Igor Tokarev Biography

Anastasia Evdokimova, the visual arts of the XXI century seems to be a creative journey in the very depths of the contradictory human soul. We managed to talk about classical and contemporary art, about communication and approaches to promoting creativity with an artist, a member of the International Art Fund Igor Tokarev. His paintings are in private collections both in Russia and abroad.

After the university, he worked fruitfully in portrait and landscape painting. For the past five years, he has actively devoted himself to Christian and historical topics. Many work was created for Orthodox churches and monasteries. You worked earlier in the genre of academism. How to embody themselves in contemporary art? At the beginning of the creative path, my gaze was turned to academic art.

There are several reasons for this, which have become fateful. I met a man who helped in my life. He is a collector, the creator of the Bronze Miracle Gallery Nikolai Tyrin, collects academic art. Previously, I did not think about new forms in art. Putin ”,“ Blessed Vasily and Ivan the Terrible ”and Christian themes. By the way, few of the artists in history who create their work are not on order, for example, Vasily Surikov “The Morning of the Streletskaya Execution”.

The theme is quite peculiar and requires even at the stage of creating certain material investments. The work is written for a long time, because the size is quite impressive. Since the year, I began to engage in art very tightly. Before that, I worked in the advertising business and in the directorial field, therefore all my work was not frequent, more like a hobby, and then it turned into professional activities.

The more I began to deal with this moment, the more questions have accumulated inside the appointment of an artist in this life. Gradually, I just realized that time does not stand still. It is born a certain direction in art, it develops how our life develops. Art cannot stand still. There is a concept of realistic art, an understandable, appealing gaze and gaze. It has always carried the function of a certain decorativeness.

Unfortunately, at the moment, there is in our difficult time, including not very sophisticated people in our country. They often do not want to think. So modern art makes a person think about a lot. I can say more specifically that I wanted new forms further. And to what I am doing now I did not come right away. This took two years of such hard work: the search for the form, its face, the originality and meaning of the expressions, and so on.

Academicism does not make it possible to express himself to the artist as he wants. The direction determines the artist and introduces his certain framework from which you cannot get out. For me, these frames have always been very painful. You can create something, but you can’t, because the academic direction as a realistic art is a repeat, copying what you see around. The better you copied or rather took the cilia in the eye, the better it is.

In contemporary art in a different way: there is a wide field of self-expression. Creation of what you want to do without looking at some framework. You are free. It turns out that you are doing something new or trying. In academic art, one way or another, there may be some kind of own hand, your own understanding, but you will still do what you have already done before or was created earlier than other masters.

When I come to a museum or an exhibition of academic art, sometimes I just get lost, I do not see individuality. Work done as a carbon copy, with the same plot, with compositional and color scheme and execution, and so on. There are a lot of such stamping that go endlessly. Gradually, it turns out that she turns the artist into an artist of an academic and realistic art. He does what he wants, because they pay for it.

Why do you think not all artists turn their eyes to contemporary art and vice versa? I have not yet seen a single artist who, creating contemporary art, suddenly drew attention to the academic or went into realism. There was no such thing in my practice, I did not see this. To order some things is another. I met little when artists from the avant -garde direction went into conservative.

One example is recalled: the famous still life player Ilya Mashkov, who began his work with post -impressionism under the influence of the French artist Cezanne. Later, he will create a society "Diamond, and in adulthood, he will go into a realistic direction of painting. In my opinion, not every genre can be successful. In this case, it was quite successful for still life.

Realistically show the taste and sensation of fruit smell. In Ilya Mashkov, still lifes look alive, not very academic. Vanguard art requires huge costs. Often, if artists arrange material and spiritual support, then they will not go and will not want to develop further.For contemporary art, it is difficult to find something new. You need to go through many stages both physically and spiritually in terms of creativity.

It is difficult for them to turn their skills, turn inside out. They do not understand that time is and art should develop with this time. If you look at the history of world art, then what do we see? Each era gave certain artists and directions. Art constantly developed and went to some specific vector. There was a quality in terms of reflecting what is happening around a person. Now in contemporary art more and more often the trend is such that at exhibitions or in the works of contemporary artists you can very rarely be able to see a person more than some specific abstract forms.

Man leaves the scene of contemporary art. There is an explanation for this: a person turns into a thing. It has already turned into a thing, a product. Now contemporary artists perfectly understanding this, reflect the state of mankind. When a person has turned into a product, a person leaves the paintings. Now academism is not related to understanding justice and honesty in art in reflecting modern reality.

It took the form of decoration, pleasing and shows what the public requires. Contemporary art is always a challenge, but in principle it has always been like that. Even if you take, for example, the same impressionists, it was a certain challenge. Then it was Picasso, it was Batis, and now it was Jeff Kuns. The academic direction is not a challenge, it is a bend. You have a large virtual exhibition on the website of the Russian House in Paris.

Tell us more about her. A proposal was received from the Russian House to hold such an event in the conditions of a pandemic. When creating the exhibition, it was necessary to collect a large number of works. Many work had to be brought. They are in private collections. The exhibition was successful and I am grateful to such an experience and all those who helped organize it.

It turned out to show what I created over the past two years.

There were also my early academic works. Basically, I imagined what I am doing now: my search, searching for neoexpressionism to impressionism and things of abstract significance. Recently, there are many projects related to virtuality. What do you think, art in virtualization can lead to? If it regarding the art in which I work in painting and graphs, I need to walk and watch work live, because not a single photo, not a single high -quality video there, which is shot and will reflect what a living picture gives.

This is the same when we look at the person in the photo and when we meet him from face to face. Another energy and you can consider what the camera does not give, as if a flat image, volume and so on. These are all components that act on a person and a picture, graphics, sculpture is perceived differently. Unfortunately, the reality of our time that people have ceased to think, pay attention to something spiritual.

Less and less strive for this. They turn their gaze to comfort in the form of a refusal to buy a ticket and viewing the exhibition, replacing watching TV with fast food.