Persten

Dear Gaby,

You may remember that long ago, in the very beginning of the century, there happened a Revolution in Russia. Social Hierarchy seized to be, and this chaos helped a lot of young new artists to appear at the art surface and  to become the symbol of new art. For the West, Malevitch and Larionov are most important. After that, not only art changed, but also the whole world. Russia is a wonderful country. In the end of the century, a new revolution happens. Again in St.Petersburg, out of the head of Timur Novikov, the new Academy of Fine Arts came into being. It was here that the new revolution currently going on in contemporary art was born. Artists all over the world have long forgotten what is "high art". They started to work towards the satisfaction of the public, which goal is not worth of artist's dignity. In Great Britain, "low arts" have greatly enlarged their population.

In my series, I tried to give the beautiful image in the sense of the classical and sacred as the opposition to the abstract painting. I did not mean to create a cult icon. Rather, I worked in the genre of historical painting. During last decades, the borders between countries, states, and nations have been eliminated and turned into a large megapolis. There are recognised Beautiful Court Ladies in this world. Earlier, artists sang in praise of their beauty and created their portraits. When we look at these old works, we are now unable to perceive them as a vivd bodies, as persons from our society. We are suppressed by the consciousness that these works are true masterpieces made many centuries ago. Thus, when I worked on this series, I tried to see the faces of my contemporaries in the features of the old portraits.

In the beginning of the century, art rejected beauty in favour of abstraction, technicism, etc. By contrast, fashion and cinematography took over the theme of beauty together with the hearts of many fans. This is why I thought it was important to show that the creation of the beautiful image now depends on fashion to a greater degree than on contemporary art. Due to the digital technologies, I succeeded to work out a trip by a time-machine. In my works, one can feel oneself living many centuries ago. For the pictures with Kate Moss and Leonardo di Caprio, I used paintings by Antonello da Messina. If you take a look at the originals, your perception of them will considerably change. You might even feel compassion to St. Sebastian, although earlier you could only see him as a beautiful artistic surface. The current change in the perception of paintings by an average man was caused by technical progress and the related alteration in our psychic system. Contemporary man can no longer feel into a work of art. Rather, he takes a single look at it as if painting were an advertising poster. In Kate Moss' portrait, I've changed the direction of her look and put a bee on her hand for a spectator to feel more sharply the problem formulated by the master.

For Naomi Campbell's portrait, I used Parmigianino's canvas, Andy Warhol's portrait is based on Caravaggio's "Portrait of the Knight of Malt", Michael Jackson's - on Giorgione's "Portrait of an elder man in full armament".

Due to the fact that most artists started to work on ugly art (as opposed to the beautiful one) creation of cult images was taken over by fashion industry and movies. I think the role of artist in the idealization of the space, in the formation of future architecture and future man is crucial. It is my opinion that before studying architecture or computer graphic at Colleges, one must be well aware of the ancient Greek artistic rules and know how to draw. We badly need to resume classical education.

I did not intend to create icons for cult use. I think it is very importnt to respect the religius feelings of believers. It is the very elimination of the distance between an average man and a member of Royal family, pastors, parents, etc. leads to the destruction of the beautiful and gently in human soul. I think my intervention to classical works does not contain any sacriligious intentions towards them.

The New Academy actively works in St.Petersburg and appears to be one of a few edicational establishments that teach its students to feel the beauty of the classical image. We have found a lot of similar-minded people all over the world (e.g. Society for Classical Art Preservation - Berlin, Germany, Art Kiosk Foundation - one of the most prominent pop art collectors in Belgium, which considers neo-academism to be the most progressive trends in contemporary art, the school of classical tradition in Greece, Society "Classical America" in New York, etc.).

Dear Europeans,

let us combine our efforts for the preservation of the great European traditions! We hve great European architecture, great European classical music, great European literature. Let us work toward the creation of beautiful works of art that have been forming the image of Europe for centuries.

I consider myself to be a cosmopolit. I am interested in information and ideas from all over the world since I can see different countries, I can only see similar-minded people who live in different places. As in England, there are poor and rich artists in Russia. I consider myself to belong to middle class, because the rich Russian artists are Glazunov, Zereteli and Shilov.

It is snowing in St. Petersburg.

Should you need my photograph, please, do not hesitate to contact Lord Snowdon who lives in London. He took pictures of me for the Russian Vogue.

Should you have any other questions, please, contact me via e-mail.

Best wishes,

Olga Tobreluts

http://www.tobreluts.info/works/WORKS.htm