What do you know about a contemporary artist named Andrey Bartenev? We do not exclude that so far little is known to our readers about this original creator. Despite the fact that he often appears on television screens as a distinguished guest of some talk show, ordinary people, far from the life of artistic bohemia, for the most part are completely unfamiliar with either his work or his biography. We offer to fill the knowledge gaps and get to know better the personality of this extraordinary, unlike anyone else.
Who is he?
If we talk about belonging to a particular profession, it’s just that, in a word, you won’t define it. Painter? Yes, perhaps you could say that. And Bartenev is a director, designer, fashion designer, sculptor and even a little writer. All of these creative interests are part of Andrei Bartenev’s professional career.
He has a unique ability to work and talent, dresses in bright outrageous costumes, wears multi-colored balls and other unusual objects on his head. He says that he has fantastic dreams at night and has the ability to move to neighboring galaxies. He never changes his creative credo and does what he wants. And Andrei is not trying to explain to others what he wanted to say or show in his installations, saying that his hobby is visualization, but the interpretation of what he saw is already the lot of the audience.
Today, the work of Andrei Bartenev is on display at the best foreign galleries. And he himself more often happens abroad than at home in Russia. Here he, as has already been said, is little known to the general public, but abroad, our unrecognized genius is literally carried on his hands.
short biography
Andrei Bartenev was born in the city of Norilsk in 1969. He tells reporters that in childhood he dreamed of learning to play the piano, but, alas, the cramped conditions of the Soviet communal apartment did not allow placing a bulky musical instrument in the apartment.
When the young man turned 16 years old, he left his native Norilsk and entered to study at the Art Institute of the city of Krasnodar. There he acquired the profession of theater director. Well, then the future outrageous master went to conquer the capital. His artistic career began in Moscow in the late eighties.
Perhaps because Andrei spent all his childhood in the north surrounded by white snows, he began to use only bright colors in his work. And the materials for the first art work were glass jars and plastic bottles, illuminated by LEDs. In the early 90s, as they say, he “hit the stream” - the domestic cultural world, stunned by the unexpectedly surging freedom, discovered new opportunities and names for himself.
Andrei Bartenev got his first fame in 1992, thanks to the performance he put on under the title “The Botanical Ballet”. This work received the Grand Prix at the Riga festival. In 1996, Bartenev became a member of the Union of Artists of Moscow.
Performances by Andrei Bartenev
Unusual dynamic performances of the master are especially popular with the audience. Seeing his sensational production of "The Snow Queen", foreign art historians wrote that his work combines fashion, fine art and performance art and revive the spirit of the Russian theater avant-garde of the 20s. The performance "Snow Queen" was attended by moving sculptures and objects decorated with geometric figures of green, pink and bright orange. This reminded the foreign public of Malevich and Kandinsky and caused delight.
Another world-famous performance of Andrei is called "I love you!". It is a kind of design of many huge speakers, located one after another along a winding line. The viewer is invited to pronounce the cherished words and then watch how they, living a short life, return in return with recognition.
Andrey Bartenev: exhibition in Moscow
In 2015, a retrospective of the works of Andrei Bartenev was presented to the audience at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art . The exhibition was located in two buildings - so much space was needed to show the creative universe of the master, created by him for 25 years.
As always, Bartenev’s art installations were not static. The unifying element at that memorable exhibition was movement - flickering, rotating and sounding objects turned the exposition space into a single mechanism under the control of the author of this magnificence.
Andrey Bartenev: personal life
Journalists have repeatedly tried to find out from Andrei Bartenev about his personal life, but the artist always escapes with humorous phrases and does not let anyone into his personal space. Our hero claims that in reality he was in love only once in his life, and this was in kindergarten.
Once Bartenev even participated in the program "Let's get married" as a groom. But, as usual, as a joke. It was impossible to make out Andrei himself under the suit of huge yellow corn slammed on top of him. And the release of that program was New Year's and entertaining.
"White crow"
Andrei Bartenev, whose photo you can evaluate in our article, always felt like a black sheep in the community of people. He becomes a sensation always and everywhere, wherever he appears - all his creative projects are so extraordinary and the whole look is unusual.
Andrey has to spend a lot of energy to maintain his appearance, because this is one of the main parts of his image. The combination of the most unthinkable elements in clothes, coupled with incredible colors and cuts - his signature style. The layman is literally shocked at the sight of a man in a strange hat, an orange coat in apples and glasses of a wonderful shape.
The artist himself is a little upset that abroad his appearance causes positive feelings and curiosity among others, and in Russia often aggression (several times the artist was attacked on the street with the aim of beating).
Final word
It is all the same good that among us there are sometimes such personalities as Andrei Bartenev, an artist who is not afraid of free expression. Often, very talented people who simply cannot be like everyone else hide behind a strange shocking appearance.