inflation in art: look
from siberia
Working
as an interpreter for art traders that offer Russian paintings abroad, several
times I was a witness of the same picture. A prospective foreign buyer insisted
to know if the offered painting is an original, that is, if it's not a copy of
the original, no matter how skillfully done. Is the painting one of a kind? The
buyers want to be sure to purchase unique paintings. It's not always the case,
of course, sometimes a buyer wants to just decorate a house and don't care about
originality - it must be well done and that's all. Still, those involved in art
business are usually quite attentive to the matter.
The
ancient Chinese that discovered the joyful convenience of printing paper money
granted the world inflation. Inflation in one sense actually means that something
that one possesses - money or, maybe, a piece of art - can due to some uncontrolled
cause loose its value, with no fault from the person's part. A quite well-grounded
reason to be angry.
From
my correspondence with Western art dealers I happened to know that knowingly selling
a copy of a painting, while there is an original in, say, the artist's studio,
is a serious crime in the West. The Russian legislation is not (yet?) so specific
in regard to selling art, therefore, one has only to look at copying paintings
from human point of view. To take the moral side of the issue, artists may not
feel they are commiting a crime if they copy their own artwork with the intention
of selling it, while preserving the dear original for themselves. I have seen
it.
The
other side of the coin has the name "dubbing". Suppose I bought a painting
- and I know that for now it's the only painting, that is, I am a lucky acquirer
of an original. How can I be sure that no "twins" of the artwork will
appear some day? Many Siberian artists who earn a good deal of their living through
painting cannot afford not to repeat some subjects. I expect that only a tiny
proportion of our art consuming audience - the collectors - buy paintings taking
into consideration the artist's name. The broad public buys just what they like
to see and what they can afford to.
Artworks
that an artist produces are, of course, not of the same value. Some paintings
are lucky, they get attention of the spectator, some are not. Those lucky are
sold fast, others, maybe, do not sell at all. If an artist is in terrible need,
in all probability, they will want to repeat financial success through dubbing
of the lucky painting. It's not always the artist's initiative. Once a Krasnoyarsk
artist Herman Kiselev painted an oil that he gave a title "Carmen".
It appeared to be quite an appealing work, so, now and then, people came to the
artshop with the same request to provide them with a copy of it.
Carmen, oil on canvas, by Herman Kiselev.
The
irony of life, or trick of muses, is that it's not taken for granted that any
artist will succeed in dubbing their own artwork. There are numerous examples
that second, third etc. copies of lucky paintings were artistic failures.
It's
widely believed over here that artists have the right to dub their own work. It
might be they have the right. But how should the person who was the first to appreciate
the artwork enough to buy it, feel? Victor Rogachev, a fine artist and art teacher,
when I talked to him on the matter, expressed the viewpoint of a painter. "I
do copies of my paintings. First, for myself: I need an archive of what I have
done, because the paintings go and I then cannot recollect all the details. Second,
I copy them on request of a customer". Does he feel that a problem is involved
with dubbing paintings, given the interests of the person who has bought the original
painting are damaged? "Well, anyway, the copies remain the handiwork of mine.
Moreover, I cannot copy absolutely exactly, thus the copies are somehow different...
But, of course, I do not think it's a decent thing when artist makes 10-20 dubbings
of a painting."
Will
one convert what he earned into currency of a country knowing that the country
is easily printing money? A rhetorical question.
My
feeling is that a Russian collector of contemporary fine art has the only way
out: to buy paintings by an artist who is known to make no copies of his works.
Once I talked
to a lady that was not a great collector, but working as a shop assistant in an
artshop, was fond of art and from time to time bought paintings. I asked her to
formulate her feelings in regard to the dubbing issue - as a person that spends
her own money for art. "Well," - she said, "it actually depends
on artist and art. Once I bought a landscape by an average artist and then saw
what were practically copies of the oil, brought in for sale to the shop. I didn't
care, it's not that kind of art I would worry about. Quite another thing, is if
Krasnov would make a copy of an oil by him that I have. He has not yet made a
copy of his oils, but if he had that would not be pleasant to me. After all, it's
good to know that my painting by Krasnov is the only one."
In
fact, Alexander Krasnov is an artist who doesn't dub his works. (Of course, it's
not the only virtue of him and his art.) Taking into account his subjects and
especially how he works makes it clear to me that making a copy is an even harder
job for him than painting the original. From the technical point of view, the
oils by Krasnov are so elaborated that one can hardly see the strokes, even close
up. Laymen may even not to recognize the fine art as such, and think it's a print
on paper.
Alexander
never steps away from the principle to produce only technically perfect paintings,
and painting an oil may take some months. Therefore, just from the point of view
of labor, the copy would be as hard-earned as the original minus aspiration, and
it would mean actually loosing of months of time.
The
content of canvases by Krasnov is another side of the coin. Most of artists
are inventive and resourceful. Most of them strive to build own artistic world
and develop own artistic language. Krasnov has certainly succeeded in it.
Eyes of tropical forest, oil on canvas, by Krasnov
Hunting season, oil on canvas, by Krasnov
It's
ungrateful thing to retell a picture, especially a piece of art. So, I'd just
like to quote a couple of images by him [1]. Looking at artworks by Krasnov I
think it's really fortunate that everywhere in the world, in Siberia too, there
is art that doesn't inflate and loose it's value.
[1] Those interested can order a catalogue with artworks by Alexander Krasnov.
Vladimir Gavrikov
gavrikov@online.ru
