The artists Yurii Denysenko and Yulia Tvieritina have just graduated from the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture. Their interests comprise easel and mural painting, graphic art, book illustration and art-ceramics.
They have participated in various Ukrainian exhibits and foreign biennials of graphic art and illustration. For several years they have been taking part in the creation of the Koza theater magazine that is rather a work of art than just a magazine...
Apart from the etching which is considered “elite” of graphic art, Tvieritina also does caricatures for magazines. Particularly, Yulia has created the characters which appeared today in The Day for the first time and will be guiding us through the Press Club pages.
Yulia TVIERITINA: “Usually, the graduates become designers and book illustrators. Personally I can hope only for private orders and my works are bought mainly by the foreigners. The thing is that Ukrainian etchings are known for their quality. The Ukrainian graphic school is very strong. They often buy the graphic works from the Ukrainian painters and resell them in the foreign galleries at much higher prices.”
If we speak about the Ukrainian graphic school in more detail…
Yurii DENYSENKO: “As for the last century, such artists as Andrii Malyshko underwent trainings in Paris since the Soviet Ukraine was the closest republic to Europe. That is why the Ukrainian art developed in the European context.
“As for the modern young artists, there are lots of contests and events held for them now. But I think that the works presented there are mainly of poor quality. Today, there are some trends of the art development: the contemporary art that often smells like a rotten meat, the everyday art and the academic one.”
By the way, people know about the last one the least. Everyone sees the gallery parties, the Andriivsky Uzviz and not the academic art…
Yu.T.: “The thing is that the contemporary art appeared abroad as a logical stage of a certain process. The artist doing the contemporary art have also accumulated the academic one. Here the young artists. who didn’t master the basic principles of the visual arts, get down to the contemporary art at once.”
Is it typical for all the post-Soviet countries that dropped out of the European art or is it a Ukrainian peculiarity? Is it typical, say, for Russia?
Yu.T.: “In Russia they stick to their academic manner more. The artists doing the contemporary art are mainly reputable ones who came to it during their creative evolution. They did the same at the Soviet times, too, but in the basements.”
Now the academic art in the basements…
Yu.T.: “No. We have another problem. There are good artists but no one needs them.”
How many people from your course continue doing the academic graphic art?
Yu.T.: “There are not many people using this technique since it is complicated and requires many efforts. It’s much easier to sit at the computer and impose that many people choose.”
Yu.D.: “To do the etching the good material and technical basis is needed: good equipment and several premises. Besides, this technique is unhealthy.”
Do you feel a certain world-view conflict between the academic artists and the ones doing the contemporary art?
Yu.T.: “The people who started doing the contemporary art at once think that the academic art is something unneeded. They also think that if they came to the contemporary art at once they can despise academic artists and call them artisans.”
As for the artisans, the handicraft has been devalued in our country. What do you think is the reason for this?
Yu.D.: “The reason is that the media ignore the handicraft. Besides, most of the people who don’t know about it find it easier to buy a usual mug for 15 hryvnias in the supermarket. We have recently tried to take our works to the Andriivsky uzviz. Once, a famous gallerist dealing with the contemporary art approached us. He looked at our works… and left.”
Yu.T.: “By the way, we have talked to this gallerist once at an exhibition and he told me in strict confidence that he does not know what the Ukrainian modern art is. He takes up the artists at random.
“The Ukrainian nouveaux riches come to him, see the graphic works and ask for some canvas as they think if something is on the canvas it is already the real art and it is cool. That is why a lot of graphic artists start printing on canvas. The major part of them started printing the works created with the computer technologies. It is not painting anymore.”
You’ve mentioned the media factor and I completely agree with you about it. What else counts?
Yu.D.: “The Academy also teaches art critics. Their job is to promote the artists. The artists have to do their job and to have a manager, an art critic, who promotes them. As a rule, managers take half of the money for the sale.
“For example, the Ukrainian graphic artist Pavlo Makov has told that his work had been sold at Sotheby’s for 30,000, yet he received only the remains. Everyone has to do their job. Artists should not run to the TV channels and newspapers offering themselves as objects of attention.”
Yu.T.: “However, our society has made some progress in this. There is a certain group of young artists and designers... They know each other and see who does what. This communication is extremely important.”
