Interview with the Artist: Leonid Varushkin

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Interview with the Artist: Leonid Varushkin

Interview with the Artist: Leonid Varushkin

What was the beginning of your creative path? Why have you decided to become an artist?

Oddly enough, the beginning of the creative path began rather late, at the Academy of Arts. I went to art school, graduated from an art school, entered the Academy, but I started to think about my personal artworks only on the second year of academic studies.

What were your first themes of artworks?

The work "Light Bulb" can be considered the source of my creative research: it depicts a lamp and a ceiling, and nothing else. For me, this is already a whole story with its own universe, a kind of stuck in minimalism.

Next comes the painting "Bridge", which is now presented at the exhibition "Other Eyes". After it, in a series of my paintings, I began to work with space, color and form. The plot in these works is generally absent, the dominant theme is the state or feeling. They show passages torn out of someone's life; fragments that carry a sense of the state of the depicted moment.

How did you form your style?

My style is still developing. So far, I have canvases that are participating in the exhibition, and works related to "lyapochikha". The style, if it changes, will depend on the new tasks set. It will form and settle down if you do the work, the main thing is to find what you want to express artistically.

Now you are studying at the Academy of Arts, but the visual component of your work is far from academic. How did you come to it and why did you decide to go in the direction of experiments?

I think the whole point is that academic "ideology" has never been for me a tuning fork in my personal preferences in art. Academism is a means for studying at the Academy and, of course, directly comprehending the craft, and then there is the world of art, where the academic base can help.

Tell us about your studies at the Academy. What influence does it have on you? What do you think is important in education?

The Academy of Arts for me is a part of everyday life, my pastime. This is the place where I get technical knowledge, and only then there are ordinary human stories, where there is a place for smiles and disappointments.
In my art I start only from personal preferences and desires. The Academy provides a solid base in terms of drawing.

Why do you choose predominantly large canvas formats?

Download. Acrylic on canvas. 100x260 cm

The format is the part of the painting that helps the artwork to open up and show itself in the right way. I look at my works at exhibitions and come to the conclusion that in large spaces they are the right size for me.

You work in different mediums: painting, sculpture, objects. Which format do you like best? Do you want to try something else?

When an idea arises in my head, I do not limit it to a certain medium. The physical embodiment comes from the consideration of how it will look more truthful and better. Then the form is chosen. So, if there are new formats, it will dictate the further choice of topics.

Your objects often contain references to folk art. For example, in "Noise" you use the technique of embroidering a carpet "lyapochikha". Why have you chosen this particular technique and what do you want to say using it?

For one of the artworks, I was looking for a Russian folk pattern; while searching, I accidentally stumbled upon a carpet made with the “lyapochikha” sewing technique. Then I realized for myself that this is a real masterpiece: something familiar, historically and ideologically so deep and so not fully disclosed that I need to take it on and continue to improve what was started by my ancestors.
In the approach to embroidery with scraps, I see a kindred mentality and one common soul. This is a kind of story about a package with packages or a TV remote control in cellophane, frugality in material, when nothing is superfluous. I understand the origins of these thoughts. I see and know how to beat it and create a new branch in folk art.

Socket. Lynen, polyethylene, plastic, plywood. 57x57 cm

How do research topics change in your art? What affects it?

Topics change from mood, daily thoughts and reasoning, from external factors. Everything influences. The choice of what I focus on is determined by my preferences, my personality. For me, in a painting, in an object, the visual component is always important. If it impresses me or I just like it, I don't care what the work is about, what the plot is. Space is the occasion for the visual, not the goal. A kind of formalism.

It certainly has an impact, because we all face it every day. In my opinion, every man-made object is art. It can be a package, wallpapers, or a phone case. Everything affects us in some way. If, for example, to imagine the sensations of a person with a headache in a room with yellow wallpaper, most likely, the color will definitely press on him.
At the same time, I don't think that depending on whether an artwork by Leonid Varushkin or Claude Monet is hanging in the room, a person will live differently and do different things.

Who or what inspires you?

Sometimes I like the painting, sometimes – a film shot, sometimes – the carpet; everything can become a starting point for a new artwork. I have no favorite artists or directors. My love for a masterpiece depends on my mood, the location of the stars in the sky, age and time of day. Since childhood, I have been watching a large number of films, “absorbing” from them a lot. Recently I`ve watched "Dark Waters": the film is ordinary, but now I'm afraid of teflon, and I liked the film for creating this feeling of fear in my head. Will I remember it in a month when compiling a list of favorite films? I have doubts about that.

Do you collect art? Artworks of friends/other artists that you like?

Actually, I don't collect art. At home, I don’t hang out my artworks and I don’t flaunt it. The canvases are facing the wall, the objects are in boxes. I need clean walls without everything, I don’t like it when one picture sticks in my head.

Are there any new series planned? What are they going to be about?

The theme for me is a component of the visual appearance. In recent series, I wanted colors, a sense of space in the painting; the carpets are also about the visual component of "lyapochikha" and its semantic background. All factors are connected with each other, improvisation takes place in sketches, when the work is drawn up like a puzzle, and then the execution takes place. The topic with the “lyapochikha” has not ended for me; there are still no pieces for the puzzle for the canvases either. But there are also new series in plans. Can`t name the topic yet.