Artist Victoria Lomasko about favorite books
IN BACKGROUND "BOOK SHELF"we ask journalists, writers, scholars, curators, and other heroines about their literary preferences and publications, which occupy an important place in their bookcase. Today, artist Victoria Lomasko shares her stories about favorite books.
In the parental home in Serpukhov there are a lot of books, they stand and lie in all closets, in bedside tables, in the closet, in suitcases. My dad bought books. He is an artist who has decided that his child will also become an artist, and most of the books in the library relate to art. Some books that he bought for me before I was born, I was able to master only nineteen twenty years. Having realized that I will have to become an artist, I began to read the memoirs and diaries of artists in order to understand how not to die a genius in poverty, but, on the contrary, to become famous and live well. It's a pity that in the "Bookshelf" someone has already managed to talk about "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and vice versa)", this is one of the most read things in my library.
It was boring life in Serpukhov, which is probably why I especially liked books about heroes and everything heroic. During adolescence, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was greatly impressed by Night Flight, Planet of the People and Military Pilot. Having read books, I traveled to the sports airfield in Drakino near Serpukhov, where small double planes made beautiful turns over the field. Once, having received money as a birthday present, I immediately went to Drakino. Having bought the second place in the airplane, I ordered a corkscrew and a dead loop, after which I bleated for a long time in the meadow. So it became clear that books are one thing, but life is another.
Now I could not re-read Exupery, the style seems too poetic and romantic. But the love of the notes and diaries of artists remained. Already in my personal library in Moscow such books occupy the main shelves. I'm sure each artist must learn to describe his works on his own, so that art critics and art critics have no chance to put inappropriate labels.
I began to collect my own library as soon as I moved to Moscow. Mostly bought books in second-hand bookshops. From the parent library she took away all the publications that could be useful for study and work, but left in Serpukhov all the fiction, including the most beloved novels. In Moscow, I feel reading as an unattainable luxury: postponing the case, lounging on the couch, learn about the fictional adventures of fictional characters. With age, fiction is becoming increasingly difficult.
I studied at the University of printing on the artist's books, and I have long been interested in doing the book itself, than to admire others. One friend, choosing my edition for my evening reading, said that he had not found anything entertaining - he was right: 90% of my books were not for entertainment, but for work.
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
"Hlynovsk. Euclidean space. Samarkand"
When I went to study in Moscow, I immediately took this book from my parent's house, and Petrov-Vodkin wandered for a long time with me in dormitories and rented apartments.
I appeal to this book in different periods and with different questions. Often, the autobiography of Petrov-Vodkin, who began his professional career in quite difficult conditions, supported me during my own ordeal. At another time, it is important to re-read his thoughts on art, to consult. When they try to write me to activists fighting for someone’s rights, I like to answer him with a quote: “In art, there is a law for an artist: what’s not for you is not needed by anyone. If your work does not improve you, it’s powerless to improve, but there is no other social task, like improving the human species ... "Sometimes the book wants to look, not to read: it is illustrated by the author’s delightful drawings. When I started a project related to the study of the post-Soviet space, Samarkandia gave me a lot of new ideas for lectures and articles.
And I also like the unusual language of Petrov-Vodkin, which most resembles the manner of presentation of the characters of Andrei Platonov. Judge for yourself: "The moon is the closest satellite of the earth. But in general, the moon was a suspicious device for me: it acted on nerves, developed tireless fiction. She, like lemonade, pleasantly irritated the taste, but did not quench thirst." There are many parallels between the world of Platonov and the world of Petrov-Vodkin, an artist from Hlynovsk, who painted the red horse and the Petrograd Madonna.
Vladimir Lapshin
"The artistic life of Moscow and Petrograd in 1917"
Our time is often compared with Stalin, which seems to me wrong. If we draw historical parallels, it looks more like the period from 1905 to 1917: hurray-patriotism without any innovative ideas, failed wars, theft of the latest resources, the economic crisis, strong social stratification, rough censorship and the practice of intimidation.
The book begins with depressive quotes from letters and diaries of cultural figures on the eve of the February Revolution. Soon events begin to evolve rapidly, and there is no trace of depression. Vladimir Mayakovsky, such artists as Ivan Vladimirov and Peter Kotov, take part in the arrest of the former tsarist generals (Vladimirov also paints at this time). Other artists are involved in the defeat of police departments.
The book describes in detail how artists, starting with documentary sketches of grandiose and not completely understandable events, gradually comprehend them and come to larger and more complete forms. The author examines what is happening in the design of street processions and rallies, poster art, magazine graphics. A separate chapter is devoted to the creation of trade unions. And the book ends with a useful section "Chronological outline of the events of the artistic life of Moscow and Petrograd in 1917".
Masha Hessen, Mary Nazari
"In life. A guide to social journalism"
When I was just starting to make graphic reports on social topics, I felt extremely insecure in a dozen questions: how to collect material? How to negotiate an interview? Which questions to ask correctly and which not? Do I need to verify the direct speech with its author? Many things important in journalistic work were done by me at random. And suddenly I find out about the saving textbook, which describes in detail the methods of work. It was not possible to buy it in the paper version, and at the same time I wanted to regularly access the text and actively work with it. I had to print the text on the printer and order in the printing house a binding for the "book".
There are a few more books on journalism in my library from which I would single out the “Real Reporter” Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich. I like the composition of his book: after each fascinating report there is a heading "Professional considerations". I remember an interesting consideration of Sokolov-Mitrich, that the reportage has more similarities with the poetic text than with prose, because its "main feature is closeness."
Roy Peter Clark
"50 letter reception"
Drawing is easy. Writing is hard. It is good that I have several helpers with recommendations on how to do this. My main helper is Roy Peter Clark's 50 Letter Receptions. The author tells how to work with the rhythm of the story; as for the events taking place here and now, to discern archetypes, poetic and symbolic images; how to use cinematographic techniques in the letter; how to navigate your texts up and down the “ladder of abstractions.” And Clark shares a list of good professional habits for writing people.
"50 writing tricks" I found freely available on the Internet. As in the case of a book on social journalism, the text turned out to be so necessary that I had to print it out and order it in a printing press. I really like the look of this self-made "book", which is now always near at hand. I emphasize what appears to be important in the text with a pen and a marker, and I write my own ideas in broad fields. This creates a special effect of assigning material: whether it is the book of Clark, or my own workbook.
"Turkestan avant-garde"
This is a catalog of the exhibition of the same name, which was held in the Moscow State Museum of the East in 2010. She was not at the exhibition, but she saw the catalog for the first time in Bishkek. It has not been the case for a long time that, having opened the catalog of art of the 20-30s, I found that almost all the names and works are unknown to me. Some of the artists have become a real discovery: Alexander Volkov, Usto Mumin, Mikhail Kurzin, Nikolai Karakhan, Ural Tansykbaev, Ruvim Mazel, Byashim Nurali. Acquaintance with the album prompted me immediately after returning to Moscow to go to the Museum of the East, where I was last twenty years ago, and to start purposefully buying books on art in Central Asia in Soviet times.
The minus of the Turkestan Avant-Garde is that, in addition to useful historical references, the catalog contains texts written in the orientalist language, which is familiar to the art historians of the Oriental Museum. For example, the experience of artists who came from Russia to Central Asia is described as follows: "The amazing atmosphere of the ancient land impregnated their work, wore color, filled it with light."
Vasily Vereshchagin
"Tale. Essays. Memories"
From 2014, I started working not only in Central Russia, but also in the regions and in other post-Soviet countries: in Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Georgia and Dagestan. For this project related to the study of the post-Soviet space, I had to greatly update the library. The main discovery was the book of the artist Vasily Vereshchagin.
I am not very fond of Vereshchagin's paintings - I think that such a painting as his own can be replaced by high-quality documentary photography today. But the literary works of Vereshchagin turned out to be more interesting for me than artistic ones. Curious descriptions of the artist, as he chooses a particular plot: Vereshchagin, attentive to every detail, works almost like a sociologist. For example, in the essay "From Traveling in Central Asia" he describes the slave situation of Central Asian women, the tradition of "batch" (pedophilia with boys-dancers), calendarkhan - shelter for the poor, everyday life of opium-eaters, and so on. Few artists, in principle, want to penetrate such worlds and describe them.
Vladimir Favorsky
"About art, about the book, about engraving"
In the Polygraph at the Faculty of Art, where I studied, the name of Favorsky was mentioned constantly. Vladimir Favorsky, an artist and theorist, is considered to be the ancestor of the polygraphic school of drawing.
In the theoretical works of Favorsky, you can read how, drawing a space, at the same time draw an object, or how to see a person on a stool in the form of a single form, like a complex tree. The conceptualists, Oleg Vasilyev and Erik Bulatov, considered Favorsky their teacher. "I am still in the circle of spatial problems that he outlined for me then, therefore I consider myself to be his student and continue to mentally address him with questions that I think I continue to get answers to," writes Eric Bulatov in his book "Horizon". The collection was decorated with great delicacy: an elongated vertical format, black fabric binding with gold-embossed initials of the author, warm paper, large margins. Even when you do not want to reread the book, it's nice to hold it in your hands again.
EMMANUEL GIBER, Didier Lephevre, Frederic Lemercier
"Photographer"
I don't really like comics. The pages lined under the frames seem too cramped - how can this rigidly given shape fit free drawing-improvisation into these cells? However, the documentary comic and graphic reportage are the closest genres, so I have books like Palestine and Journalism by Joe Sacco, Maus by Art Spiegelman, Persepolis by Marjan Satrapia, Maria and I by Miguel Guyardo, Pyongyang, Guy Delil. "Photographer" I chose as the most experimental in form.
The book has three authors: Emmanuel Hyber, Didier Lefevre and Frederic Lemercier. Well-known French comic-artist Emmanuel Gibert invented how to compile thousands of Didier Lefebvre photographs taken in Afghanistan in 1986 into a complex and complete work. Between frames with photographs, the artist builds additional frames in which he drew what was happening to the photographer himself: how, where and why were these particular photos taken by him?
I read a fascinating story in one night about how a French photographer, along with the secret mission of Doctors Without Borders, illegally penetrates into Afghanistan, where hostilities are taking place. Lefevre's photographs look like powerful testimony, Giber's light drawings seem drawn in the same breath, Lemercier's layout is flawless. I want to say a huge thank you to the St. Petersburg publishing house "Bumkniga", which publishes such books in Russian.
Alphonse Daudet
"Sapho"
"Sappho" Alphonse Daudet - one of the few novels, which I reread at different ages. This is the story of a love affair between a provincial young man who came to Paris for an internship, and an adult woman, a bohemian model and kept woman Sappho.
The story is written by Daude for the edification of his sons, and the writer uses in the novel the details of his own biography. Arriving in Paris, Daudet lived together for a long time with Marie Rie, the "demi-monde" lady, who was much older than him, and after he had a lot of effort to leave this relationship.
It seems that Daudet was trying to write an instructive novel about vicious passions, but the story turned out about a boring and bourgeois young man who scornfully treats women below himself by social status, but is ready to use them. Lively, charming Sappho in the end between non-reciprocal love and self-esteem chooses the latter. So instead of a mischievous book, a feminist book turned out.
Poems of German poets "Sleeping Apple"
drawings Ilya Kabakov
In the parental home, probably due to the fact that all the shelves, wardrobes and the storage room were already packed with books, my father gave me a suitcase for my paperback books. I remember happy moments when, having closed in the room, I opened the suitcase and looked at my treasures. Some books were much more popular than others. I noticed that the pictures in favorites books were drawn by the same artists, namely: by some Ilya Kabakov, Viktor Pivovarov and Erik Bulatov with Oleg Vasilyev.
The most beautiful was the book of German poetry “Sleeping Apple” in the design of Kabakov, which looked very stylish. I liked that the spreads of the book were made with a sophisticated fantasy: here you have both screensavers, and endings, and initial letters, and painted fields! What was my surprise to learn in adulthood that my favorite illustrator Kabakov is that great conceptual artist Kabakov, and he designed children's books for the sake of earning only: to move forward to the checkout. “I haven’t had any artistic ambitions in this area until today, just to“ miss out ”,“ accept ”my drawings in the publishing house.” But I still love "Sleeping Apple".