DONTPOSTME #4

A MAGAZINE

ABOUT

CONTEMPORARY

ART

MARCH

WWW.DONTPOSTME.COM

dоnt p Ost me

2013

EVGENY KISELEV CARSTEN WITTE ALEXANDER SEMENOV LARS FOCKE DIMA REBUS DANIEL CASTAN JENNIFER NEHRBASS MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO ENGLISH VERSION

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“There is nothing new in art except talent.”

A.Chekhov

MARCH 2013

4 POST ISSUE:

NO.3 - JURGEN HECKEL, MARITZA DE LA VEGA, NEW RUSSIAN PHOTOGRAPHERS, YOSMAN BOTERO GOMEZ, SLAVA TRIPTIH, PHILIP BARLOW, WILLIAM O’BRIEN JR. NO.2 (ENG) - STEPHANIE JUNG, EFIM SHEVCHENKO, VICTOR EREDEL, NEDA VENT FISCHER, JORDI DIAZ ALAMA, FLORIAN NICOLLE, EDISON ILAN, ALEX ANDREYEV

You can view magazines on our site: www.dontpostme.com

WE OFFER SPECIAL THANKS TO:

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Dima Rebus

Evgeny Kiselev

Daniel Castan

Carsten Witte

Jennifer Nehrbass

Alexander Semenov

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Michelangelo Pistoletto

Lars Focke

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SPRING COMES,

AND WE ARE GLAD TO INTRODUCE A MARCH’S ISSUE OF

DONTPOSTME MAGAZINE. IN THIS PUBLICATION

YOU CAN FIND AN ARTWORKS

OF THE RECOGNIZED PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS, WHO HAS WORKED OR HAS BEEN INSPIRED BY NYC: PHOTOGRAPHER

CARSTEN WITTE, WHO HAS TOLD

ABOUT NYC & HIS APPROACH TO ART;

PAINTER DANIEL CASTAN, WHO HAS SHOWED US HIS PERSONAL VISION OF “BIG APPLE” &

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO’S ARTICLE ABOUT THIRD PARADISE.

ALSO WE HAVE CONTINUED TO INTERVIEW POPULAR RUSSIAN ARTISTS AND A MOST

TALANTED ARTISTS FROM OVER THE WORLD. WE HOPE YOU FIND THIS ISSUE AN INTERESTING AND BE INSPIRED FOR SMTH MORE.

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTS US

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DONTPOSTME IS A MONTHLY ART-MAGAZINE ABOUT THE LATEST TRENDS OF CONTEMPORARY ART. A MAGAZINE HAS PUBLISHED ON ENGLISH WITHIN "ISSUU.COM" SITE. EVERY MONTH THE EDITORS HAS ACQUAINTED READERS WITH PHOTOGRAPHERS, PAINTERS AND ANOTHER KEY FIGURES OF CONTEMPORARY ART FROM OVER THE WORLD. EDITORS - IN - CHIEF: AZAMAT AKHMADBAEV & ZULYA KUMUKOVA (AZAMATAHMADBAEV@GMAIL.COM) EDITOR: ALIMA KUMUKOVA DESIGN: DONTPOSTME STUDIO ON A COVER: THE INTERNATIONALIST BY JENNIFER NEHRBASS (OIL ON CANVAS 38" X 30") ADVERTISING: NATALYA MARKOVA ADDONTPOSTME@GMAIL.COM NO PART OF THIS MAGAZINE CAN BE USED WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF “DONTPOSTME” ANY CONTENT OF THIS PUBLICATION (ILLUSTRATIONS, PHOTOS & OTHER TYPES OF MATERIALS) COPYRIGHTED BY RESPECTIVE OWNERS PUBLISHED: 29 MARCH 2013 FACEBOOK.COM/DONTPOSTME VK.COM/DONTPOSTME WWW.DONTPOSTME.COM ST.PETERSBURG

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SUM MER

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BRAZILIAN SUN EVGENY KISELEV

The style of an illustrator from Saint-Petersburg, Evgeny Kiselev, will entice the imagination of everyone who encounters with his works. Each series of illustrations is executed in an amazing and detailed technique, attracting the attention of the viewer. Multilayered and diversified illustrations have glorified Evgeny not only in Russia, but also abroad.

http://www.behance.net/ekiselev

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OVERVIEW

TOG PHOTOG PHOTOG PHOTOG PHOTOG PHOTOG

GRA GRAPHY GRAPHY GRAPHY GRAPHY GRAPHY

interview

CARSTEN WITTE MANHATTAN STRUCTURES &

NYC FRACTAL

Carsten Witte is probably one of the most influential fashion photographers of modernity. Each of his projects is unlike to another, but the author’s own specific style still remains in all of them. Experimenting with light, colors and the women’s body, Carsten creates an amazing beauty of the photos, which are often published in such worldknown magazines, as Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, GQ, Teaser, Stern, Spiegel, etc.

However, staying a fashion – experimenter, Carsten also willingly takes magnificent pictures of the architecture.

Recently there have appeared two unusually executed series of photographs of one of the most famous cities in the world – New York – in Witte’s portfolio. http://www.carstenwitte.com/

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PHOTOGRAPHY

DPM: To start with, how did you become a photographer? When did you decide to become an artist?

DPM: Could you tell me about your approach & philosophy in photography?

Carsten: A little by accident.

I intended to become a graphic designer before I made my first internship in an advertising agency.

My imagination how this job would be was completely wrong. I bought my first camera when I was 16 and became more and more interested in. So I turned my focus more on photography. I never decided to become an artist. I personally think that the audience tells you that you might be one. I just bring my thought, feelings and impressions to images. That’s it.

Carsten: My camera allows me to talk to the world around me, if I could sing, I would sing.

But I can see and have a broad imagination. My main themes are the beauty and its evanescence.

Photography allows me to capture certain moments and preserve them.

DPM: Could you please name the most important milestones of your job (f.e. exhibitions, galleries and etc.)?

Carsten: When I made my first DPM: Carsten, how did you come to job for Vogue, I thought it would be your personal original style in pho- a milestone. It wasn´t. It was tography? definitely a call from a gallerist about 10 years ago. She saw my Carsten: Surely, I have had work and decided it to be someinfluences. My first touch to thing special. photography was through the books of such writers as Ernst Haas, David DPM: When did you understand Hamilton and Helmut Newton. You that you have become a famous might think that you find these inphotographer? fluences in my work, which is okay.

But I try to put my personal pasCarsten: I don´t consider sions and ideals into each series. myself being famous. But moments And my interest range is wide. when art students send me their That’s why I vary my topics, from work and want my thought about it, landscapes, architecture and floras or when they write about my work to beauty, nude and fashion photog- and tell me they´ve been raphy. influenced by me, this tells me that I have done something right.

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“MY ALL TO T THE AROUND M

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Y CAMERA LOWS ME TALK TO E WORLD ME”

DPM: Where do you prefer to which changes every hour. And snapshot: in studio or outdoors? the surfaces don’t allow a look inside ,but a new angle of the Carsten: (smiling) I just opposite. snapshot my family... I do like DPM: My next questions touch both, but since I am based in your personal attitude to conHamburg, I have to shoot a lot temporary art and, in particular, in the studio. to photography.

DPM: I’d like you to comment Is there anything that attracts on your latest projects. Please, and maybe inspires you in contell me about the projects NYC temporary art? What is it, if Fractal and Manhattan Strucyes? tures? What did you inspire to create these amazing projects? Carsten: My personal interest is the focus on photography. But Carsten: I guess I was I certainly love the mix with influenced from my first stay other media, especially when as a student in NYC. And I love artist work together. I already have worked with several selective views. Being a few painters as well as with film ditimes to New York now, I am still thrills by the different look, rectors and editors.

PHOTOGRAPHY

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DPM: What's your attitude to the contemporary art? Could you define a place for photography in art?

DPM: Carsten, what’s your prognosis on the development of photography in closer future?

Carsten: This is a though topic.

I think the importance of photography in art is growing, but I think we need a new generation of art critics and gallerists who start thinking about art as a whole. Not separating between painting, sculpturing, video, performance, music or photography.

It will surely change a lot. Photography will start moving in the true meaning. Technical quality will raise and artist will have to learn to use these in the sense of enhancing their message. But no matter if you go back to analogue or use the latest technologies, it’s still all about: What do you have to say?

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DPM: Could you please name some key figures in modern photography?

Carsten: I don´t want to name individuals. There are great talents around, but just the future will tell if they have a constant high performance of if they are one hit wonders.

DPM: And the last questions are about Russia and Russian photography: Do you know anybody in modern photography or in other spheres of contemporary art from Russia?

PHOTOGRAPHY

Carsten: I am not good in names, but what I love about the Russian photography apart from the commercial editorials is their roughness and sensuality in one breath.

DPM: Carsten, are you looking forward to visiting Russia?

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Carsten: If anyone invites me, I’ll go there tomorrow! I am still not represented as an artist in Russia.

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interview

ALEXANDER SEMENOV

The photos of our compatriot Alexander Semenov have recently appeared on famous web sites and in various blogs in the list of the best. And it is not surprising that his photos, devoted to the flora and fauna of the White Sea, astonish the audience.

Semenov shows us the diverse world, that couldn’t be hitherto seen. It is the world, where marine animals seem to us quite an unusual way.

http://clione.ru/

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DPM: How does your team treat your second job?

DPM: Alexander, how did you begin to take photographs of the underwater inhabitants? Was it a deliberate decision or did it start spontaneously?

Alexander: In fact, I came to it accidentally, but it coincided many different factors, due to which I succeeded. The thing is that I didn’t have a camera up to the fifth year of the University, and I was professionally engaged in three – dimensional graphics, while I wanted to settle in some steep studio and to spend every day of my life creating special effects for movies and advertising after my graduation. But things went a little wrong, and I was given an old SLR camera as a present. Suddenly I realized that you can get a picture by pushing a button, and it takes just a second of your time, but it would take a fortnight to create the same picture in three-dimensional graphics.

On a certain coincidence I settled on the White Sea bio station for a year and began to work there as a laboratory assistant. I took my SLR with me. As far as my work at the station implied help to the senior divers in underwater works, I dived down quite often, and saw this entire unbelievable world with my own eyes.

Alexander: They humbled. They are sometimes kidding me not to let me become presumptuous, but they do also rejoice in my success from time to time. It’s rather interesting to watch the photographs I take while diving. For example, we spent two years looking for the most different animals, which I then photographed for a thick book about the flora and fauna of the White Sea, which was made by the forces of our biological research station. Honestly, I can do little without my team. Diving is a collective work, you even need a belayer, who wears the divers in the boat and drives the motor boat, and you should trust him 146%. You also need a workmate, who helps you, but doesn’t interfere with your shooting, indeed it’s safer to dive together. It’s incredibly pleasant to work with sensible people, and it’s simply dangerous to work with the stupid ones.

We’ve got a perfect team, as for me.

I’m ready to go diving with them even on the edge of the world.

DPM: How long have you been at the White Sea? Alexander: In general, we have the bulk of the work from the middle of May or the beginning of June till the end of September. During this period we all stay at the bio station, leaving it seldom on some business of our own and expeditions. Sometimes we also gather together in April and organize expeditions on under-ice diving for a fortnight. I also celebrate New Year there. To sum up, I spend there about 4-5 months per year.

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PHOTOGRAPHY

“WHEN Y PH TAKES YO SO TH YOUR EYE THAT THE GOAL HA DPM: What’s the most important in photography for you?

Alexander: It’s important that the photo is somewhere on the limit of perception. It can be either a photograph of a worm, covered with some jaws and antennas, taken in a laboratory, or of the penguins jumping out from under the water somewhere in Antarctica, taken in hellishly difficult conditions. I mean the one that was made by Paul Nicklen. It can even be a photo of a medusa, which nobody as ever seen before, but I managed to photograph it, using a deep-controlled apparatus with cameras on its surface, and it was a total delight!

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YOU LOOK AT SOME HOTOGRAPH, AND IT OUR BREATH AWAY, HAT YOU CAN’T TAKE ES OFF IT, IT MEANS E PHOTOGRAPHER‘S AS BEEN ACHIEVED”

PHOTOGRAPHY

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When you look at some photograph, and it takes your breath away, so that you can’t take your eyes off it, it means that the photographer‘s goal has been achieved. I spent much time trying to find the most wonderful photographs among the winners of all sorts of cool contests of natural and underwater photography, I communicated with the editors of various steep magazines, analyzed their words in order to understand what they value in photography, and I finally I decided to go my own way and to become photographing the most unusual fauna, that can be found in the underwater world. It was

rather necessary for me to make these photographs extremely realistic, so that they could be easily inserted in textbooks. So, if it’s a general view of an animal, there should be visible everything that is needed: muscles, eyes, short moustache, feelers, tubes – all the details.

I don’t consider myself to be an art photographer, as I try to make a sort of scientific photography – I photograph the way the animals behave and grow, eat, hunt, couple.

Supervisions of a naturalist of the XXI Century.

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For the underwater shooting all It’s cool, when such photographs are not only realistic, but also beauti- this is packed in a tight metal boxing ful, bright and vivid. I share some of of Subal, the port for a corresponding lens is fasten in front, and the them in the Internet. underwater flashes Inon Z-240 stick out in different directions on each DPM: What cameras and additional side of the box. equipment do you use while shooting?

In a laboratory I still use a special Alexander: My first SLR was macro lense Canon MP-E 65mm.

Canon 400D, but now I mostly use But, actually, recently I’ve tried to shoot with a new Nikon D800e, and Canon 5D Mark IIwith two favorite lenses – Zeiss 21mm/f2.8 and Canon now I seriously deliberate to start 100mm/f2.8L macro, but I’ve also using it, as I was rather cool got a large amount of other lenses – fish-eye, macro, zoom, etc.

PHOTOGRAPHY

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DPM: What do you prefer: digital or analog photography?

AIexander: I don't work with anybody at a constant basis, except our biological research station. SomeAlexander: Of course, digital. times I receive letters from different Both underwater and laboratory magazines and newspapers, and they shooting, with quick and sometimes ask me to write an article or to send hyper active crustaceans and worms, them a photograph with some comrequires some incredible number of ments. Recently I’ve even got an shots, from which them at least one offer from the Discovery channel and normal will be selected. I can spend RedBull Media House (what do they 2-3 hours shooting a semi-centimet- need me for?!), but I don’t know ric fish in an aquarium, then get 300- what to tell them, to be honest.

500 shots and find out, that only 2 Among the magazines and sites I’m or 3 of them a good enough. It’s sim- proud of there are Popular Science, ply unreal to do the same using a Nature, Scientific American, National film. Furthermore, the quality of digi- Geographic, Russian and Italian MB! tal cameras is already very high.

Magazine, Wired.com, TIME.com, etc. Nature and Popular Science surDPM: When did you realize that prised me, having included my works you’ve become a famous photograin the list of the most significant phopher? tos of 2012. I was stunned a little, being in the same row with photos of Alexander: I realized it when I Felix, jumping from the stratosphere, received a letter from the Apple images of a mars rover of Curiosity Company, and they were asking me and other global pictures. It was rein it for a permission to use some of ally weird to find there the photomy photos. Or maybe it had hapgraphs of a worm, taken by me! pened when I was checking my mailbox one morning, and found there DPM: What are you preparing for us hundreds of new letters, because one in the nearest future? of my galleries was posted on the behance.net.

Alexander: I hope I’ll finally publish a book. I really want to make it, Anyway, I think I can be famous and I’ve had this idea for a long peand known only in narrow circles. As riod of time, but I never have enough for Johnny Depp, he’s famous, but time for it. Or maybe I’m not assidumy name is familiar only to those ous enough. Anyway, I eager to pubwho are interested in the underwater lish it by 2014. world or who has casually read an interview or an article about me. And Well, I’ll also take a lot of new photos, and they’ll appear in such soit is fine, by the way. cial networks, as livejournal, beDPM: What magazines do you work hance, my own web-site and for with? certain somewhere else.

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PHOTOGRAPHY

interview

LARS FOCKE Larsemann Hills

Lars Focke is an extremely talented freelance UX designer in the ecommerce industry from Hamburg. His shots reflect not only the richness of the architecture of German cities, but also the charming beauty of polar landscapes.

The series of photos, taken by Lars in Antarctica, where a man is not a frequent visitor, has attracted our attention, for each photograph is a small report about nature, animals and those brave who have enough courage to visit the South pole.

http://larsfocke.de

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DPM: To start with, Lars, how did you become a photographer?

A friend of mine is a travel photographer and looking for perfectly exposed pictures as you can find on glossy postcards. I prefer rather mysterious images with a lot of fog and architectural shapes in lonely or isolated mood - the connection between nature and technology from another world.

Lars: One of my friends asked me, if I would like to be a part of a documentation team for the Antarctic expedition "XXIII/9" onboard the research vessel "Polarstern" and shoot photos for press and media DPM: Where do you prefer to phopublications. tograph: in cities or in the countryside?

Until then I had little to do with Lars: I totally love to be out in photography and was more focused on web design and programming. the fields shooting landscapes in the Three months and hundreds of pho- early morning. Cities also have such tos later I realized that going on kind of fascination when they are still learning photography would be just asleep and you go out in search of ingreat, so I bought first several analog teresting architecture in cloudy cameras to begin some serious prac- weather alone with your equipment. tices with manual exposure.

DPM: Could you please tell me a litI found it very important at the tle about the projects ‘Larsemann time, because I had no idea how Hills’? How did you create it? camera technology actually works.

Lars: This compilation features Two years ago, I bought myself a digital SLR camera with a good zoom some of the images I shot during the lens and stick with that equipment expedition to Antarctica. The "Larsemann Hills" are a fascinating almost exclusively. area in the rocky land and were atDPM: Lars, was it difficult for you to tended by scientists for geological find your own personal style in pho- studies. Two helicopters flew us a tography or did it just happen on a few miles to different places. hunch?

It was a very special day, beLars: When I bought my first cause apparently no one has ever cameras, I spent most of my leisure entered these lands before. A sea time with photography and accumu- bird came across to stand right in lated a lot of inspiration. I found front of me looking curiously in my something very fascinating in unusual face. I was probably the first human landscapes and low contrast Po- he has ever encountered. I have never visited such a silent and laroids. peaceful place again.

PHOTOGRAPHY

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DPM: Lars, what will happen in phoDPM: And the last question is our tratography in closer future in your opin- ditional one: are you looking forward ion? to visiting Russia?

Lars: Increasingly easy-to-use cameras and intuitive apps for image processing help people to take great snapshots. At the time I worked with analog cameras and Polaroids I didn´t like tools like Instagram filters or "iPhonography" at all. But I think that you should be open to new things and think of technical innovations as enrichment.

However it is the most important thing not to forget that amazing images can´t be simply made by technology, but only by special moments and the practiced eye.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lars: Yes, there are certainly many places in Russia which could be very interesting for new photographic projects.

Right away I can think of the vast cold wilderness or maybe some special architecture like the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. I don`t know how many of such post modern futuristic buildings in Russia actually exist, but I would love to get one opportunity to search them.

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Anyway It would be great to meet all you open minded people in St. Petersburg or Moscow and get to know your art and music scene.

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interview-blitz

DIMA REBUS

http://500px.com/jeko

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Dima Rebus Hi. To start with, I’d like to tell you a few words about myself.

My name is Dima Rebus and I was born in 1988. I’ve been drawing since I was a child, and from the very beginning I knew that I’d dedicate myself to art. Once I was walking down the street drinking my favorite drink, vodka, when suddenly a large red bear came up to me and told me to become an aquarellist. Since that day I’ve been drawing using only an aquarelle and stammering all the time.

DPM: The first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the notion of contemporary art.

Dima: The very first thing is ‘The Green Elephant’, a Russian art-house film directed by Svetlana Baskova, which has recently become extremely popular.

DPM: Who, in your opinion, has changed the attitude of the society to the art of today?

Dima: It is definitely Max Power.

DPM: What character trait is necessary for a creative person to become a successful Illustrator/artist?

Dima: The adequacy of the perception multiplied by a crazy fantasy equals to a normal illustrator.

DPM: Who has influenced your style mostly?

Dima: It was surely Master Splinter from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

But if to be serious, I think I have no style.

DPM: Where would you prefer to see your works: at MOMA in New York, Saatchi Gallery in London or in Moscow, in the Garage?

Dima: Most of all I want to see my works in paper, and all the other things are not that important.

DPM: Can you give your assessment of what is happening in the art of today on a five-point scale?

Dima: 5+, like at all times.

DPM: What are your favorite blogs and web-sites about art?

Dima: I don’t visit such web-sites. As for the inspiring pictures, they’ll find you themselves. But I sometimes visit behance and some other art resources.

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story/biography

DANIEL CASTAN

Daniel Castan is among the most prominent contemporary urban artists. His works are established not only in galleries of his native France, but also abroad. A large number of his works is dedicated to New-York city, which has recently become quite popular in the pages of our magazine.

The DPM magazine publishes an excerpt from the book, devoted to the life and work of Daniel Castan. http://www.danielcastan.com/

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ravishes the canvas, the joy of the unknown buyer as he grasps the painting. My words shall never be on a par with my knife slashes.

“To speak about my painting…

I am proud today, proud to show you this catalogue, for which I prepared the photographs, the layout and the dummy issue. What you hold in your hands is Daniel Castan, who in his own words, without cheating and with no false modesty, unveils his story, the beginning of a “lovely dream”.

It is like asking a goldfish why he swims. He swims simply because he does not know how to do anything else. We can marvel at the spectacle Early days or find it a sad triviality.

The fish does not care. The only Every morning, facing the mirror thing he asks is that no one comes to on the bathroom wall, I wonder remove him from the water.” whether or not to shave. Radio twaddle sweetens the dregs of an aimless I have on numerous occasions been asked about a brochure relating morning. Forty years, with its inescapable introspection, questions to my work. I have always answered that flit within this heavy that the brochure was pending but not finalized yet. The point is that it awakening. Stupid questions deserve was difficult to find someone to write no answers, but are there any? Why either a biographical sketch or a de- this yearning for change, this overall feeling of ‘‘to hell with it’? Fed-up scription of my work. How many biclients always in a hurry, always askographies of painter friends have I not read and usually found cluttered ing for more, never satisfied, work with unnecessary verbiage that rather constantly late. A ‘thank you’ from spoiled the text for me? I was neither time to time would not come amiss, but the expression has dropped out ready nor willing to write in such a vein and I even wondered if it would of fashion, more’s the pity.

And why did I finish the Beaux not be easier to entrust the writing to Arts, if not to create more – even a journalist or to a friend with a though I knew the main part of the lighter pen than mine. But I quickly job lies in finding new contracts, abandoned this easy way out. For draining work towards the office, enwho better than I could describe my suring payment of salaries, keeping travails, my feelings whilst working, the works running. could evoke the painter’s knife as it

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CONTEMPORARY ART

One day a printer asked me if I could step in: finalizing a dummy layout for Georges Rourdneff, the painter.

I remember contemplating it for hours, so beautiful I didn’t have words strong enough to express my feelings when discovering his work on the computer screen. Just beautiful.

sively comes alive. I shout my impatience when doubt makes my hand falter, the knife escapes me, splatters the floor, but I do not stop.

Another knife awaits me, the paints on the palette also, as does the smear on the floor.

Then, in friend Gérard’s gallery, How long does it take you a meeting with painter Pierre to finish a canvas ?

Doutreleau and his ravishing muse. It was then that I knew I wanted to be A 100-metre run takes a few an artist, that I wanted to live my seconds, a song lasts two or three dreams. minutes, you read a book in an afternoon and a movie occupies a couple of hours. But does one realize how The big question: paint- long it took the athlete to prepare, brush, or knife. how many words the author had to scribble to give birth to a sweet melody, how many takes the operaThe answer may appear odd, tor had to shoot before uttering the but is purely pragmatic: cleaning paintbrushes is a pain in the neck, a final ‘OK’? paper towel suffices to clean a knife.

I paint five or six hours a day I found out later that that the choice whether ‘’inspiration’’ is present or of instrument was not random. No randomness in life: choices and deci- not. I may sometimes lose the yen to paint and would prefer to do nothing, sions are forced upon you. A knife but I keep up with work discipline, to works fast. I hate waiting, I have no patience; I want it all and if possible keep this precious inspiration at the all at once. It had to be the knife. It tip of my knives. Unknown magic then carries my gestures and fills was a wise choice, leaving no space them to produce a wonderful canvas for doubt. I paint fast, the knife as within a few minutes. In order to an extension of my hand. Size the enjoy these exceptional moments, to blank canvas for a brief moment, feel inspiration flooding my gestures then cover it fast, set shadow and once again, I must, every day, stand light, contrasts; no pause, keep the movement going. One hand unscrews in front of my easel. I like to know that inspiration plays with me, prowlthe tube, the other lets itself be guided by the knife. Paint covers the ing sneakily in my study; the wench, strong in her power of seduction, canvas in a few minutes – not easy feeds my desire to paint and ensures for the onlooker to understand – my daily attendance in front of the then I add material, the paint thickens, the canvas quickly and progres- canvas.

CONTEMPORARY ART

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Selected paintings from “NYC”,“Brooklyn”, “Manhattan” series.

Do you think about your work before you start painting ?

I am not an introspective painter, I don’t cogitate before I undertake a canvas. I believe it is important to master technique before one utters and I am convinced that my work and technique shall lead me inexorably to a more personal world. I see the need, however, to work with paint every day, to familiarize myself with my tools, to master the nuances obtained from the colors on my palette.

Someday – soon, I hope – I shall reach a deeper way of painting. A small child cannot express in words what it feels deep down inside, what it would like to share with its mother, simply because the child does not master language …

As regards painting, I still feel like that small child

Do you paint on the spot or after photographs ?

In the course of my numerous trips to New-York, I was lucky enough to sympathize with Manhattan’s cops. So now, when I set up my easel in the middle of Times Square, they stop the traffic to let me paint according to my whim! If only ‘twere so! But it shall happen, a dream come true. My New-York is a revisited landscape.

photographs. But canvas after canvas, soaked as I have been daily by images of Brooklyn, Times Square, Radio City etc … I have produced more personal views of New-York straight out of my imagination.

Nowadays I concentrate on light and perspective, hiding all irrelevant detail. I then add lots of paint, to be handled like sculpture, as work quickly comes alive. I enjoy the stress in order to express the concrete idea I may have of the completed painting, paint faster than thought, let the painter rather than the individual achieve his work and only then sign my name to the canvas.

Your art appears to draw you towards a more abstract universe ?

If such is the case, I can tell you it is not purposely. Nothing is preordained in my painting. Once again: I do not think, I paint and, canvas after canvas, I feel that painting invests me and drives me to the places it has chosen. Paradoxically, as I attempt to master my technique, I master my painting less and less.

Sometimes, when looking at a completed canvas, I get a strange feeling that it was not painted by me.

Over the ten years or so that I have been working on urban themes, especially Manhattan, I’ve resorted to CONTEMPORARY ART

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Shall I someday be an abstract painter …. Painting will tell.

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interview

JENNIFER NEHRBASS

Surrealistic paintings, created by Jennifer Nehrbass, border between the present and the past. In fact, they are the reflection of the reality we live in. Looking as the collage of memories, they open up the non-standard magic of forbidden desires and feelings of the viewer. They confuse the viewer’s attention and don’t leave his mind even when his eyes are not attached to them anymore. http://www.jennifernehrbass.com/

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DPM: Jennifer, could you please name the most important milestones of your job (f.e. exhibitions, galleries and etc.)?

Jennifer: With Brunnhofer Gallery I had a solo show at Pulse Miami last December.

DPM: To start with, how did you become an artist? Was it difficult for you?

DPM: And could you comment on the way you create your projects? Where do you usually paint?

Jennifer: I think one is born with the creative focus. Sometimes it takes year to manifest that creativity. I spent years designing for Ralph Lauren before I decided to pursue painting. It was a difficult transition to leave a high paying job to the uncertainty of the life as a painter.

Jennifer: I work from collage. I take photos of the people I will use in my paintings and create the basis for my painting through the Photoshop and collage. Lately I am using the computer less and cut and paste more to create the layouts for my paintings. I have a studio next to my house which allows me to work throughout the DPM: How did you come to your per- day, which is helpful when you have sonal and original style in art? children.

Jennifer: My paintings are mix of styles which speak to the language of paint. The photorealistic aspect occurs primarily with the figures in the painting. I choose to have them painted this way to represent the physicality of being alive. We can pinch our skin and know we are physically here. The physical aspect to life is tangible. To contradict the tangible I place figures within abstract areas that refer to the thoughts desires, dreams and perceptions of life.

The viewing of my work is meant to be a push and pull exercise between these differing painting styles.

DPM: What do you want to show to your audience? And how do you find the theme for every artwork?

Jennifer: I would like to show viewers that life is a drama and were are just mere actors. Sometimes its internal sometimes it’s communal.

DPM: Is there anything that attracts and maybe inspires you in life?

What is it, if yes?

Jennifer: The mountain ranges in Colorado are always inspiring as well as seeing an amazing opera set at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

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CONTEMPORARY ART

DPM: Could you name a person who inspires and astonishes you in art the most?

Jennifer: A recent trip to Miami where I saw Zhu Jinshi Power and Country (权力与江山), 2007-2010 (Oil on canvas Triptych, each: 331 x 197 in. (840 x 500 cm)

Pandora makes the mix more interesting.

DPM: And our traditional question: Jennifer, are you looking forward to visiting Russia? And what gallery or museum would you visit in Moscow or Saint Petersburg if there are any?

Jennifer: I would love to travel to DPM: What kind of music do you like Russia, especially St. Petersburg and of course Moscow. A comprehensive to listen during painting? trip would include Hermitage and the Jennifer: I have been listening to palaces throughout St. Petersburg, "The National" and "Explosions in the but areas of Moscow like the Garage Contemporary Arts Center Venue Sky" but this changes frequently. and Winzavod Gallery. on previous pages: One Thousand Sofias (Oil on canvas 7' x 5') on this page: Queen of California (Oil on canvas 50" x 40")

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Delilah y Delilah (Oil on canvas 53" x 40")

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Last Run of the Colorado (Oil on canvas 65" x 53")

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MANIF

FESTO

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO manifesto

Michelangelo Pistoletto is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera. http://www.pistoletto.it/ http://www.pistoletto.it/eng/testi/the_third_paradise.pdf

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The Third Paradise (2003 - 2012)

“What is the Third Paradise?”

It is the fusion between the first and second paradise. The first is the paradise in which humans were fully integrated into nature. The second is the artificial paradise, developed by humans through a process that has now reached globalizing proportions. This paradise is made of artificial needs, artificial products, artificial comforts, artificial pleasures, and every other form of artifice. Humankind has formed a real artificial world that gives rise, in an exponential manner and in parallel with its beneficial effects, to irreversible processes of decline on a planetary scale. The danger of a tragic collision between the natural sphere and artificial has been announced in every way.

1 The idea of the Third Paradise is to lead artifice—that is, science, technology, art, culture and political life—back to the Earth, while engaging in the reestablishment of common principles and ethical behavior, for on these the actual success of the project depends.

The Third Paradise is the passage to a new level of planetary civilization, essential to ensure the human race's survival. The Third Paradise is the new myth that leads everyone to take personal responsibility at this momentous juncture. The Third Paradise is symbolically represented by a reconfiguration of the mathematical infinity sign. In the “New Infinity Sign” three circles are drawn: the two opposite circles signify nature and artifice; the middle one is the conjunction of the two and represents the generative womb of the Third Paradise.”

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MANIFESTO

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