Sergey Volkov | Contemporary Art Collection | While Everyone Is at Anton's
Having joined communities of unofficial artists in the mid-1980s, artist Sergei Volkov, who began his career as a photographer, turned to painting. From the outset, he was guided by the conceptual movement, influenced by its elders. This embrace of classical painting in an era that had long since declared painting's death led Volkov to explore the boundaries of the painting method itself. Thus, the emphatically material texture of his compositions from the late 1980s and early 1990s captures the process of perceiving painting as an independent act, requiring the viewer's awareness. His technique of incorporating text, devoid of personal intonation or direct connection to the image, borrowed from Erik Bulatov and Ilya Kabakov, into the visual fabric of the work enables an infinite variety of interpretations.
A sheet of paper, greatly enlarged, transforms from a symbolic gesture of encouragement into a semblance of a concrete slab. The awkward and ponderous "Charter" from Anton Kozlov's collection, whose empty space allows for any name, becomes an ironic response to the meaninglessness of Soviet ceremonial, which accompanied the lives of citizens of all statuses—from school Olympiad winners to general secretaries who regularly awarded themselves orders. In the new episode of "While Everyone's Home at Anton's," art historian and curator of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art archive, Alexandra Obukhova, talks about her work.
00:00 — About Mystery
00:27 — About Texture
01:26 — About Object Paintings
01:53 — About "Dusty Models"
02:03 — About Chalkboards
02:11 — About "Literacy"
03:06 — About Community
04:07 — About the Triumph of Painting
04:49 — About Styles
05:15 — About Painting
06:19 — About Distinctive Features
07:18 — About Popularity in the Art Market
07:57 — About Stylistic Mix
08:33 — About Sots Art
09:31 — About Toxicity
10:53 — About Lack of Emotionality
11:56 — About the artist-character
13:00 — About the Odessa School
13:33 — About simulation music
14:29 — About time
15:49 — About social circle
16:47 — About personality
17:27 — About "Culture"
18:03 — About the ideological framework
19:05 — About opportunism
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