Konstantin Batynkov
L A N D S C A P E

(paintings)

08. 04. 09 - 17. 05. 09

А. Petrovichev Why distances? Do you apply to the classical meaning of genre? If so, why don't you apply to the landscapes, which were very often in your case?

K. Batynkov I don't like the word - landscape - itself. The word is associated with geological and military deals. A word distance is more common. It can mean a forest, or a river, or drifts, or dumps, whatsoever, in general, anything what you can see in a distance. Imagine you go along the road. There are distant objects all around. It's not like in Europe. In Europe automobile distances, for example, are very short. There is no chance to observe what's around. They have what hardly can be called a landscape in its real meaning:Please understand me. All I wanted is to depict large areas, with no reference to sophisticated concepts or ideas.

А. Petrovichev But you like those distances in color, true?

K. Batynkov Correct. I am sick and tired of black-and-white.

А. Petrovichev My God! You started using colors, but could not think of a better name for the exhibition?

K. Batynkov Not this time. What for? Distances are both the story and the idea in one word. There are many actions happening in each of them. Besides, I don't want to limit myself in a currently fashionable idea, really trying to make something out of thin air. How this is done, normally? You have an idea, and create two or three really brilliant pictures, drawing the remaining eighty to fill in the gaps on the walls in the exhibition gallery. During the last two years I care no single deal about names. I feel they place burdens upon me. Same about viewers, to be honest. This is not a ground for creating experts' observations. Well, I had some long ago, but it's too far from now. If only I could have a chance, I wouldn't give any names at all. I would just determine the techniques style. Say, Batynkov in graphics, or Batynkov in oils. Distances sounds widely. No emptiness, just pure life around. You see someone crossing the river, the plains and helicopters flying, and all that in a distance. I like that.

А. Petrovichev You mean, this is an incomplete action? Do you dissolve in your distances? Or do you just create fantasies about them?

K. Batynkov Dissolving:. You mean dissolving? Are we just discussing about the chemistry reaction? No, that's not about me. I do not dissolve. I am solid as I am. Look, I sit here with you and drink coffee. Very good, very natural coffee.

А. Petrovichev Oh, I know what you mean. You dissolve in the distances of the other life. Where all those plains and submarines have been taken from? And those ugly girls drifting sea waves?

K. Batynkov Should I decide myself, I would not have taken those girls. That's the problem with citing, you know. That's about post-modernism-attached games, rules, conditions and problematical issues. As for me, I was found of drawing sea, ships, submarines, so on and so forth:

А. Petrovichev Are you still working with nature?

K. Batynkov Nature is natural. And also it is very changeable. I mean the impressionists depicting nature is something special. I used to draw nature for ten years, absolutely honestly and with a proper run. I had many good pictures, to be true. I got tired later on. A pure landscape depiction is boring. I always lacked something in it. To speak about Bonar's landscapes, for example, the favorite ones for me. They are unnatural. I've been in France, I couldn't see anything similar to that in reality. That's his imagination. But what of it? Anyway, this is a great art. .

А. Petrovichev Your submarines are not imaginary, they are real. Is this important for you?

K. Batynkov Completely unconsciously! I cannot but draw my helicopters. Something is missing, if I don't. In every picture, I have either a plain, or a helicopter. Of course, this is done to make the view more vivid. Can you help it? I try not to think about it. Labas loves airships, but who cares? For that period, there were quite a few airships, and in his pictures there were thousands of them. So what? My helicopters are more common, I see them day after day. Maybe submarines are not so common. But still. . .

А. Petrovichev Whom do you like besides Labas and Bonar?

K. Batynkov Many, really many. I love Caspar David Fridrich and Russian XIX-ХХ centuries' landscapers. I am not fanatic about them, but I like them very much. Also Зигмар Польке, Ансельм Кифер, Петер Доик, Valera Koshlyakov.

А. Petrovichev I know that cosmic space is also interesting for you. Shall we have anything at this exhibition?

K. Batynkov Absolutely! I have satellite view.

А. Petrovichev Are you a deltiologist, by any chance?

K. Batynkov And that is true, too. Both deltiologist, and philatelist, and numismatist.