Where the beauty gets created: at Masha Koroleva’s studio

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THIS WORKSHOP?

Not for very long. I used to rent a place near Moscow. When (a word forbidden by the Russian government was here) started, I realized I wanted to move back to Saint Petersburg or live in both cities at the same time. My friend Alisa Gvozdeva moved to Yerevan and offered me the use of her workshop and apartment, which I happily accepted.

DO THE FIVE-METER CEILINGS DISCIPLINE YOU? HAVE YOU STARTED TO DRAW MORE?

I'm now working on larger canvases. The ceilings in my previous workshop in Saint Petersburg were that high, so I wanted to make the format bigger. When you're in a space like this, you start to feel a different scale.

THAT'S INTERESTING. I HAD A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE WHEN I WAS IN NEW YORK THREE YEARS AGO. THERE ARE LITERALLY GIANT GALLERIES IN SOHO, AND THE ABSTRACT ART LOOKS AMAZING IN THOSE WALLS. I REMEMBER HOW COOL ROTKO SOUNDED IN THE "GARAGE" MUSEUM, WHEN IT WAS AT THE BAKHMETEVSKY BUILDING WITH INCREDIBLE INTERIOR SPACE. DO YOU WANT TO CREATE SOMETHING REALLY BIG NOW?

Yes, definitely. The bigger the paintings are, the more life they contain. However, at the same time, and it sounds terrible, bigger artworks are rarely bought. And at some point, I realized that in order to survive, I may have to create a small series to sell. But I don't want to paint on a small scale now, I end up ruining the canvases because I have a different hand movement. If I don't feel free, the paintings become constrained too.

DO YOU THINK THEY BUY LESS BECAUSE THE PRICE GETS TOO HIGH?

Yes, it seems like it's easier to buy a small artwork by a young artist for, let's say $600. And based on my friends, they can't afford the large format yet.

INTERESTING. BY THE WAY, DO YOU HAVE YOUR OWN ART COLLECTION, POSSIBLY WORKS BY YOUR FRIENDS?

Two weeks ago, I asked if the people on my small Telegram channel wanted to exchange some artworks. I had some works that I received as gifts from my friends. Recently, I realized that I can sometimes buy young art, since I have many artists that I like. In addition, I've always thought of a home collection as something natural. My parents always had a diverse collection of artworks at home.

DO YOU COME FROM AN ARTISTIC FAMILY?

My parents are philologists: my dad works at a literature magazine and writes novels and stories, and my mom teaches Russian language and literature. They were kind of party-going journalists in their time, who wrote about Siberian cultural events and were friends with artists. My mom used to interview artists from time to time, and they often gave her something as a gift. One of the canvases was painted especially for my birthday, as I recall, and the other was bought by my dad for my mom, and so on. Eventually, I realized that our collection has a lot of value, since every piece has its own history. It was actively collected around 20 years ago, and now my mom is slowly replacing our home exposition with my large canvases. It's funny, it looks like I'm taking over the space.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DRAWING ON YOUR OWN?

I feel like I've always been drawing. I used to draw a lot when I was a kid. In art school, I met a great teacher who never tried to set limits for me, and I could do what I wanted. At that time, I already had a fairly expressive style developing, and she let me experiment and use her technique. But when I went to university to study graphic design, I lost some of my style: I had to meet certain criteria to get into university, drawing a lot of plaster heads, for example. And as a result, my paintings moved away from me for a few years. I started painting with oil again when I was 20 at Vladimir Zagorov's workshop. He had some students who were practicing for their master's degree at SPBU (Saint Petersburg State University) at his workshop, and I used to visit the place to paint and talk with them a lot.

IT TURNS OUT YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN ATTRACTED TO ABSTRACTION, IS THAT RIGHT?

I guess so, yes. To be honest, I still feel very shy about it. It feels like there's something wrong with me for not doing anything socially provocative or conceptual. I was told that abstraction is a part of the 20th century and should have ended by then. And now, art should be reactive.

ME, I FEEL LIKE THERE'S A PROBLEM WITH RUSSIAN ARTISTS NOT MAKING ANY ENERGETIC AND BOLD ABSTRACTIONS. THERE'S A BIG DEMAND FOR SUCH THINGS IN OUR ART MARKET. I REMEMBER ARTSWANTED COLLECTING ARTISTS WHO CREATE ABSTRACTIONS AND HE DIDN'T EVEN MANAGE TO COLLECT TEN WORKS. I SPENT A LOT OF TIME THINKING ABOUT THE REASONS FOR THAT. IT TURNS OUT, THERE'S SOME KIND OF PREJUDICE AGAINST ABSTRACTION AS SOME WRONG KIND OF THING.

They teach you precise technique and narrativity in the academies, and in some “Bases” or ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art, – trans.) they teach you to do something socially controversial.

WHEN ANTON OLSHVANG WAS ASKED WHY THERE AREN'T ANY ABSTRACT WORKS OUT THERE, HE SAID THAT ABSTRACTION IS DIFFICULT WORK, DEMANDING BEING FREE AND DISCIPLINED AT THE SAME TIME.

I agree with that. I feel like we still have strong traditions of miniaturism, iconography, and reclusion, which require working within a small, limiting and restraining space. Of course, this leads to a certain style: slow, stretched, and staged, with a focus on the process of making a piece. This is something that you can't really do with abstraction: I walk around it, lean it against the wall, put it on the floor, and stand above it to look at it. It feels like a dance. And abstraction is a form of protest, because sometimes you have to be brave to paint everything black, reject all previous attempts, and start from scratch.

WHO IS YOUR IDOL? CY TWOMBLY?

I like Twombly and Bart's book about him. Recently at school, we had a task to pick five favorite artists. For me, it's Rothko, Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Anish Kapoor, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Speaking of Twombly, I'm fond of his approach. Some of my friends called his art childish, but I think it's much more subtle: his story is about not making a wrong gesture. I feel the worst when the work becomes overloaded. It dies at that moment. Sometimes I just need to finish the canvas, and I think about it for ten minutes straight and realize I won't be able to make the right touch today. Bart's text about Twombly had a term "sparseness" in it: for me, it's a will to not touch something, to not make it overwhelming, not trying to capture the space but leaving it be. I think it's very important. I love when there are some details in the space, but at the same time, it stays empty for the eye, that's why I paint things you can catch with your eyes and also something neutral.

DO YOU THINK YOU SEE COLORS THE WAY OTHER PEOPLE DO?

I don’t know how other people see. But my sense of color is synchronized with other senses. I can only listen to live music with my eyes closed, otherwise I get distracted. On the other hand, if I close my eyes, I see a color combination. Moving images. It happens when I walk the street. The wind is blowing, the shadows are casting, I have something on my mind and my thoughts are buzzing, and it all forms the composition of senses which I turn into colors. This process is very intuitive. I feel like one certain color can have many meanings.

I never mix different tones in the palette. I just take the color straight from the tube and work with the canvas. It's also very intuitive for me. I don't have a prepared palette of colors and I don't do sketches. Taisia Korotkova was teaching in our free workshops…

I THINK SHE IS YOUR OPPOSITE. ALL OF HER WORKS COME FROM HER BRAIN.

It was interesting to learn from her because we are very different, but I like her art despite that. We talked about composition, light and color. She always does a lot of prep work, including several types of sketches with different tones. In my work, the less planned the better. The coolest works from a series are always the first, happening on chance, intuitively. The rest catch on.

ARE YOU AN ORGANIZED PERSON? I’M NOT, AT ALL. IT’S A TORTURE FOR ME.

I'm not, by nature. I lose millions of things all the time and I'm very scattered. But working in a team (I am an art director) and having to deal with employees, deadlines, and responsibilities puts me in focus. I don't think I would want to live my entire life like this. But my work makes me more organized: my partner has noticed that I am now cleaning the kitchen more frequently than before and I have organized my belongings into small boxes. But it doesn’t affect my punctuality, I’m still consistently late.

TELL ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR BODY. IF I GET IT RIGHT, IT’S A CENTRAL POINT OF YOUR PAINTINGS AND YOU LOVE TO TAKE PHOTOS OF YOURSELF ON INSTAGRAM

I have always had a strong connection with my body and it is a central theme in my paintings. I used to take lots of photos, including nudes, to explore the naturalness of the human body and its instincts and reflexes. Sometimes it's difficult to distinguish what is natural and what is not. My paintings often play with this idea and balance on the edge between the two.

Working with and feeling connected to my body has helped me feel free and more at ease with myself. I have learned to listen to and interact with my body in a natural and calm way. This has also influenced my paintings, as I often react to culture as a repressive force and my instincts push back against that. In my photos and paintings, I try to convey the importance of listening to yourself and allowing your instincts to be free, and then seeing where that takes you.

DO YOU HAVE ANY RULES THAT YOU LIVE BY?

To be a free person, be honest with yourself.

IT MEANS THAT IF YOU FEEL SOMETHING THAT RESTRICTS YOU FREEDOM, YOU GET RID OF THAT?

My journey to become myself has involved getting rid of things that are unnecessary or holding me back. To me, freedom means being as clean, honest, and light as possible. But honesty is the most important thing to me.

ARE YOU FRUSTRATED BY ARTISTS WHO TRY TO APPEAR YOUNG AND FASHIONABLE?

Yes, I think it can be damaging to their talent. I understand the desire to be fashionable and I have some vanity myself, but if someone is more concerned with their appearance than their art, it can compromise their work.

DOES MONEY HAVE POWER OVER YOU?

I earn my money by doing design, and I do my paintings because I love it. Maybe some time I’ll begin getting some money with my paintings, but it’s not my main goal, I think.

AND WHAT IS YOU MAIN GOAL?

To do what I like, of course. The tiniest lie eats you inside. And if I begin lying to myself, I can only hang on for a limited amount of time, and eventually there’s an unpleasant sound in my thoughts, reminding a car alarm, like “danger, don’t go there”. It’s impossible to live with that sound, that’s why it’s important to listen to yourself.