On the 14^th of October 2011, the living classic of Ukrainian art Alexandr Roitburd will celebrate his 50^th birthday. The event will be celebrated in a very appropriate manner – with a show of his works at one of the Odessa’s leading galleries – Hudpromo (Odessa, Zhukovskogo str., 6 (Худпромо, Одесса, ул. Жуковского, 6)). The show, containing 14 works which play on the portrait of Louis XIV, is due to open of the 14^thof October. The artists himself agreed to tell ART UKRAINE about the symbolic numerology and the story behind the show. 

Initially there were supposed to be 10 of them. 10 variation of Louis XIV portrait. Then I decided to make a couple more and later realized that there should be 14 all together.

A popular today word – sequel – is perfect to describe this project: it is a logical continuation of other two (A King’s Life (Ludwig), 1992, and Portrait. Lady(ies). In white. 1993) which preceded it.

 

A foreword.

I made Ludwigs 19 years ago in Munich, for Postanæctesia, a group show of Ukrainian artists. As I was walking through Marienplatz I realized that I saw the figure of this monarch – this madman, patron to the arts, alcoholic, homosexual, spendthrift, etc, - on every single souvenir stand. Louis was everywhere; there was so much of him that I named him ‘The Bavarian Mickey Mouse’. Later, when I had the nerve to say this out loud at the show’s opening, local newspapers praised me for inventing this term while Ukrainian diaspora criticized me for mocking a symbol of Bavarian pride.

In the end I bought quite a big number of postcards with the monarch’s late-life portrait by Gabriel Schachinger. In it, the ‘fairy-tale’ king of Bavaria, Ludwig II Otto Friedrich Wilhelm von Bayern (25.08 1845 — 13.06.1886), son of Maximilian II of the Wittelsbach dynasty, is pictured in a ‘signature’ pose demonstrating the folds of his robe to the viewer.

Having got back to my hotel Мах-Emmanuel, I, without any particular reason or aim, started cutting up the newly bought postcards. Then I put the different pieces together and as a result got a surreal image vaguely resembling Ludwig’s baroque portrait.

I made 7 collages, which I later turned into 7 paintings each about 200x100cm in dimensions. This wasn’t like anything I had done before! This series, which got the name A King’s Life, was shown in Leipzig together with the A King’s Death installation (Louis II post-mortem mask placed in an aquarium filled with blue liquid, with lifebuoys scattered around it). Also, Yurii Senchenko gave me the idea to use rabbit fur to create an illusion of a king’s stoat robe as part of the installation. This, of course, upset the local animal rights activists and after a huge scandal I decided to give up the idea of torturing the poor little creatures for the sake of art. But up until today I do remember that ‘Kaninchen’ is German for ‘rabbit’, and ‘Hermelin’ – German for stoat.

In 1994, as part of a collaboration with Arsen Savadov, I made an installation and used two of the works from A King’s Life in it. It was shown at the Field for Cultural Revolution show and then disappeared from view until emerging again in 2004. Now 5 out of 7 Ludwigs (just as the 5 Ladies in White) are part of the PinchukArtCentre collection.

I became very interested in this game of ‘surrealistic Lego’. Next year, in 1993, I bought all the reproductions of Titian’s Venetian Courtesan (aka Lady in White) and, armed with scissors and glue, again got down to dismantling images. I made 17 collages which became the basis for 17 paintings.

10 of them were consequently shown in 3 Moscow galleries. The series was called Portrait. Lady(ies). In white. To give this event and these artworks more context and to acquaint those unfamiliar with the situation in Ukraine-Russia in 1993, I shall quote a document from that time, - a review of the show written by Katerina Diogot, published in Kommersant, a local newspaper.

Gallery ‘1.0’ has opened a show of works by Alexandr Roitburd, titled ‘Portrait’. The show consists of 10 large-scale collages made from pieces of Titian’s ‘Lady in White’ reproductions. The invitation to the opening is itself a kind of collage or puzzle – it is cut into three parts and only by visiting the artist’s other two shows which are a continuation of the one at ‘1.0’ (on the 20^th of September the Guelman Gallery is opening ‘Lady(ies)’, and Schkola gallery is opening ‘In White’ on the 1^st of October) the viewer can get his hands on the missing pieces of the initiation, read the curator’s text, and get a wholesome idea about the famous artist’s witty project. The idea for such a ‘complicated’ display came up quite unexpectedly: some time ago 3 gallerists got together and started advising Roitburd on which direction he should take his art into. The conservative (in a good sense of the word) Marat Guelman (Guelman Gallery) insisted on painting; the radical (also in a good sense) Vladimir Levashov (1.0 gallery) proposed working with collages; and Irina Piganova, specializing in photography, was sure that there would be nothing better for Roitburd than making photographs. This artistic argument could have gotten out of hand if the artist didn’t come up with the idea to show his work in all three galleries consequently, with each gallery getting pieces in the media that it specializes in. In all three cases the audience will be able to see the same works but done with the help of different materials. The show at ‘1.0’ will consist of more and more bizarre transformations of Titian’s Lady in White made with the help of scissors, glue, and cut pieces of the image’s reproduction. Under Roitburd’s hand the image is transformed from that representing a real lady into something fantastic and out of this world. What is interesting about these collages, is that even when working with pieces of an image Roitburd is still showing his ‘painterly’ side by using these pieces not just as body parts or fragments, but almost like brush-strokes. It is the remaking of the image that interests him, and not its mere deformation.

Some of the elements, like a long skirt, or a hand resting on the side, or another hand, which is holding a little flag, always remain the same. It is as if the lady is able to keep her posture but cannot get her thoughts together: they are the ones that are getting out of control and taking the space that usually would be devoted to the lady’s head (which is no where to be seen). And although Roitburd doesn’t fail to express his attitude to the lady as to a mere object of desire, he still does her justice.

  

The text for the show, written by its curator Vladimir Levashov, was indeed printed at the back of the cut into three pieces invitation. This is what it was:

Alexandr Roitburd always liked making monsters.

Even in his earlier works his characters all have some degree of bodily deformation. This slight distortion later becomes more apparent: one set of eyes for two heads, split bodies, missing parts. Brush-strokes (as well as titles) become more chaotic. The artist compiles words and text with great ease, creating a type of a linguistic Frankenstein. He functions under the sign of chaos, multiplication, and combination, which in principle give birth to his collages. Today it is quite impossible for an artist to think in terms of just one technique, and Roitburd is proving this point with great confidence.

Pointillism can be seen as an early prototype of collage; after that the cubists explored the richness of aesthetical and creative possibilities that it offers; in surrealism it became an essential part of its aesthetic strategy; and pop-art used collage almost everywhere and in any possible way. In the times of Postmodernism collage managed to erase the line between reality and history. Today, when creative fiction is able to influence and construct reality, the border between reality and falsehood is almost invisible. There is no actual division between past, present, and even future; there is no temporality and everything is mixed up into one chunk of space and time, with its parts mixed and moved around in any possible way.

This new type of reality, which stands outside all time and space, is nothing else but sur-reality which exists in a form of a permanent collage. It is a symbolic space where mutation and transfiguration never cease. But where is the force that actually moves it? In our case it is the artist, a contemporary artist who creates collages out of Titian’s reproductions. He then makes paintings out of them, and later – photographs. There is no reproduction, no original, and no author: just a collage of artistic individualities, collage of shows, collage of titles. And all of this without excessive seriousness and pretentiousness.

 

To Him...

Simultaneously with the shows in Moscow 7 pieces from the same series were shown in Warsaw at the Steppes of Europe (Stepy Europy) show in Warsaw (curated by Jerzy Onukh). According to Onukh, Allan Ginsburg spent quite some time contemplating those works and then thoughtfully declared: “It’s true psychedelic art”. I think I understand what he meant. Also, Peter Greenaway apparently saw something phallic in my Lady(ies). Well, you can’t argue with neither of them….

With all the ‘methodological’ similarities between Ladies and Ludwigs, there are still a lot of points of difference. In the latter one can trace a systematic annihilation of the image, while Ladies is a process, with no specific start or end, of bringing together different shapes and constructions. I recently heard an opinion that these two series are “the top of Ukrainian neo-baroque aesthetics, painting in its purest with a touch of madness.” It is, by all means, a great pleasure to read such comments.

A bit later I wanted to do something similar to a portrait of Katherine II by Levitsky, which is part of the Odessa Museum of Art collection. I was really tempted by the prospect of exhibiting the result next to the original, but the museum’s board wasn’t too excited about this idea, so I had to give it up. I tried working with several other subject matters but nothing seemed to have been satisfying enough. And then, about 10 years after Ladies, I finally decided to do another collage-project titled Le Roi Soleil. My victim became Louis XIV, someone who I have been closely observing since the early 90s. This time I didn’t use any scissors – all the collages were done with the help of a PC and the amazing program called Photoshop (which has made lives of many artists much easier). The first 10 sketches were made in 2003, and by the beginning of 2004 several of them were already transferred onto canvases. But then – suddenly – came a wave of changes which brought new projects, a new studio, new ideas, new galleries – all in all I gave up working on Louises. But this turned out to be a mistake and in the end I resumed my work on the series.

And finally, another 7 years later, I am ready to show 14 portraits of Louis XIV. And believe me, the fact that I am showing them on the 14^th of October, on my 50^th birthday, is a mere coincidence.

14.14.14…  

On method, again

Le Roi Soleil very logically fits into the row of above-listed projects. The stoat robe makes if similar to Ludwigs, and the size of the works – 180x90cm – to Ladies. And, of course, the method of their making is similar to both. Unfortunately, almost everything that could have been said about them has already been said either by me, or by Katerina Diogot, or by Vladimir Levashov. I would really like to not go into discussion about metaphors, phantoms, hallucinations, and, moreover, - ‘the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’, since this will seem too art-historical and even poignant.

I would really like to omit the discourse on psychoanalysis and psychedelics

And about our hero himself

 Louis XIV de Bourbon, Le Roi Soleil, named Louis-Dieudonné at birth, 1638-1715, king of France and Navarra. The first time I learned anything about Louis XIV was from a Сhildren’s Encyclopedia (volume 7, History). If I am not mistake the article was called “‘The Sun King’ and the poor people of France.” There I saw his portrait, in liked the wig and the stockings. Then I learned that He is the State and I took this thought to be quite convincing and logical. From the poetry of Anna Akhmatova I learned about the existence of the “bourbon profile” and from Bulat Okudzhava – “that a spaniel from Paris looks like a French king…”[1] These words were in my head as I was working on the series.

And a little bit about me

On the day of the show’s opening I will turn 50. This, for sure, is a reason to do some looking back and summarizing. These 50 years were good. I have peace and freedom. Almost always I spoke my mind and did what I wanted. I got really lucky with the time that I live in, lucky with my dear and near ones, with friends, women and art. Although, probably, I could have been even more lucky. Some things I got in abundance and some – not so much. This is the way it is supposed to be and there is no need to whine or fool oneself. What we need to do, though, is to work hard, be happy and focus on the important things in life. And then everything will be all right.

 

Alexandr Roitburd, 2011