State tretyakov gallery x avocado toast
Paintings Alive
Once upon a time, a simple message in the MCG mailing list started our exciting journey into bringing Russian fairy tales alive
"Hi everyone,
I am looking for examples of considerate "livening" and even "immersifying" of paintings using new media. I know very well of Van Gogh Alive and its derivatives, and this is why I use the word "considerate": I am searching for more scientific / true to research ways of bringing paintings alive through new media that won't be scoffed at by the majority of museum/art folk.
One example is the recent Tate's collaboration with Facebook to bring alive some of their work through Instagram lenses.
What else is out there?
Thank you."
I am looking for examples of considerate "livening" and even "immersifying" of paintings using new media. I know very well of Van Gogh Alive and its derivatives, and this is why I use the word "considerate": I am searching for more scientific / true to research ways of bringing paintings alive through new media that won't be scoffed at by the majority of museum/art folk.
One example is the recent Tate's collaboration with Facebook to bring alive some of their work through Instagram lenses.
What else is out there?
Thank you."
Victor Lander
Curator, Creative director of Avocado Toast
17.10.2019
17.10.2019
Your message dated Thu, 17 Oct 2019 13:01:46 +0100 with subject "Paintings
alive" has been successfully distributed to the MCG list (1751 recipients).
alive" has been successfully distributed to the MCG list (1751 recipients).
And answers I received
Situated in Moscow, Russia, it's the largest museum of Russian art. To get an idea of its significance to the country, think Prado or Tate Britain. It is as proud as old-fashioned an institution. The "old-fashioned" part is changing rapidly, though: for their latest exhibition on Russian fairy tales that combines total experience design and artworks that span three centuries and includes contemporary installations and video art, the Gallery asked us, Avocado Toast, to "enliven" three paintings.
Of course, we said "NO".
I mean, have you clicked the link to our website above? We're a (not very) modest creative multimedia studio that specialises in live storytelling. Putting our names next to the famous Russian artists whose artworks were meant to be "enlivened" would mean instant carpet bombing from critics, both at us and at the exhibition team. However, we work a lot with multimedia artists, and are generally proficient in new media arts.
So we became curators
Basing on the MCG community replies and a bit of our own research, together with the Gallery we coined 3 principles for such a work
Research
Before making the painting alive, we researched its history; the painter's style, strokes and circumstances; and the folklore behind the painting's subject.
Conceptualisation
After the research, we asked ourselves: what are the most important things to highlight in this painting?
Artist-led
The final question was: who's the best Russian artist to make this concept come alive? Because we believe only artists should have been working on this to bring their unique vision and talent to the Gallery space.
And so our adventures began...
The folklore story of a Russian hero-knight Dobrynya's struggle with a fire-breathing dragon climaxes with their last fight, the final battle between good and evil, so to say.
We talked about how contemporary this subject is with an animation artist Alexey Zakharov who specialises in animation of paintings. And Alexey found a perfect connection with the modernity in the Fight of Dobrynya Nikitich with Zmey Gorynych by Victor Vasnetsov. Zakharov presented this fight as a videogame battle with the final level boss that opens up the road to triumph and fame.
We talked about how contemporary this subject is with an animation artist Alexey Zakharov who specialises in animation of paintings. And Alexey found a perfect connection with the modernity in the Fight of Dobrynya Nikitich with Zmey Gorynych by Victor Vasnetsov. Zakharov presented this fight as a videogame battle with the final level boss that opens up the road to triumph and fame.
Fight of Dobrynya Nikitich with Zmey Gorynych, Victor Vasnetsov, 1918
Viktor Vasnetsov Museum
Viktor Vasnetsov Museum
The tale of Sadko, a Russian merchant and gusli (a kind of a zither) player, is full of adventures that bring him to the underwater world and back.
Environmental simulation guru and CG artist Andrey Flat studied underwater worlds of Ilya Repin's Sadko. Bringing alive the lights and shades of the painting he created a storytelling device, a school of fish, as he searched for the mystery of Sadko's story culmination — the moment when he finds his future wife Chernavka among nine hundred brides in the underwater kingdom presented to him by the sea king.
Environmental simulation guru and CG artist Andrey Flat studied underwater worlds of Ilya Repin's Sadko. Bringing alive the lights and shades of the painting he created a storytelling device, a school of fish, as he searched for the mystery of Sadko's story culmination — the moment when he finds his future wife Chernavka among nine hundred brides in the underwater kingdom presented to him by the sea king.
Sadko, Ilya Repin, 1876
The State Russian Museum
The State Russian Museum
Baba Yaga is a forest witch that has many roles in Russian folklore, from a magic helper to a villainous antagonist. We already had two protagonists' stories in place, so here we decided to focus on the environment, the enchanted forest itself being one of the silent yet omnipotent characters of the folklore.
While working on Baba Yaga by Victor Vasnetsov multimedia artist Vadim Epstein collaborated with artificial intelligence to solve the mystery of the Russian magic forest. Pre-trained on the heritage of the great Russian fairy tale explorer, Vasnetsov, custom neuron networks introspected the forest on the painting in search for the mysterious and presented the result as a mesmerizing flow of colors, shades and movements.
While working on Baba Yaga by Victor Vasnetsov multimedia artist Vadim Epstein collaborated with artificial intelligence to solve the mystery of the Russian magic forest. Pre-trained on the heritage of the great Russian fairy tale explorer, Vasnetsov, custom neuron networks introspected the forest on the painting in search for the mysterious and presented the result as a mesmerizing flow of colors, shades and movements.
Baba Yaga, Victor Vasnetsov, 1917
Viktor Vasnetsov Museum
Viktor Vasnetsov Museum
So this is how we did it
The exhibition opened on February 22, and has been a huge success ever since.
The Gallery was so inspired with our artists' work on the paintings that asked us to create Instagram face filters for the exhibition. Needless to say, we declined yet again; so it became our next curatorial project. But that is another story.
To learn more:
Exhibition Organizer
The State Tretyakov Gallery
Curators
Tatiana Getman
Ivan Antonov
Igor Volkov
Co-curator (exhibition area architecture & design)
Alexey Tregubov
Author of Interactive Objects
Maria Tregubova
Academic Adviser
Nikita Petrov
Curators of New Media Art
Avocado Toast
Curator
Victor Lander
Producer, Co-curator
Olga Nikolaeva
Animation of Paintings
Andrey Flat
Vadim Epstein
Alexey Zakharov
PR Support
Sergey Baryshnikov
Special Thanks
Avocado Toast team express their gratefulness to the State Tretyakov Gallery and personally to the exhibition chief curator Tatiana Getman for openness, trust and continuous support throughout the project.
Victor Lander is thankful to the MCG Community and Kevin Ward, Tom Burton, Katie Moffat and Kevin Walker in particular for their help and feedback.
Vadim Epstein thanks Yuki Endo, Yoshihiro Kanamori, Shigeru Kuriyama, as well as Hsin-Ying Lee, Hung-Yu Tseng, Jia-Bin Huang, Maneesh Kumar Singh, and Ming-Hsuan Yang — for their research and digital tools for AI-powered image processing, used during his work on Baba Yaga:
http://www.cgg.cs.tsukuba.ac.jp/~endo/projects/AnimatingLandscape/
https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.00948
The State Tretyakov Gallery
Curators
Tatiana Getman
Ivan Antonov
Igor Volkov
Co-curator (exhibition area architecture & design)
Alexey Tregubov
Author of Interactive Objects
Maria Tregubova
Academic Adviser
Nikita Petrov
Curators of New Media Art
Avocado Toast
Curator
Victor Lander
Producer, Co-curator
Olga Nikolaeva
Animation of Paintings
Andrey Flat
Vadim Epstein
Alexey Zakharov
PR Support
Sergey Baryshnikov
Special Thanks
Avocado Toast team express their gratefulness to the State Tretyakov Gallery and personally to the exhibition chief curator Tatiana Getman for openness, trust and continuous support throughout the project.
Victor Lander is thankful to the MCG Community and Kevin Ward, Tom Burton, Katie Moffat and Kevin Walker in particular for their help and feedback.
Vadim Epstein thanks Yuki Endo, Yoshihiro Kanamori, Shigeru Kuriyama, as well as Hsin-Ying Lee, Hung-Yu Tseng, Jia-Bin Huang, Maneesh Kumar Singh, and Ming-Hsuan Yang — for their research and digital tools for AI-powered image processing, used during his work on Baba Yaga:
http://www.cgg.cs.tsukuba.ac.jp/~endo/projects/AnimatingLandscape/
https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.00948
