Modern Pushkin in the paintings of Alexey Sergienko. Alexey Sergienko - redneck in Koktebel You play sports every day

What would Pushkin do if he lived in our time? This question was asked by the artist Alexey Sergienko. What topics would Alexander Sergeevich write poetry on? Perhaps he would have been fascinated by music, he would have attended fashionable parties... Would he have loved Matisse? Would he go on holiday to Crimea today? Would you belong to liberals or conservatives?

The answers to all these questions can be found in the series of works “The New Pushkin”, which was shown in St. Petersburg in the gallery of the artist himself.

“Pushkin lived a very interesting life,” says Alexey Sergienko. - I think in modern world he would also lead an active lifestyle - play sports, attend international festivals, go to the cinema, cafes and, of course, read poetry.”

The idea to depict on canvas the sun of Russian poetry - Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - came to Alexei Sergienko two years ago. The artist painted several portraits, but was dissatisfied with the work.

“I decided that simply redrawing someone’s portraits was a pointless exercise, and as a result I had the idea to paint Pushkin as if he lived in our time.”

The artist came up with ten modern scenes, where he placed the poet. In the paintings, Pushkin walks along the Moika embankment with Mikhail Boyarsky, receives an award from the president in the Kremlin, removes fallen leaves in the Summer Garden with the governor of St. Petersburg, visits the Hermitage, rides a moped, relaxes at sea with a beautiful companion, and even stands at the DJ console.

In some paintings, the poet is depicted in the company of a long-haired beauty. According to the artist, it would be strange to depict Pushkin without women.

A special guest at the opening of the exhibition was People’s Artist of Russia Mikhail Boyarsky, who took part in the “picture come to life” performance along with Pushkin’s double and two French bulldogs.

“First of all, Pushkin interests me as a person,” says Alexey Sergienko. – Everyone knows his poems, but few people know what kind of person Pushkin was. He was very eccentric: he lived interestingly, led healthy image life - bathed all year round, walked all day with a heavy iron cane. Many contemporaries could not even lift such a cane, it’s like a barbell!”

Alexey plans to continue the series of paintings about the poet. Perhaps next year the exhibition will be presented in the museum-apartment of Alexander Sergeevich on Moika, 12.

“So far I have no new developments, but I have thoughts on this matter,” shares the artist. – For example, why shouldn’t Pushkin sail on a ship or fly on a plane? Mikhail Boyarsky said that what is wrong in my picture is that Putin rewards Pushkin. It should be the other way around, Pushkin is older. Maybe I’ll use this plot for a new work.”

The President allowed

The artist admits that the most difficult stage in his work was coming up with small details for the paintings. So, when creating a story with Urgant, Alexey placed the presenter on the table Easter Egg with the image of the president, and in the picture in which Boyarsky is walking with Pushkin, he added two dogs.

Before depicting famous personalities, Sergienko decided to secure their consent. It took two months to get the picture approved by Mikhail Boyarsky.

“Boyarsky liked the idea itself, but he didn’t want me to draw dogs,” says Alexey. “The Moika embankment is constantly sprinkled with salt, and it is impossible to walk there with pets.”

In the end, the consent of the country's most famous musketeer was obtained.

The artist sent a request to Ivan Urgant using all publicly available coordinates, but never received a response from the TV presenter. Alexey decided: silence is a sign of consent, and portrayed Pushkin as a guest in Ivan Urgant’s show. Alexey asked the president for approval even earlier, when he made chocolate medals with the image of Putin.

The presidential administration approved the artist's letter. But Alexey did not ask permission from the governor of St. Petersburg: he decided that this would take a lot of time.

“I thought that Georgy Poltavchenko would like a picture with his participation,” says the artist. “Both of them, Poltavchenko and Pushkin, love St. Petersburg and therefore in the picture they are removing fallen leaves together.”

Alexey Sergienko

Many St. Petersburg artists came to know and love the new art gallery “Apartment of Alexei Sergienko.” Exhibitions replace one another every two weeks, there are no signs on the street that this is a gallery, the door is always closed, and sometimes a very hectic life is in full swing inside the gallery. Guests huddled together around salad bowls with raw carrots and celery, and intoxication comes more from socializing than from consuming strong drinks. Celery stalks make a particularly strong impression; the bohemian public sometimes discovers for the first time this glorious product, which, when digested, absorbs more calories than it gives off. Celery and carrots were introduced into the circulation of the St. Petersburg crowd by gallery owner Alexey Sergienko, and his vegetarian style can be easily explained, because Alexey does yoga. Who recently discovered that he himself is an artist. Now in the gallery you can see 60 paintings painted by Alexey.

Alexey, when did it become clear that you were a real artist?

For a long time. My first exhibition was at the Russian Museum when I was still in 6th grade. I was studying at an art school, and the teacher took my dog and other clay things that I sculpted from me and took them to the exhibition children's creativity to the Russian Museum, they were taken and exhibited.

Perhaps you come from a creative family?

Mom is an economist, dad was a teacher, a school director. Ancestors are St. Petersburg residents for 8 generations, the great-grandfather headed the St. Petersburg gendarmerie and was a four-time holder of the St. George Cross, by the way, he was one of the shareholders of the Kuznetsov porcelain factory, then this factory became the Proletary factory. And I liked to draw and play sports, diving and gymnastics. I entered the Herzen Institute, then there was the army, where I painted a lot.

What kind of army is so wonderful?

I served in the Arctic Circle, there were 6 of us at the outpost, the winter was long, and we were all involved in art. I was drawing. portraits of colleagues, sculpted all sorts of things. My ashtrays were popular; border guards with dogs were sitting around the saucer. Then I painted the wall with fairy tales, wove a macrame curtain with Christmas trees, dogs, and border guards. I found an old anchor rope in a warehouse, unraveled it and made a curtain. He wove bags.

Amazing!

Then I went to the Proletary plant as a porcelain artist, a year later I had my own workshop, and two workshops later for the production of mugs and teapots. Then I created the St. Petersburg Artists Support Center. This year, by the way, we turn 20 years old. This Center, by the way, employs 8 thousand participants, those who sell souvenirs, and about 20 thousand more people spin around, creating and delivering these souvenirs.

When did your yogic epic begin?

Yoga started in 2000, I realized that I was living wrong. I’ve become fat, I’m sick, and I don’t like my job. I was a people's deputy then. Being a deputy brought me to all this. I was a deputy in Pushkin for two convocations, was an assistant in the State Duma to Shevchenko, then to Me Jr.. I joked then: “I am my assistant.” Then I got tired of everything, I realized that I didn’t want to get up on an alarm clock, wear a suit, I didn’t like the huge responsibility for everything that happens, and I switched to creativity and sports. I did yoga without teachers, from books, went to seminars, went to see teachers, and ended up doing it on my own. Yoga is our gymnastics, it has a lot in common: bending over, handstands. In yoga 4 thousand years ago this was all. What I do, I call yoga with a “y”.

What brought me to yoga was disappointment in the wrong course. Then I thought about what happiness is. I realized that the only goal in life is to achieve happiness. Someone says that they want money, or to take a position, so that there is respect. This is all nonsense. And I came to the conclusion that I want to do other things - creativity and sports.

How did you come to your gallery?

The gallery opened two and a half years ago. We were looking for an apartment for a gallery; we wanted to find an apartment with historical roots. We were offered several. We chose. In the end we stopped at this one, on Kazanskaya Street. Wilhelm Poehl lived here, I read a lot about him. Pel was born into the family of a shoemaker, and became one of the most successful businessmen in the country. He had 360 pharmacies throughout Russia, he had pharmacies in both Chechnya and Poland. Of the medicines he sold, he produced 20-30 of them himself, and, moreover, he invented them himself. Some have become prototypes of what is sold in the pharmacy chain today. For example, he invented the medicine “spermine”, now it is called Viagra. He built this house and lived here himself, he had a joint stock company, and he and his employees lived here, he had an office downstairs, to put it in modern language...

-That is, such a corporate house.

Yes. He treated the empress. In addition, he was an alchemist and philosopher. He did not invent the elixir of happiness and did not make recipes for obtaining gold, he went straight, he invented the formula for happiness. Using scientific methods, he selected a formula for life, made him count something and told him what to do.

They say yes. But his calculations were lost. I really liked all this, I wanted to become the owner of this particular apartment where Pel himself lived with his family. We moved into an 11-room apartment; 80 people lived here. Then the money ran out, I rented out this apartment, saved up for renovations and design. It took about 5 years to do this. I wanted to have a gallery on my property so that I could walk around in it in slippers and drink tea at home. But I don’t like offices, the atmosphere there is such that you have to run somewhere and do something.

What was your first exhibition?

We exhibited works by Kingo-Kingo artists from Africa, about 100 works were brought from Tanzania. They bought and sold everything there, made 1000 mugs with drawings of Africans. Then there were exhibitions after trips to holy places. Every year we travel with artists from the Union of Artists and the Academy of Arts, I pay for accommodation, food, travel, and give two canvases. Then these works go into the catalogue, we make exhibitions at the Spiritual and Educational Center in the Lavra, in the Manege at the exhibition “Holy Rus'”, in the Federation Union here, in the Union of Artists. Another direction of the gallery’s activities is that I work with a collection of found paintings. Someone collected it, then got tired of it and decided to throw it away or donate it. Recently they gave me 150 paintings of landscapes of our city. It’s difficult to sell them at a high price, we restore them, and then sell them at cheap prices - 7,000, 100 rubles, and they all sell out. We recently opened a 400 meter gallery in Ozerki together with Alexey Lushnikov and Igor Yanovsky. They haven't bought anything yet. But this is normal, the gallery starts selling in a year or two.

Has your gallery on Kazanskaya already begun to bear fruit?

Gazprom bought our works very well, the Culture Committee supports our projects.

Back in the summer you had a bright exhibition dedicated to Tsoi. Even Mitya Shagin drew Tsoi!

I created the Victor Tsoi Museum, and am collecting a collection of paintings by contemporary artists dedicated to Victor. We already have 22 works, Kirill Miller, Lubnin and many others promised to write to Tsoi. I own the Kamchatka boiler house, where the Tsoi Museum is located.

Yes, this is a great club! But today the club culture is on the decline, everyone complains that there are not enough visitors. To be honest, is Kamchatka unprofitable or profitable?

Here we are at zero. There are concerts there every day. The attendance record is 219 tickets.

But “Kamchatka” will exist forever! The museum arose in 1997, when I went to Kamchatka, it was flooded knee-deep, the house had just been turned off from heating and everyone was about to be evicted. I was surprised, because Russian rock was born here! We went to the director of KUGI, to the head of the district, and they heard us, supported us, and rented us out. They tried to close Kamchatka three or four times, once everything was very serious. They carried out partial reconstruction and started resettlement. And Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko supported us, she drove up on a bus, told the investor: “Don’t touch Kamchatka,” and now we are protected by the law of St. Petersburg. We were included in the Red Book of St. Petersburg. Now Kamchatka is managed by the Youth Entrepreneurship Support Fund. The fund has two projects - one unprofitable with Kamchatka, the other profitable with souvenirs, overall we are going to zero, and we are happy with that. The foundation chipped in, made repairs, and Maryananas supported it. Maryana gave our museum Tsoi's guitar, a thermos from which he drank tea, a typewriter, records, and photographs.

Do you plan to expand the museum’s collection? Now we need to seize the moment while the veterans of Russian rock are still alive, then it will be too late...

I know one work by Timur Novikov. He painted a portrait of Viktor Tsoi. I am negotiating with Timur's daughter. This thing will be of interest to everyone. On June 21, Viktor Tsoi will turn 50, and we want to open a museum of Russian rock.

Here you are dealing with souvenirs. But there is a problem with souvenirs now; the city is flooded with Chinese nesting dolls with narrow eyes, which gullible tourists take away as a memory of Russia.

If the government does not start supporting domestic souvenir products, then they may die. We pay as if we were selling vodka on Nevsky. This is nonsense. If things continue like this, there will be no Russian souvenirs left.

Tell us about your exhibition. Here you are depicted everywhere in yogic poses in different parts of the planet.

I drew from photographs. I was on Mount Monserat, the highest mountain in Spain. And there I stood on my head. Here I am on the head in Pskov, here at Art Moscow, in the Vatican in Rome. We got there, and there was a line for an hour and a half. Just standing is boring, I stood on my head, passed the time and brought health benefits. Here is Brussels, all my friends rushed to the shops, spent 4 hours shopping, but I’m not interested in it, I did yoga for all 4 hours. Please note that only I can stand on my head like this, without support from my hands.

I heard that you big family.

Yes, I am the father of 6 children, the youngest is one and a half years old, the eldest child is 13 years old.

How do you manage to combine children and activities?

The children run nearby, with my activities I already participate in their screaming, they see that dad doesn’t drink or smoke. My activities influence them in the right way. I do yoga every day, and morning exercises are mandatory. Although it doesn’t matter what time of day or where you do the exercises. I don’t recognize any exercise equipment; the best exercise machine is your muscles. By the way, I recently took part in competitions on Nevsky Prospekt in hand running and head standing, and took 2nd and 3rd place, beating participants who were 16-18 years old. I am 42 years old, and I took decent places; I was ahead of a young guy who works in a circus. In my opinion, this is a good result and an example for my children. My children draw, play sports, and go with me to the monastery every time.

Do you teach your children about business?

I taught my eldest son to make magnets from plaster, he makes them, paints them, and sells them in Pushkin. That is, a complete closed cycle. His earnings record is 6,000 rubles a day.

If I hadn’t been distracted, I could have earned 100,000 a month. I give the children tourist cards, they cost a ruble, on sale for 10. But the children are not interested in money, they earned money for ice cream and are happy. In general, I believe that boys should work from childhood.

What about the girls?

Girls dance. And everyone should be able to stand on their head using their hands.

This is your theory of raising children, but what about the theory of happiness?

I came to the theory of happiness from the side of logic. You need to take a notepad and write down everything that happens down to the smallest detail. Then analyze what you liked and what you didn’t.

After a week, draw conclusions: I don’t like this in life, I like this. And then you need to do only what you like...

Putin with a chicken, Putin with a child, Putin with a calf and simply with tears in his eyes. This is how St. Petersburg artist Alexey Sergienko depicted the prime minister, and soon the president. There are a total of twelve paintings in the exhibition, called “A Man of the Kindest Soul.” Whether it was cheerful banter or a well-thought-out challenge to the Kremlin, the Izvestia correspondent was told by the author of the paintings himself.

- Andrey, why Putin? And how did the idea come about to portray the newly elected president as so tender and sentimental?

- Where did the elk calf, the dog, the chicken and other characters in the portraits come from?

Some paintings are based on real photographs, for example, where Putin is with a chicken - this photo was taken during a visit to a poultry farm. Same with the elk calf real situation from his life. But the portrait on the bicycle is already my fantasy, just like with the cake and with the girl.

- Aren’t you afraid of a negative reaction to your work?

No, everyone reacts very positively, including officials. I drew him as a good person, and I don’t have any crooked subtext. By the way, this is my first experience with depicting politicians.

- The question immediately arises: where is Medvedev?

Best of the day

I've been asked this question several times already. I don’t know, I’m probably not ready to see myself as a political artist yet.

- Andrey, all this is very nice, but don’t you think that

Have we, in Russia, already developed a formal cult of Vladimir Putin?

This is where I disagree! Personally, there is no cult in my paintings. On the other hand, Vladimir Vladimirovich is a person on whom a lot depends in our lives. It seems to me that if we treat him kindly, then this positive energy will be transferred to him, and then return back to us through his good deeds. If I manage to participate in this process for some fraction of a percent, I will consider that I did it for the good.

- In Soviet times, Vladimir Lenin was portrayed as a kind grandfather with children on his lap. When you painted your paintings, did similar parallels arise?

No. I definitely didn’t think about Lenin’s grandfather.

- Are there already people who want to buy the good Putin?

One private company wants to buy my entire collection at once. Plus, after the opening of the exhibition, several more people came up and asked about the cost of the work. Naturally, I will sell Putin, I have a large family - six children. And I can’t allow myself to create just for my own pleasure. The same canvases, paints, brushes are not cheap, and when you have such a large family, you have to count every penny.

- Admit it honestly: do you hope to become a court artist?

If there are orders, then why not. Everyone asks me why I didn’t draw Prokhorov. What am I going to do with it? Who will buy it? And officials may be interested in paintings of Putin and will hang them in their offices. Just look at the portraits of our leaders; as a rule, they are all boring and uninteresting. And then you look at the portrait, and your mood immediately lifts. I think the microclimate in the office of the boss, where the painting will hang, will immediately change, the atmosphere will become more positive.

- Do you have any desire to portray the Governor of St. Petersburg, Georgy Poltavchenko, in a similar manner?

I've already been told that our governor never smiles, and that's a problem. Although I like the idea of drawing his portrait. The point is that he has a very beautiful face and will be a pleasure to work on. By the way, unlike Putin,

It’s much easier to attack Poltavchenko.

- Why?

Putin has such a face that he could be anyone, it is very difficult to draw him - there is no bright detail. For example, Gorbachev had a birthmark, and when he was drawn with this spot, everyone understood: here he is, Mikhail Sergeevich. But with Putin it doesn’t work that way.

Artist Alexey Sergienko about presidential portraits and tears of inspiration.