mikhail. XL Gallery: Aesthetics of Refined Radicalism // ArtChronicle. 2000, No. 5-6, p. 128-133
Romer, Fedor. "Inspiration": Alexander Vinogradov, Vladimir Dubossarsky. XL gallery // Results. 2000, June 13, p. 63
Agunovich, Konstantin. Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky. "Inspiration" // Poster. 2000, June 5-18, p. 58
Osmolovsky, Anatoly. Russian inertia. Vladimir Dubossarky & Alexander Vinogradov // Flash Art International. 2000, No. 210, January-February, p. 84-85
Guidi, Chiara. Dubossarsky e Vinogradov // Juliet, 2001, No. 103, June, p. 52
Leoni, Chiara. Dubossarsky & Vinogradov // Flash Art. 2001, no. 227, Aprile-Maggio, p. 130-131
Osmolovsky, Anatoly. Art Is As Simple As Mooing // Umêlec. 2001, no. 4, p. 54-63
Lewisohn, Cedar. Two White Russians Please // Sleazenation. 2001, August, p. 84-86
Cruz de, Gemma. Two Russians, One Result // Art Review. 2001, September, p. 65
Zappaterra, Yolanda. Vladimir Dubossarsky & Alexander Vinogradov // Time Out London, 2001, September 5-12, p. 54
Khripun, Sergei. Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky. "Our Better World" Detch Projects, New York // Art Chronicle. 2003, No. 2, p.123, 1 cover page
Gambrell, Jamey. From Russia with Pop // Interview. 2003, No. 5, June, p. 88-89
Kerr, Merrily. Vinogradov & Dubossarsky. Deitch Project // Flash Art. 2003, May-June, No. 230
Romer, Fedor. Abyss of brushes // Weekly magazine. 2004, July 19-25, p. 54-55
Gorlenko, Anton. Vladimir Dubossarsky, artist // Poster. 2004, August 30 - September 12, p. 160
Turkina, Olesya. Art Kliazma and Art Strelka. Vinogradov & Dubossarsky See Moscow Art Scene Set Alight // Flash Art. 2004, No. 238, October, p. 56
Kampianne, Harry. Vladimir Dubossarsky & Alexander Vinogradov. L "art Nemo // Art Actuel. 2004, No. 30, Janivier-Fevrier, p. 52-53, cover
Zafman, Deborah. Vladimir Dubossarsky & Alexander Vinogradov // ArtPress. 2004, No. 299, Mars, p. 78-79
Ellis, Patricia. Dubossarsky & Vinogradov // Flash Art International. 2004, No. 237, July-September, p. 44
Shaw, Francesca D., Garulli, Lavinia. Was Will Europa? For a Europe of Differences // Flash Art International. 2004, No. 237, July-September, p. 98-107
Gorlenko, Anton. Square meters. Vladimir Dubossarsky and Alexander Vinogradov // Poster. 2005, October 10-23, p. 37
2004 ce qu "ils nous ont dit // Art Actuel. 2005, No. 36, Janivier-Fevrier, p. 27
Politi, Giancarlo. Dictionary of Artists // Flash Art International. 2005, No. 244, October, p. 97-106
Schmitt, Sophie. Moscow Biennale an I // Art Actuel. 2005, no. 37, Mars-Avril, p. 62-63
Dubosarsky-Vinogradov. Interview par Harry Kampianne // Art Actuel. 2006, No. 42, Janvier-Fevrier, p. 114-115
Dubossarsky&Vinogradov // Beaux Arts magazine. Marche Bilan, 2006, p. 45
2006 Ce qu "ils nous ont dit // ArtActuel. 2007, No. 48, Janivier-Fevrier, p. 24-26
Fitzgerald, Nora. Sex, Money, Glamour, Tractors // ARTnews, 2008, No. 107, January, p. 102-105 cover
Dubossarsky&Vinogradov // Beaux Arts. 2008, Novembre, p. 92-93 It seems that neither the interviewer ("Russian Reporter"), nor the respondents themselves understand what is the secret of the success of two artists who have been writing for many years, though the longest, but the same picture...
Artists Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky are a historical and social incident. They are a cooperative that was born on the ruins of the Soviet system, successfully survived the dashing nineties and became one of the most cost-effective creative units of the modern Russian art market. Their huge canvases with kitsch images of oligarchs, top models and alcoholics near Moscow are clear to any viewer, regardless of education and involvement in contemporary art. It seems that the secret of their success is that in an era of extreme individualism they found the recipe for a new collectivity.
Visual agitation
The studio of Vinogradov and Dubossarsky, the most famous tandem of Russian artists after the Kabakovs, is located near the Khimki railway platform. Nearby are Jewelery Repair, Copy, Photo, Remotes, and Kesha's Pet Shop. From the window of the workshop, you can see the Kostroma-nurse salad stalls and the line of Mostransavto buses. Inspirational landscape.
The corner of the store from the window seems suspiciously familiar to me. Somewhere I have already seen this bench, and the urn, and the inscription "Shop for adults." This is the name of one of the paintings of the exhibition "On the District-2" in the gallery "Triumph": it continued the theme of the exhibition "On the District-1". It was dedicated to Khimki.
This is a radiant series of canvases, although the plots are what in art is considered to be black or (softly) “social”: girls in cheap sandals on the street, dogs near garages, flower stalls, one-armed invalids smoking on a bench, an office girl against the backdrop of some then folders and a portrait of Dmitry Medvedev.
Vinogradov, Dubossarsky. "Shop for adults", 2010
This typical reality of Vinogradov and Dubossarsky - some kind of power lines, courtyards, young ladies in slippers, who, against the backdrop of deafening greenery, enter the nondescript entrance of a gray house - has, as before, vitality. But new. The irony with which the artists used to paint canvases about glamorous characters and pop heroes seemed to have been removed from it - in paradise, with animals, children and naked women. Then there was paradise, Olympus, gods, animals, roses, eternal youth, beauty and nakedness. And now - urban lyrics: less fantasy, more reality.
Vinogradov and Dubossarsky have been working together since the 90s. Just when the official hierarchies collapsed and any artist got a chance to work on new, unknown, individual, whatever modern art, they suddenly turned to social realism.
“I had no impulse to be an artist at all,” says Vinogradov. Dubossarsky is not there yet. On a wooden table is a bag of ground coffee with a torn ear and sugar in a bag. “I wanted to be a lot of things. And a pilot, and a doctor, and a janitor, and an architect. Then, after art school, I tried to enter the school. Did not enter. And the second time, Volodya and I entered together and studied in the same group as restorers. That is, we have the first education - restoration. We went to the facilities - we had practice: the Yuryev Monastery, Rostov, Solovki. We were restorers of monumental painting - frescoes, wall paintings. We have many guys went by profession, restorers. And immediately after school, everyone was taken into the army.
Did you also serve in the army together?
Here Vinogradov sighs heavily. Because he and Dubossarsky have been asked for almost two decades: how do they work together, do they hold a brush together, but a palette? They are generally considered either Siamese twins, or one person.
“No,” he says. - You know, and we live separately, we have different apartments, families, children are not common ...
- Where did you serve in the army?
- In Germany. 1984 Our unit was stationed near the city of Galle, sometimes we went out there. Well, they saw something from the car window. More precisely, from the window of the tank. It was believed that serving somewhere abroad is more prestigious, or something. The officers received accordingly. We had a very large part, everything was there: guns, tanks, and self-propelled guns. And I served at the headquarters as a clerk, an artist - before everyone drew, wrote with his hands, did visual agitation. And it was necessary to repaint everything once a year, to update.
- And then?
- Then he returned, worked at a furniture factory, also an artist: before, every enterprise needed visual agitation. The ideas of the party are brought to life. Hall of Fame. It is now already possible to take and print anything from a computer. And then, already in the exhibition hall, we taught: we had children's and adult art studios. Volodya and I shared, which means that he will teach adults, and I will teach children. Three children came to me and immediately destroyed me. And adults were devoted to this cause, they loved it very much. And there were even some creative victories there. We had one geologist, for example, an explosivesman; he painted explosions. Very beautiful.
Squat generation
Here comes Dubossarsky. Vinogradov says to him with a laugh:
- Well, while you were gone, I've already told you all my life.
It seems that collectivism is in their blood. Collectivism is still Soviet - a school, an army, a studio, children, geologists. And post-Soviet - the famous squat in Trekhprudny Lane in Moscow, where Dubossarsky hung out.
“It was 1991-93,” Dubossarsky recalls. — I got acquainted with the Rostov group of artists — Avdey Ter-Oganyan, Valera Koshlyakov, Seva Lisovsky, who was their producer and friend. There were also Pasha Aksenov from Izhevsk, Kitup Ilya from Vilnius, guys from Ukraine. There, in my opinion, I was a Muscovite and one or two other people. At that time, many lived in squats: artists came to Moscow and occupied empty apartments - they went to see where the lights were off in the evenings and the windows were broken. Everyone communicated with each other and knew where there were scorched places, and where there were unscorched ones, and tried to capture them. And holding on was the hardest part.
The police quickly figured us out: these apartments on Tryokhprudny were just singed. Before that, we hung out at the musician from the Civil Defense, and when we stopped at Tryokhprudny, the police came. But then they had less power. And they, apparently, were satisfied with the fact that we live there. On the one hand, once a month they took a dozen from us for this and recorded everyone, handed over reports that they were working. And on the other hand, it was beneficial for them that there are still not alcoholics or drug addicts, but artists.
And then this house belonged to MOST, Gusinsky. The manager of this house came, and we have already begun to pay officially to him. It was such a scheme, Olga Sviblova then implemented it: she came, took pictures from the bank's collection, and the bank paid the rent for us. And then the ruble fell so much that we ourselves paid these pennies until the house went under reconstruction. And we moved to another place, and then to Baumanskaya, and there they rented large apartments from two alcoholics. I think it was the last squat in Moscow. It all ended in 2002 or 2003.
That's why I lived there, in this squat? On the one hand, I studied there, it was an interesting environment. And on the other hand, it was a way to advance and survive, because only there you could sell something. Because we were not famous artists, and no one went to us personally and would not go. And there were so-called buyers. And there were people in Moscow who then took foreigners to workshops and received 10% for this. There were no mobile phones then, everyone was called somehow. If someone was not at home, then we were strict: they always showed everyone. You are gone, you couldn’t, you knew, you didn’t know about it - it doesn’t matter: they showed everyone.
What were the prices then?
- From two hundred to a thousand dollars, the most running - three hundred or four hundred. We bought unknown collectors, not large and not museums. These were people for whom the canvas was like a souvenir. And for us it was a circular protection system: we always knew which of us had money. We knew from whom, for how much and what we bought! And it was clear who could borrow how much, and everyone always gave, because they understood that tomorrow they themselves would have to borrow. It was an economically justified model of existence. In addition, collective creativity has greatly advanced us: you came up with an idea, go with it, and your friends sit here who criticize it, argue, and you bring it to mind, and then you have to come up with a new one. It was such a big incubator of ideas.
- And now that the time of collectivism has passed? Is it time for individual contact with gallery owners?
— Yes, artists now function differently. All the galleries are running around looking for artists - there are no artists! They cannot make a plan for the year, because there are not enough artists for twelve galleries in Moscow. And then, on the contrary, there were more artists, and there were very few venues. But the collective model is the model of young artists. They always live like that - both in London and in New York. After all, we also had a generation: even later, when we stopped conflicting ideologically, it turned out that Tolya Osmolovsky, and Oleg Kulik, and we are all a kind of unified field.
Art, business and politics
Vinogradov and Dubossarsky took up social realism, as they explain, in search of a new ideology: the old social institutions collapsed, and the only big mythology common to all was connected with the Soviet style even visually: Stalin's skyscrapers, summer stages, mosaic panels in swimming pools and houses of culture.
“We didn’t really have our own language,” says Vinogradov. – At the present stage, the artist uses all languages: he can take Matisse, or maybe the Italians. In a formal sense, the development of painting has ended: it is impossible to do something with paints and a brush that has not yet been. In 1994 already, I remember, it was considered that doing painting was a waste. And socialist realism was such a profanity, and we, on the contrary, decided to breathe new meaning into it. We wanted to make contemporary art. But in those days, we basically took risks, because it was not clear where these were - three by four paintings?
- In the 90s there was a failure, because there was no money, and many artists went into design, into business, into books, - Dubossarsky picks up. - There was an outflow from the art environment to the world of business and cleansing. And in 2000, some kind of art market appeared, galleries that began to sell ... If galleries in the 90s were just a place for exhibiting, then in the 2000s it became a business. Previously, each gallery had its own niche: if you had a political project, you went to Gelman, if something so experimental, you went to XL.
And the artists just went in circles. And by 2000, the gallery owners said: "So, let's fix ourselves." And the artists fixed themselves in the galleries. And if they left, then it was already a specific departure: I leave you and come to you. Like in the West. Here we are now working with Triumph and PaperWorld. In principle, we are all the same age as galleries and gallery owners. When there was no money, it was a more friendly story. And then the gallery owners became businessmen, began to dictate to the artists. And so there were scandalous departures. But not with us.
— You are one of the most commercially successful artists. I remember an article in Forbes a few years ago, before the crisis, about how terribly your prices are rising: 300,000 euros, 400,000 euros...
- Not really. Vinogradov and Dubossarsky wince and wave their hands. - There is work three meters by twenty - it costs much more. Prices rose in line with the market. One businessman explained to us that if they are easily sold, then the prices are low. They should be sold, as it were, for a tight fit: a year - some works.
Before the crisis, portraits of oligarchs were even commissioned from Vinogradov and Dubossarsky, for example, Abramovich against the background of the tundra with a wolf and a fox. And the owner of the Pirogovo resort near Moscow bought the famous painting "Troika" and made a banner on its basis, which he hung on the territory of his own car service in Mytishchi. Now, the artists say, the foam has come down and the madness of the rich has stopped.
Did the politicians order something?
— No, we are quite apolitical. But we have a picture with Yeltsin and Lebed. This is the period when Yeltsin went to the second election, and Lebed gave him his votes. And we painted a picture between the first and second rounds of the elections: Yeltsin and Lebed, the sun, the rainbow, the kids, the animals. Well, the pre-election picture. The exhibition was in the Gelman Gallery, called "Triumph". When Yeltsin won, they laid a big table with food, and this picture hung. We also wanted to make a biography of Zhirinovsky in pictures - well, how he washes his boots in the Indian Ocean. Zhirinovsky also had a heroic image. At that time, politics was well known, everyone was interested in it, it was adrenaline. Not anymore.
Troika with Kalashnikov
Vinogradov, Dubossarsky. How Are You, Ladies And Gentlemen, 2000
Vinogradov and Dubossarsky have been writing for many years, probably the longest picture in the world. During the Paris project “Urgent Painting”, in which artists who came from different countries needed to quickly paint something on the spot, they came up with the idea to attach new and new canvases to the canvas one and a half by two meters - on one side and on the other .
Parts of the longest picture are familiar to both the Moscow public and the Western one. Some are bought. Vinogradov and Dubossarsky once said: “We do not create masterpieces; some better, some worse. It's important to keep creating something."
They work like an art plant, which in Soviet times endlessly reproduced mythological panels - and in a sense reflected the time: the aspirations of people, the reality outside the window, then passed through the heroic images of workers and collective farmers, and now through the mass media and glamour. . Fix the era.
“Do you want me to show it to you?” Vinogradov suddenly asks. I nod, then he finds an accordion booklet and scatters the ribbon around the workshop. We walk along the booklet: even in a greatly reduced form, the longest picture stretches for meters. Many fragments from different years are known to those who go to galleries: naked Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva in the fields on the banks of the Ob, Madonna, Queen of England, "Beatles in Moscow".
- It turns out not even a fresco, but a film. This is a performance that is stretched in time and space. The picture is mobile: you can always replace something, draw on it, break it in some place, insert a piece. In a sense, it never ends,” says Vinogradov.
- And there are special types on it, - Dubossarsky interjects. - This is the Intourist hotel, which no longer exists. The picture is historical.
“In general, the context is more important for the viewer,” Vinogradov begins to argue. - Without knowing the context, you will never understand the work itself. And we just wanted to make an open, direct art. A man comes and sees, I don't know - a naked woman is drawn. And he understands everything. Or is there Madonna, Schwarzenegger with children ...
- Have you come across the viewer directly - with such a simple person?
Yes, a hundred times. We have a picture with a troika, we also made it in 1995. There, then, the Russian troika ...
"Where's the vampire?"
“Yes, there are dark forces from all sides,” Dubossarsky laughs. - And the charioteer - a girl in a fur coat and with a Kalashnikov assault rifle - shoots back. And then some man hung pictures at the exhibition, came up and said: “Listen, what a good picture, like a girl - she personifies Russia, shoots back, and she doesn’t have enough cartridges.” We, by God, did not put any such meaning into it. But we never explain our paintings. Because a person understands in his own way. He himself will come up with something that we will never be able to come up with.
elusive glamor
Vinogradov, Dubossarsky. D&G, 2010
Vinogradov, Dubossarsky. "Natasha", 2010
Vinogradov, Dubossarsky. "District", 2010
Glamor disappeared from the paintings of Vinogradov and Dubossarsky as imperceptibly and suddenly as from time. Gone were the naked stars in the flowers and birches, the bald Barbie, Cindy Crawford with the tiger in the grove. What remains is a girl with strong calves and a D&G bag, walking along the sun-drenched pavements of Khimki, a policewoman who looks like Britney Spears, smiling invitingly from a large canvas, Natalya Vodianova, without makeup, who is traveling by train to her Nizhny Novgorod.
“Or you may not know that this is Natalia Vodianova, nothing will change from this,” says Dubossarsky. - Zero - it was a time of glamor, gloss, flourishing on the wave of petrodollars. Magazines, new television, fashion, design, cleanliness, beauty, an attempt to make everything expensive, beautiful, Western. In a sense, this was the development of everything that was done in the West: the Russian context merged with the Western one, and something appeared that we had yesterday - Russia, which we again lost. Because now, after the crisis, we couldn't do it anymore. Although before they worked a lot with fashion magazines, with the imagery dictated by the gloss.
“We bought them all, there are even some left,” Vinogradov nods at a rack littered with glossy magazines. — But the gloss is also mobile, they also began to reflect, to change. And we felt that we were not interested. And they began to switch to some more interesting life. And then there was just a crisis - and the transition to reality was somehow natural. Because you can’t suck anything out of your finger, you must always look at life. You can’t sit down and say: now I will come up with a new technology, a new story, I will create something completely new. It is still born inside the world and inside you, and then it unites.
Behind Vinogradov and Dubossarsky there are huge canvases with unfinished ladies. This is nude against the backdrop of rather miserable rented apartments. One lady in black stockings, another with lacing, a third with a guitar.
- These are girls who post their photos on the Internet. For intimate purposes, Dubossarsky explains.
- And they do not mind that you are here?.. I ask.
“I think they should be happy.
- You had all sorts of celebrities in your paintings, you use both your own and other people's photographs. There have been no lawsuits so far - why are you using someone else's art and images for commercial purposes?
We had a good case. At the Venice Biennale, we painted a big picture under water - three meters by twenty, using fashion photography. And then some correspondents come up, and one German woman clung to us and filmed for a very long time: so, stand here, stand here ... Such an aunt is about sixty years old. And it was hot, we were already standing there wet. And she says: “That's it, thank you very much for paying attention to me. By the way, this, this, this and this are my photos.” We somehow immediately tensed, but she said: no, no, what are you, “I am very pleased that you used my image.”
“In general, there were precedents,” the artists continue. - Here is our Zhora Puzenkov - Helmut Newton sued him for four well-known nudity. Pusenkoff won the trial. Because if he retakes the photo and sells it as a photo, then yes. And he made a picture out of this, an author's thing, his own. After all, imagine: I came and painted a landscape - a church, someone's house; you were walking with a dog there - I painted you. And then everyone made claims to me: the patriarchy, the owner of the house, and you, that the dog is yours. It's like complaining to Andy Warhol: I bought a can of Coca-Cola or a can of Campbell's soup, and I understand that now it's mine. But I don't sell it like a Campbell can - twice the price. I am selling my work.
- Yes, a hundred times more expensive, I laugh.
“Well, not a hundred, probably, but a thousand,” the artists calmly clarify. — We use both our photos as a way to fix the picture, and others. An artist - he is now developing not a picture, but an idea. Petlyura (Alexander Petlyura, contemporary performance artist and fashion designer. - "RR") had such a story with photographer Vita Buivid. Petlyura was doing a big production, about twenty-five people: people are standing in the style of the 30s - in sneakers, T-shirts, hats, with some kind of banners. Everything that Petlyura has been collecting for twenty years - costumes, entourage - everything is in the frame. Vita comes, who takes pictures of all this, says: “Light from here, you move a little here ...” I was not at this photo session and I don’t know who was in charge there more, but then, as it were, Vita exposes it as her work, and Petliura as their. The conflict has not been settled yet. Who is the author of these works? For me, the author is Petliura. Well, what difference does it make who filmed this moment? The entire figurative structure is the world of Petliura. And the photographer of this picture can be anyone. What difference does it make who pressed the button?
Any painting by the no longer existing duet of Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky is distinguished by a clear, conceptually conditioned position in the general project of artists - in the activity of creating "total painting". Vinogradov/Dubosarsky's canvases form clear, well-thought-out rows associated with the solution of various artistic tasks - from reflection on the history of world art to reflecting the "spirit of the times" of the epoch of glamor. Another feature of their work is the coincidence with the rhythms and demands of the international art market. But their series also have a lot of fans in Russia, which is not surprising - figurative painting, reminiscent of social realism, is not perceived here as part of some witty conceptual project, but simply sits in almost everyone at the subconscious level. The duo's work in the 2000s coincided with a return of interest in the heritage of socialist realism in Russia, with an attempt to re-integrate it into modernist art history.
These tendencies are associated with Vinogradov/Dubosarsky's painting “Moscow Region. February" 2007, written exactly half a century after the creation of the prototype - the painting by Georgy Nyssa "Moscow Region. February, 1957 (collection of the Tretyakov Gallery). The latter is considered a masterpiece of the industrial landscape (and the landscape in general) of the mid-twentieth century. Its textbook popularity was reflected in the Soviet era in the fact that a reproduction of the work was included in school textbooks. A postage stamp featuring her was also issued. In this work, an important part is occupied by the narrative of modern means of communication: an asphalt road with cars racing along it and a railway with a train. All this is not so important for interpreting artists: in the Vinogradov/Dubosarsky painting, most of the landscape is covered by the face of a girl in the foreground, which can be described as a typical model of today, but a model posing, say, for a glossy photographer. Artists convey her image not without humor: she is, as it were, a typical viewer of the present, but also a fresh model for art, which entered its territory after pop art. The landscape here, unlike the original, is covered with large snow, which is also found on the canvases of the duet. The landscape has no meaning for artists in itself, but is important only as an informational sign, as a reference to the past, to the “classics”. In the same capacity, many other textbook paintings appear in other works of the series: Vasily Polenov’s Moscow Yard, Ivan Shishkin’s Morning in a Pine Forest… Vinogradov and Dubossarsky thus seem to be saying that art masters today are required to own a set of visual quotations, which, in turn, must be read by their viewers. V
It seems that neither the interviewer ("Russian Reporter"), nor the respondents themselves understand what is the secret of the success of two artists who have been writing for many years, though the longest, but the same picture...Vinogradov, Dubossarsky. "Shop for adults", 2010
Artists Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky are a historical and social incident. They are a cooperative that was born on the ruins of the Soviet system, successfully survived the dashing nineties and became one of the most cost-effective creative units of the modern Russian art market. Their huge canvases with kitsch images of oligarchs, top models and alcoholics near Moscow are clear to any viewer, regardless of education and involvement in contemporary art. It seems that the secret of their success is that in an era of extreme individualism they found the recipe for a new collectivity.
Visual agitation
The studio of Vinogradov and Dubossarsky, the most famous tandem of Russian artists after the Kabakovs, is located near the Khimki railway platform. Nearby are Jewelery Repair, Copy, Photo, Remotes, and Kesha's Pet Shop. From the window of the workshop, you can see the Kostroma-nurse salad stalls and the line of Mostransavto buses. Inspirational landscape.
The corner of the store from the window seems suspiciously familiar to me. Somewhere I have already seen this bench, and the urn, and the inscription "Shop for adults." This is the name of one of the paintings of the exhibition "On the District-2" in the gallery "Triumph": it continued the theme of the exhibition "On the District-1". It was dedicated to Khimki.
This is a radiant series of canvases, although the plots are what in art is considered to be black or (softly) “social”: girls in cheap sandals on the street, dogs near garages, flower stalls, one-armed invalids smoking on a bench, an office girl against the backdrop of some then folders and a portrait of Dmitry Medvedev.
This typical reality of Vinogradov and Dubossarsky - some kind of power lines, courtyards, young ladies in slippers, who, against the backdrop of deafening greenery, enter the nondescript entrance of a gray house - has, as before, vitality. But new. The irony with which the artists used to paint canvases about glamorous characters and pop heroes seemed to have been removed from it - in paradise, with animals, children and naked women. Then there was paradise, Olympus, gods, animals, roses, eternal youth, beauty and nakedness. And now - urban lyrics: less fantasy, more reality.
Vinogradov and Dubossarsky have been working together since the 90s. Just when the official hierarchies collapsed and any artist got a chance to work on new, unknown, individual, whatever modern art, they suddenly turned to social realism.
“I had no impulse to be an artist at all,” says Vinogradov. Dubossarsky is not there yet. On a wooden table is a bag of ground coffee with a torn ear and sugar in a bag. “I wanted to be a lot of things. And a pilot, and a doctor, and a janitor, and an architect. Then, after art school, I tried to enter the school. Did not enter. And the second time, Volodya and I entered together and studied in the same group as restorers. That is, we have the first education - restoration. We went to the facilities - we had practice: the Yuryev Monastery, Rostov, Solovki. We were restorers of monumental painting - frescoes, wall paintings. We have many guys went by profession, restorers. And immediately after school, everyone was taken into the army.
Did you also serve in the army together?
Here Vinogradov sighs heavily. Because he and Dubossarsky have been asked for almost two decades: how do they work together, do they hold a brush together, but a palette? They are generally considered either Siamese twins, or one person.
“No,” he says. - You know, and we live separately, we have different apartments, families, children are not common ...
- Where did you serve in the army?
- In Germany. 1984 Our unit was stationed near the city of Galle, sometimes we went out there. Well, they saw something from the car window. More precisely, from the window of the tank. It was believed that serving somewhere abroad is more prestigious, or something. The officers received accordingly. We had a very large part, everything was there: guns, tanks, and self-propelled guns. And I served at the headquarters as a clerk, an artist - before everyone drew, wrote with his hands, did visual agitation. And it was necessary to repaint everything once a year, to update.
- And then?
- Then he returned, worked at a furniture factory, also an artist: before, every enterprise needed visual agitation. The ideas of the party are brought to life. Hall of Fame. It is now already possible to take and print anything from a computer. And then, already in the exhibition hall, we taught: we had children's and adult art studios. Volodya and I shared, which means that he will teach adults, and I will teach children. Three children came to me and immediately destroyed me. And adults were devoted to this cause, they loved it very much. And there were even some creative victories there. We had one geologist, for example, an explosivesman; he painted explosions. Very beautiful.
Squat generation
Here comes Dubossarsky. Vinogradov says to him with a laugh:
- Well, while you were gone, I've already told you all my life.
It seems that collectivism is in their blood. Collectivism is still Soviet - a school, an army, a studio, children, geologists. And post-Soviet - the famous squat in Trekhprudny Lane in Moscow, where Dubossarsky hung out.
“It was 1991-93,” Dubossarsky recalls. — I got acquainted with the Rostov group of artists — Avdey Ter-Oganyan, Valera Koshlyakov, Seva Lisovsky, who was their producer and friend. There were also Pasha Aksenov from Izhevsk, Kitup Ilya from Vilnius, guys from Ukraine. There, in my opinion, I was a Muscovite and one or two other people. At that time, many lived in squats: artists came to Moscow and occupied empty apartments - they went to see where the lights were off in the evenings and the windows were broken. Everyone communicated with each other and knew where there were scorched places, and where there were unscorched ones, and tried to capture them. And holding on was the hardest part.
The police quickly figured us out: these apartments on Tryokhprudny were just singed. Before that, we hung out at the musician from the Civil Defense, and when we stopped at Tryokhprudny, the police came. But then they had less power. And they, apparently, were satisfied with the fact that we live there. On the one hand, once a month they took a dozen from us for this and recorded everyone, handed over reports that they were working. And on the other hand, it was beneficial for them that there are still not alcoholics or drug addicts, but artists.
And then this house belonged to MOST, Gusinsky. The manager of this house came, and we have already begun to pay officially to him. It was such a scheme, Olga Sviblova then implemented it: she came, took pictures from the bank's collection, and the bank paid the rent for us. And then the ruble fell so much that we ourselves paid these pennies until the house went under reconstruction. And we moved to another place, and then to Baumanskaya, and there they rented large apartments from two alcoholics. I think it was the last squat in Moscow. It all ended in 2002 or 2003.
That's why I lived there, in this squat? On the one hand, I studied there, it was an interesting environment. And on the other hand, it was a way to advance and survive, because only there you could sell something. Because we were not famous artists, and no one went to us personally and would not go. And there were so-called buyers. And there were people in Moscow who then took foreigners to workshops and received 10% for this. There were no mobile phones then, everyone was called somehow. If someone was not at home, then we were strict: they always showed everyone. You are gone, you couldn’t, you knew, you didn’t know about it - it doesn’t matter: they showed everyone.
What were the prices then?
- From two hundred to a thousand dollars, the most running - three hundred or four hundred. We bought unknown collectors, not large and not museums. These were people for whom the canvas was like a souvenir. And for us it was a circular protection system: we always knew which of us had money. We knew from whom, for how much and what we bought! And it was clear who could borrow how much, and everyone always gave, because they understood that tomorrow they themselves would have to borrow. It was an economically justified model of existence. In addition, collective creativity has greatly advanced us: you came up with an idea, go with it, and your friends sit here who criticize it, argue, and you bring it to mind, and then you have to come up with a new one. It was such a big incubator of ideas.
- And now that the time of collectivism has passed? Is it time for individual contact with gallery owners?
— Yes, artists now function differently. All the galleries are running around looking for artists - there are no artists! They cannot make a plan for the year, because there are not enough artists for twelve galleries in Moscow. And then, on the contrary, there were more artists, and there were very few venues. But the collective model is the model of young artists. They always live like that - both in London and in New York. After all, we also had a generation: even later, when we stopped conflicting ideologically, it turned out that Tolya Osmolovsky, and Oleg Kulik, and we are all a kind of unified field.
Art, business and politics
Vinogradov and Dubossarsky took up social realism, as they explain, in search of a new ideology: the old social institutions collapsed, and the only big mythology common to all was connected with the Soviet style even visually: Stalin's skyscrapers, summer stages, mosaic panels in swimming pools and houses of culture.
“We didn’t really have our own language,” says Vinogradov. – At the present stage, the artist uses all languages: he can take Matisse, or maybe the Italians. In a formal sense, the development of painting has ended: it is impossible to do something with paints and a brush that has not yet been. In 1994 already, I remember, it was considered that doing painting was a waste. And socialist realism was such a profanity, and we, on the contrary, decided to breathe new meaning into it. We wanted to make contemporary art. But in those days, we basically took risks, because it was not clear where these were - three by four paintings?
- In the 90s there was a failure, because there was no money, and many artists went into design, into business, into books, - Dubossarsky picks up. - There was an outflow from the art environment to the world of business and cleansing. And in 2000, some kind of art market appeared, galleries that began to sell ... If galleries in the 90s were just a place for exhibiting, then in the 2000s it became a business. Previously, each gallery had its own niche: if you had a political project, you went to Gelman, if something so experimental, you went to XL.
And the artists just went in circles. And by 2000, the gallery owners said: "So, let's fix ourselves." And the artists fixed themselves in the galleries. And if they left, then it was already a specific departure: I leave you and come to you. Like in the West. Here we are now working with Triumph and PaperWorld. In principle, we are all the same age as galleries and gallery owners. When there was no money, it was a more friendly story. And then the gallery owners became businessmen, began to dictate to the artists. And so there were scandalous departures. But not with us.
— You are one of the most commercially successful artists. I remember an article in Forbes a few years ago, before the crisis, about how terribly your prices are rising: 300,000 euros, 400,000 euros...
- Not really. Vinogradov and Dubossarsky wince and wave their hands. - There is work three meters by twenty - it costs much more. Prices rose in line with the market. One businessman explained to us that if they are easily sold, then the prices are low. They should be sold, as it were, for a tight fit: a year - some works.
Before the crisis, portraits of oligarchs were even commissioned from Vinogradov and Dubossarsky, for example, Abramovich against the background of the tundra with a wolf and a fox. And the owner of the Pirogovo resort near Moscow bought the famous painting "Troika" and made a banner on its basis, which he hung on the territory of his own car service in Mytishchi. Now, the artists say, the foam has come down and the madness of the rich has stopped.
Did the politicians order something?
— No, we are quite apolitical. But we have a picture with Yeltsin and Lebed. This is the period when Yeltsin went to the second election, and Lebed gave him his votes. And we painted a picture between the first and second rounds of the elections: Yeltsin and Lebed, the sun, the rainbow, the kids, the animals. Well, the pre-election picture. The exhibition was in the Gelman Gallery, called "Triumph". When Yeltsin won, they laid a big table with food, and this picture hung. We also wanted to make a biography of Zhirinovsky in pictures - well, how he washes his boots in the Indian Ocean. Zhirinovsky also had a heroic image. At that time, politics was well known, everyone was interested in it, it was adrenaline. Not anymore.
Troika with Kalashnikov
Vinogradov, Dubossarsky. How Are You, Ladies And Gentlemen, 2000
Vinogradov and Dubossarsky have been writing for many years, probably the longest picture in the world. During the Paris project “Urgent Painting”, in which artists who came from different countries needed to quickly paint something on the spot, they came up with the idea to attach new and new canvases to the canvas one and a half by two meters - on one side and on the other .
Parts of the longest picture are familiar to both the Moscow public and the Western one. Some are bought. Vinogradov and Dubossarsky once said: “We do not create masterpieces; some better, some worse. It's important to keep creating something."
They work like an art plant, which in Soviet times endlessly reproduced mythological panels - and in a sense reflected the time: the aspirations of people, the reality outside the window, then passed through the heroic images of workers and collective farmers, and now through the mass media and glamour. . Fix the era.
“Do you want me to show it to you?” Vinogradov suddenly asks. I nod, then he finds an accordion booklet and scatters the ribbon around the workshop. We walk along the booklet: even in a greatly reduced form, the longest picture stretches for meters. Many fragments from different years are known to those who go to galleries: naked Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva in the fields on the banks of the Ob, Madonna, Queen of England, "Beatles in Moscow".
- It turns out not even a fresco, but a film. This is a performance that is stretched in time and space. The picture is mobile: you can always replace something, draw on it, break it in some place, insert a piece. In a sense, it never ends,” says Vinogradov.
- And there are special types on it, - Dubossarsky interjects. - This is the Intourist hotel, which no longer exists. The picture is historical.
“In general, the context is more important for the viewer,” Vinogradov begins to argue. - Without knowing the context, you will never understand the work itself. And we just wanted to make an open, direct art. A man comes and sees, I don't know - a naked woman is drawn. And he understands everything. Or is there Madonna, Schwarzenegger with children ...
- Have you come across the viewer directly - with such a simple person?
Yes, a hundred times. We have a picture with a troika, we also made it in 1995. There, then, the Russian troika ...
"Where's the vampire?"
“Yes, there are dark forces from all sides,” Dubossarsky laughs. - And the charioteer - a girl in a fur coat and with a Kalashnikov assault rifle - shoots back. And then some man hung pictures at the exhibition, came up and said: “Listen, what a good picture, like a girl - she personifies Russia, shoots back, and she doesn’t have enough cartridges.” We, by God, did not put any such meaning into it. But we never explain our paintings. Because a person understands in his own way. He himself will come up with something that we will never be able to come up with.
elusive glamor
Vinogradov, Dubossarsky. D&G, 2010
Vinogradov, Dubossarsky. "Natasha", 2010
Vinogradov, Dubossarsky. "District", 2010
Glamor disappeared from the paintings of Vinogradov and Dubossarsky as imperceptibly and suddenly as from time. Gone were the naked stars in the flowers and birches, the bald Barbie, Cindy Crawford with the tiger in the grove. What remains is a girl with strong calves and a D&G bag, walking along the sun-drenched pavements of Khimki, a policewoman who looks like Britney Spears, smiling invitingly from a large canvas, Natalya Vodianova, without makeup, who is traveling by train to her Nizhny Novgorod.
“Or you may not know that this is Natalia Vodianova, nothing will change from this,” says Dubossarsky. - Zero - it was a time of glamor, gloss, flourishing on the wave of petrodollars. Magazines, new television, fashion, design, cleanliness, beauty, an attempt to make everything expensive, beautiful, Western. In a sense, this was the development of everything that was done in the West: the Russian context merged with the Western one, and something appeared that we had yesterday - Russia, which we again lost. Because now, after the crisis, we couldn't do it anymore. Although before they worked a lot with fashion magazines, with the imagery dictated by the gloss.
“We bought them all, there are even some left,” Vinogradov nods at a rack littered with glossy magazines. — But the gloss is also mobile, they also began to reflect, to change. And we felt that we were not interested. And they began to switch to some more interesting life. And then there was just a crisis - and the transition to reality was somehow natural. Because you can’t suck anything out of your finger, you must always look at life. You can’t sit down and say: now I will come up with a new technology, a new story, I will create something completely new. It is still born inside the world and inside you, and then it unites.
Behind Vinogradov and Dubossarsky there are huge canvases with unfinished ladies. This is nude against the backdrop of rather miserable rented apartments. One lady in black stockings, another with lacing, a third with a guitar.
- These are girls who post their photos on the Internet. For intimate purposes, Dubossarsky explains.
- And they do not mind that you are here?.. I ask.
“I think they should be happy.
- You had all sorts of celebrities in your paintings, you use both your own and other people's photographs. There have been no lawsuits so far - why are you using someone else's art and images for commercial purposes?
We had a good case. At the Venice Biennale, we painted a big picture under water - three meters by twenty, using fashion photography. And then some correspondents come up, and one German woman clung to us and filmed for a very long time: so, stand here, stand here ... Such an aunt is about sixty years old. And it was hot, we were already standing there wet. And she says: “That's it, thank you very much for paying attention to me. By the way, this, this, this and this are my photos.” We somehow immediately tensed, but she said: no, no, what are you, “I am very pleased that you used my image.”
“In general, there were precedents,” the artists continue. - Here is our Zhora Puzenkov - Helmut Newton sued him for four well-known nudity. Pusenkoff won the trial. Because if he retakes the photo and sells it as a photo, then yes. And he made a picture out of this, an author's thing, his own. After all, imagine: I came and painted a landscape - a church, someone's house; you were walking with a dog there - I painted you. And then everyone made claims to me: the patriarchy, the owner of the house, and you, that the dog is yours. It's like complaining to Andy Warhol: I bought a can of Coca-Cola or a can of Campbell's soup, and I understand that now it's mine. But I don't sell it like a Campbell can - twice the price. I am selling my work.
- Yes, a hundred times more expensive, I laugh.
“Well, not a hundred, probably, but a thousand,” the artists calmly clarify. — We use both our photos as a way to fix the picture, and others. An artist - he is now developing not a picture, but an idea. Petlyura (Alexander Petlyura, contemporary performance artist and fashion designer. - "RR") had such a story with photographer Vita Buivid. Petlyura was doing a big production, about twenty-five people: people are standing in the style of the 30s - in sneakers, T-shirts, hats, with some kind of banners. Everything that Petlyura has been collecting for twenty years - costumes, entourage - everything is in the frame. Vita comes, who takes pictures of all this, says: “Light from here, you move a little here ...” I was not at this photo session and I don’t know who was in charge there more, but then, as it were, Vita exposes it as her work, and Petliura as their. The conflict has not been settled yet. Who is the author of these works? For me, the author is Petlyura. Well, what difference does it make who filmed this moment? The entire figurative structure is the world of Petliura. And the photographer of this picture can be anyone. What difference does it make who pressed the button? .
