Good afternoon, dear friends. Today at a unique exhibition, in the very center of St. Petersburg, just opposite of the Russian Museum, an exhibition of Alexander Nikolenko, which is called …?
“We”.
“We”, and is dedicated to the famous work of Yevgeny Zamyatin. A truly unique phenomenon today, there will be such free conversation. Alexander, I hope, will tell about the secret meaning of his paintings, because we have this special section, it is not only about paintings by artists of the past, but also about the works of contemporary artists. But first, Alexander a few questions, I think? Of course. The fact is that I met Alexander quite recently, about 25 years ago. Like yesterday. When he created a unique pieces of art … So, Alexander is a physician by training, and I immediately have this question I have not found in your numerous biographies, in your interviews – where did you study painting?
I studied painting…one can say – from books. My mother, a philologist, she graduated from the University in the Baltic States and her hobby was painting. Therefore, the whole house was filled with books about art, albums, magazines, there was even a ten-volume “School of Arts”, if you remember. It was was a guide for all art schools (in Union). Yes, well, in Soviet times, you understand what a deficit it was. She somehow managed to get it somewhere and all my childhood, in general, was spent among these books.
And when you studied at the medical University – what specialty did you have?
I majored in epidemiology and occupational pathology.
The most relevant topic in our time!
Of course, yes, I must say yes.
So, the next question I have is that you started to draw, began to create your own works – at least for the last two or three years I have been at two exhibitions of yours. When was the first one?
My first exhibition was in (1991), approximately. It was in Vyborg, in the Vyborg castle. There I exhibited graphics, and there was a director of this complex, she was very, very advanced. That was when my first exhibition was held. And my first artwork was sold and exhibited at the same time.
Here ahead of my question, when was the first sale and for how much (the most important thing)?
For as many as 22 marks, it was tiny graphic artwork. Tiny graphics, bought by a tourist from the famous city of Kiel (Germany). And it was not me who was selling it, my friends were selling it. I was completely far from all this – they convinced me that it was necessary to do so I gave them (the artwork), and they joyfully informed me that this is how it happened. We already know that one of Alexander’s artworks is in the city of Kiel. What are other cities, now we know many collectors there are? The geography is wide. America, Europe.. both in Norway and in Italy there are collections of my art, Estonia, Riga, Germany … I can remember for so long. Sweden, by the way.
I remember this story well, because Alexander authored a unique program, you can find information about this on the Internet. It was called “Enter the Picture” (2002). When from one picture, it was a picture of Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov “Moscow courtyard”. we moved to another picture, “Granny’s Orchard”, right?
It was a little the other way around – from “Granny’s Orchard” …
Yes, but the point is that you could watch it this way and that way. And one more, let’s say, not quite a modest question: did you say that your son helps you?
Yes, of course, my son does not only do this, but he organized the creation of a database of all my works. He is archiving them It is for our private use, but it is accessible via the Internet. It is located on our server, we regularly update it processing the documentation, he(son) also helps with the design of catalogs.
look, there were about how much time since the last exhibition that I went to?
Two years, exactly.
During this time you have painted so many pictures, this is a colossal work. I just remember how you told me how attentive you are to the choice of the frame, how careful you are about the choice of the gold that you use in your paintings, because gold turns out to have a colossal number of different shades … You even showed me the green gold! But how does it all happen, this creative process? You get up in the morning, something dawned on you, and you start to create, or some kind of idea arises on the basis of something?
This is how it happens, yes – it dawns on me. The point is, I don’t believe in thoughtful art, that is conceived and somehow very carefully done. I am not against it at all, I am not against the academic craft, which I adore But the fact is that if an artist wants to have as few intermediaries as possible between what comes from the sky, or from somewhere else, and what comes out on the canvas, he needs to think less. No matter how paradoxical it sounds … And he needs to work more … Yes, yes, that’s right.
I would also like to insert a remark, right? Because when you asked why I started – the fact is that in my life after graduating from university there was a certain period when I spent a lot of time in a squat on Gangutskaya Street this is a place where artists, informal artists, musicians … It was 1986-87, 1988. This lasted until, probably, until 1995. So, I was constantly in this environment, and many of my friends were artists with whom I talked, of course I saw how they create, I learned a lot from them technique-wise, I mean – but also at some point in time I was interested in the circulation graphics I began to engage in afort, and Oleg Yakhnin, in particular, helped me a lot in this.
Have you practiced classical afort?
I have mastered 2 etching techniques pretty well. This is a dry point and a classic scratching on the varnish, how do say it … a classic etching. But I was lucky then, because Oleg sent me to a very qualified printing master. And I must say that this printing master, in general, is your associate, he is also a co-author. He just did miracles with my modest, I think, boards for that period, by the way, they survived, some of them. But I also wanted to say what was another impetus. The fact is that medicine itself, it presupposes, as you understand, the study of anatomy, the study of history, and this is always inextricably linked with the arts with artefacts and monuments of art, and this prompted me to study it deeply…. I then decided to devote myself to science. And so it happened that I began to work in the laboratory of human neurophysiology, which was then (1990) headed by Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva. After working there for six months, I transferred the Institute of the Human Brain, which was headed by her son, to the positron emission tomography laboratory (1990-1991). By the way, I first got acquainted with computer graphics, because there was advanced equipment. It was certainly a revolution for me at that time – huge monitors, a three-dimensional representation of how the brain sees, how it feels. My PhD, which I, unfortunately, did not finish, in particular, was devoted to the psychophysiology of perception. In fact, these are trendy things now.
Here we are sitting with artrwork, it reminds me of a brain in a section almost.
There is a certain mysticism here, because I just recently reread Gershenzon’s letter to Malevich, where the words “skull” and “brain” are mentioned seven times, probably. After all, when he finished with Suprematism, in 1918, in 1920, exactly 100 years ago he wrote that – (I say in my own words) “I will delve into the observation of infinite space human skull.” This is all unconditionally connected. Now the focus of neurophysiological research is now directed at how a person feels beauty, how he sees it. There is even a whole field of neurosciences – called neuroaesthetics.
Fantastic.
Which artwork would you save from this exhibition? Or would you try to take everything away (as there are no unloved children)?
A difficult question, one that puzzles me, but probably “The Infinite Equation of the Universe”.
Tell me please, do you already have an artwork, a collection that you would never sell for any money? Or is it still a question of price?
This is a question on the one hand of the price, on the other hand probably this is – do you see a series of small portraits on a red background? There are three of them here, yes they are, well, they can be called partly milestones for me /
Well, those artworks that I saw at the previous exhibition “Golden Age”, as I see, there is not a single one of them here? Or is it?
“The Ring of Power” All the rest are new artworks.