He was born on March 31, 1964 in Kyiv. He graduated from the Taras Shevchenko Republican School of Arts (1975-82) and Kyiv State Art Institute (1981-88). Since 1987 he has been taking part in national and foreign exhibits. Since 1989 he has been a member of the Union of Artists of Ukraine. Since 1992 he has been a member of the group “Picturesque Preserve,” which included as well Tiberii Silvashi (the founder and the author of the concept), Oleksandr Babak, Marko Heiko, Mykola Kryvenko, Anatolii Kryvolap. His father Oleh Zhyvotkov (1933) and brother Serhii Zhyvotkov (1961-2000) are artists.
Zhyvotkov is a prominent Ukrainian artist. Over the past years he has been working a lot with wood.
CHILDHOOD
“I was born in a family of an artist. We were living in an old monastery house in Triokhsviatytelska Street. There under the ceiling a huge old Kyiv lamp shade with a fringe was hanging, and a round table was standing under it. Before I learned to read, I learned letters on the book backbones, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso. I had always a pencil or a pen with me. The paper, as well as the walls in the rooms and in the toilet, – everything was covered with my pictures.
“My father is an amazingly talented pedagogue. He didn’t impede, only watched and guided me. Later, in my youth years, I met with my uncle, Mykhailo Rudakov, in Moscow. A great artist and an amazing personality, he told my brother and me: ‘As long as you are young, absorb everything you see. If you are strong and decent, later you will get rid of all unnecessary things and become yourselves.’ This is a testament for me. I took interest in everything, moreover, the father gathered a library of modern art and a wonderful audio library. My brother and I saw and listened to the best things in painting, theater, and music. That was fantastic.”
GRANDMOTHER
“My grandmother was the first artist in our family. She was Kiriak Kostandi’s student [an outstanding Odesa painter and pedagogue, 1852-1921. – Author]. She was a unique person, she went through all Babel moments, told a lot of stories. Of course, she lied about some things, but this is an art in itself, this is how beautiful things emerge. She knew many influential people in Odesa of 1910s-1920s, including Mishka Yaponchik. She said about him: ‘He was a bandit, but God what a handsome one.’ They liked her and warned her about pogroms. She was a light person. She still is, because artists don’t die.”
REFUSAL
“My older daughter had a talent for visual arts. But at the age of 13 she categorically refused to take this path. She said: ‘It’s enough. What am I going to do after you?’ This is wise and complicated, especially when you are 13. Currently she is successful in music and show business, and she knows what work is. I am proud of her deed.”
“PICTURESQUE PRESERVE”
“The preserve is a basis for me. Many of my friends have various attitudes to this period, but for me those were sunny years, although everything lasted for a short period of time, as well as the Paris Commune [a community of artists which lived and worked in 1989-1994 in an old house in Paris Commune Street, currently Mykhailivska Street. – Author]. You rejoiced at the successes of other people. Everyone took interest in other people’s activities. No one looked in other person’s pocket. We were together in our happiness.”
WHITE
“I remember how in the seventh grade I had a terrible toothache. I was trying to find a salvation, and paid attention to the white condition, where my pain disappeared. I also covered my childhood nightmares with white paint. There were devils on the windows, right? To cope with them, you peep out from under the blanked and in your mind cover them in white. Those are my own revelations.”
RED
“When I came for the first time to Nepal, I didn’t know where to go. A different world. Later in Kyiv people asked me, what I had brought from there, new works, sketches? I couldn’t answer, so changed my mind was. I understood only when I came back to my senses. From there I brought the red tone. This is ritual powder, the blood of sacrificial animals, the dead bodies are dissected in the street, the blood is pouring. It is everywhere. The soil is soaked with it.”
THE FEELING OF PROPORTIONS
“I’m not seeking originality. I did not choose black, gray, or white. Simply at a very early age, when I was five, I had the feeling of my own proportions, and they still haven’t changed. There is no style, no need to invent something. You have been given this.”
ABSTRACTION
“This is one of the labels, for convenience. Piet Mondrian [a prominent Dutch and world abstractionist. – Author] showed to everyone what abstraction was. This is real wood, and phase after phase he turns it into a picture without an object. For some people even his realistic tree is an abstraction, but it is not an abstraction. This is what a person sees, a degree of generalization of things that are present enough. What will I recall about you? There is no need to draw your portrait or take your photo, to understand who you are and who created your image.”
SIMPLER
“At the History Museum take a look what people drew far before out era. Couldn’t they draw? They were wonderful artists. Why at the beginning of the 20th century Egypt and Africa became so popular, having replaced the previous fascination with Old Greek Art? The technique started to develop, and Greece started to look too complicated. Everything around started to rumble. The calmness disappeared. The human perception turned to simpler forms. This is neither good, nor bad. There is no way we can change it.”
NEPAL
“For the first time I got to Nepal in 2008, that was a pure accident. I got an offer, thought it over for five minutes, called them and said: ‘I’m going.’ And I became a regular visitor. Now I feel like home there. Nepal is a huge ant hill of people, cars, and animals. Everything is moving around. There are numerous signs, but as I found out gradually, they all led to the foot of a stupa. And the last sign was pointing up, and there was an eye looking at you. As if someone said: ‘Everything is much simpler. You follow the signs, you come here. We are looking to you, and you can look at us as well.’ And the understanding of this puts everything in place. This is not an understanding, this is a feeling of understanding.
“Besides, I feel calm there.”
MATERIAL
“The material is secondary. The material is under your feet. It doesn’t give you anything. But the change of material, from canvas to tree, for example, is very natural. One is followed by another one. Like the subjects of my works. Especially now. Moreover, the canvas and oil paints were invented in the 17th century for lazy people. The canvas is a mobile material for convenience. But it has been brought up to the level of cult. In the mid-20th century Lucio Fontana [Italian innovative painter, his pictures with cutting were very popular. – Author] said: ‘Leave the canvas’; he even cut it. You should admit, why does one need to imitate on canvas the condition of cement with oil? You have cement, go take it. Canvas needs to have rest. It will come back. This is a wonderful material.”
SUCCESS
“When I had problems with alcohol – I quit three years ago – periodically I had to call drug therapist. Once I could not work – my friend ordered a wooden work about Nepal. I was already drunk, waiting for the doctor who was supposed to come at 10 p.m. There was another bottle of vodka somewhere. I thought: ‘They will bring me to senses anyway.’ I drank another glass, it was like a motor saw, in 30 minutes the work was ready and in a way I had never suspected I would complete it. Something happened. This is success. I took one more shot, later I was told that I was lying happy in bed. I knew that a difficult night was awaiting me, but I was glad about what happened. Next day I didn’t feel happy anymore, thank God. This is success for me. The rest… It is of course pleasant when people recognize you. On the other hand, I nearly hit the ceiling when a 24-year-old boy addressed me with patronymic. What? Nonsense. Any man can feel like a bronze idol. I have done this twice, and last time I was nearly beaten up.
“Success is when you create something you hadn’t expected. And it is not interesting what people will say. However, I am lucky to meet people who are on the same wavelength with me. They are innumerous, and this is good.”
“I WANT ONLY TO RUN”
“I practically don’t go out, do not attend vernissages and get-togethers. I don’t cross anyone’s road. Why would people invent some nonsense about me? Who needs this? It turned out some people do. People cannot live without this.
“Chiriko [Giorgio de Chiriko was an Italian surrealist painter. – Author] at the end of his life closed himself in his Rome studio, he even closed the windows, and didn’t show his works to anyone. I understand him. It turns out that simple elementary things are a miracle. I start working in the studio, when I finish it is already evening. Paco de Lucia had a composition, I Want Only to Go. I want only to run. I have too little time to look back. I have a lot to do.”
NEED
“I left the boxing ring at the age of 50. I was a professional boxer. Was that a hobby? Rather a part of life. I couldn’t miss a good knife. Hobby? No. The same with icons. This is not collecting. This is returning to something from your boyish activities. When you do what you like, it becomes your hobby, life, craziness, happiness, and sorrow. Whether it’s good or bad, this is apparently the part of the prize we have to pay. Every person seeks to art. Someone collects stamps, someone plants flowers, someone paints, some invest in their food, dog, or clothes. This is natural. What is the need in what we do? I don’t know. But it’s eternal. And neither I, nor you can answer this question.”
