Ukrainian contemporary art: global and national scope
During the press conference preceding the launch of the exhibit Art Kyiv 2008, The Day’s reporter happened to overhear an interesting conversation that can best illustrate the gist of the debate on the value of contemporary objets d’art. The man identified himself as “an artist from Moscow and art theoretician” who “happened” to visit Art Kyiv 2008. Needless to say, his views can’t be regarded as a barometer of moods in Moscow’s art circles, yet it reflects an attitude to contemporary art. The ensuing debate was between this Moscow guest, PinchukArtCentre curator Oleksandr Soloviov, and gallery owner Yevhen Karas. The following is an excerpt.
Moscow guest: The so-called actual art trend that claims the avant-garde sequel status is an affectation. In actuality, there is an active anticulture trend in contemporary art and it’s gaining momentum. I appeal to the collectors because these people are buying these works. We had Oleg Kulik’s art exhibit in Moscow, he was praised as the number one artist, but this man is actually propagandizing zoophilia. The point in question is the falling apart of art and morals, and someone is paying for this process to continue. This is our tragedy.
Oleksandr Soloviov: Oleg Kulik’s doctrine boils down to deep ecology, in the ironical sense of the word. He removes the borderlines between human and animal dimensions. For him the entire world is a single whole, with postmodernism being a sequel to avant-gardism. In fact, postmodernism is considered more humane because avant-gardism put forth slogans aimed at establishing a new order, creating a new kind of man. That was why some even accused him of sharing the Nazi ideology. Meanwhile, contemporary art has rejected the restructuring, revolutionary ideas, and embarked on an eclectic road.
Yevhen Karas: Prominent personalities, who dared act counter to tradition, have always been accused of immoral conduct. This is a normal process as part of the evolution of art.
FIVE WORKS DONE BEFORE LUNCHTIME
On Oct. 25, 2008, there appeared media reports about the impoundment of 30 works by Oleg Kulik in the course of the FIAC contemporary art fair in Paris. The artist was represented by XL Gallery. In a RIA News release gallery director [manager] Yelena Selina stated that the works of art were impounded on charges of conveying messages of “violent and pornographic nature.” Ms. Selina added that the works of art were impounded as requested by French customs officials who had doubts clearing them through customs. This story is still to be finished, and duly interpreted.
In addition to this controversial topic, it should be stated that not all contemporary art should be regarded as such. Today, there are followers of the so-called lesser trend. Larysa Kliushkina made her special project “Ballet” for Art Kyiv 2008, using canvas and oil, but she has her own concept: “New ideas and perceptions are formed because we’re living in a different world and information environment. Our mind is changing, so is our art.”
Viacheslav Breish is represented by a Parisian gallery. He is a sufficiently successful painter and sculptor (“sufficiently successful” seems to best describe every creative career). His works are displayed in Paris, Berlin, Cologne, and London.
“Some believe that ‘five works before lunchtime’ is what the actual conceptual art is all about. I create a single work in about a month. Yet this isn’t the point. AN artist can work quicker, yet his creation will have the energy the artist has consumed over two weeks. Anyway, he must keep working and learning,” says Breish.
The writer Ivan Drach, who carefully studied the exposition on the Ukrainian House’s five floors, also favors the idea of scrupulous art: “I am a man from the past millennium. I liked only one female artist here; hers is virtuoso, painstaking, incredibly meticulous work. After all, talent is a rare phenomenon.”
Kyiv was lucky to have on display Oleksandr Hnylytsky’s “Modesty and Fat.” This artist and his wife Lesia Zaiats represented Ukraine during the last biennale in Venice with their multimedia room project “Visual Vinyl.” What with a number of personal and group exhibits, mostly abroad, Oleksandr fails to give an unequivocal answer to the question, “What is contemporary art all about?”
He says, “This is the most complicated question. I have no answer to it. All my life I’ve tried to figure out what art is all about, even more so contemporary art. Everyone can say he is making works of contemporary art, provided he is making it right now, at this very moment.”
The artist Oksana Mas also boasts a long record of personal and group exhibits. Throughout the soiree she and her special project are closely followed by media people. This female artist wears an expensive fur coat and is accompanied by polite PR managers. Oksana Mas’s is a case study in making an able creative brand.
“It’s something you feel, here and now,” says Oksana, “it’s when you see a work of art and your mind fails to supply enough matching cliches to immediately identify it. Then bang! Several seconds of shock. If you experience this shock, it means that you’ve established contact with art. An artist is an individual who will never lie to himself, who allows himself to do things he wishes to do, without anyone breathing down his neck, telling he can or can’t afford to buy this or that. Being an artist is a special lifestyle; an artist doesn’t stay in a certain place, he moves, and he is a hundred percent cosmopolitan.”
Often the problem is not only the question “What is or isn’t art?”, but also that every aesthetic and topical aspect of contemporary art is illusory, born of and blessed by glamour.
Proof of this is Hnylytsky’s project. Incidentally, the man doesn’t sport a fur coat, nor is he accompanied by an army of PR managers. After years spent living in Munich and Kyiv, he says he becomes progressively less aware of his cosmopolitan character: “Twenty years back I told myself I was cosmopolitan. As I grew older, I found myself more in love of my native land, willing to make it better and taking better care of it... No, I can’t leave [Ukraine] for Munich, not for half a year, because I feel so happy returning home.”
At a time when everyone says s/he is cosmopolitan and is in favor of a global approach, are there any national traces left in works of art? Or maybe their style is impossible to correlate with their ethnic origin?
When asked whether it is possible to tell between a Ukrainian or French artist, Viacheslav Breish says, “Hardly likely, if you mean a good artist. Of course, there are national artists, yet we don’t know any contemporary ones in France. Art belongs to the world. I believe that art is the language mankind could use to come to terms. It may have been the language used before building the Tower of Babel.”
Says Olesia Avramenko, curator and head of the department of latter-day visual practices at the Institute of Contemporary Art Problems: “In my opinion, distancing yourself from your national essence is absolutely unrealistic. This essence will manifest itself, in some or other way. This is temperament, coloration, perspective, world view, emphasis. You look at Kryvolapiv’s abstract painting and realize that he is a Ukrainian artist.
BRAND MANAGEMENT
Outwardly, every artist aims his creative endeavors at a gallery.
Says Maryna Shcherbenko, the owner of the contemporary art gallery Bottega: “My gallery has its concept, whereas every artist has his [as reflected in his] works and his creative image that has been formed. A quality artist is one who has a school, and who has made his name (even if quite young). Brand management rules apply to art [as much as in other spheres]. If so, we have recognize and apply these rules.
Illia Chichkan will perhaps take advantage of the situation when his work was bought for ?40,000 at a Philips auction. From now on, his talent will be counted down starting with this sum.
“That was a [significant] event,” says the art critic and gallery owner Oleksii Tytarenko, “because auction sales is where you start the price-setting countdown. In this sense, what happened remains unprecedented in Ukraine.”
Chichkan, however, won’t be able to dispose of this huge sum directly: “In fact, I sold this picture a long time ago, so it was re-sold at the auction, meaning there’s no way I can have a slice of the pie.”
Be that as it may, the assumption that art and capital never cross each other’s paths — or that art is over and above capital — is not totally objective.
“We have to admit that the art market is one of the necessary components of art,” says Oleksandr Soloviov, “for we remember Pushkin’s classical adage that inspiration can’t be sold, but a manuscript can.”
Finally, the most painful question: Will the ongoing financial crisis affect the artists?
Gallery owner Oleh Baishev says, “This financial crisis won’t affect the Top Ten artists. As in business, the wealthiest ones won’t suffer but will add to their wealth. As for the less talented artists — or should I say those lacking promotion? — this crisis will be a painful blow. On the other hand, the positive aspect is that these artists won’t have to bother about greenbacks and will time enough to ponder and create works of art.
