At the exhibition "Architects paint life", which opened in a chamber, but cozy and equipped like an art gallery, the showroom of the MFC Match Point collected paintings and graphic works by three young designers from the ABV Group - Arsen Orekhov, Elena Sadkovskaya and Galina Shashkina … The initiators of the exhibition were the developers of the project, the company "Volley Grand". Curator - Ekaterina Shalina, known for her work on the international competition of architectural drawing "ArchiGraphics". This exposition includes not so much working sketches as portraits, landscapes, still lifes, as well as many sketches on everyday and romantic topics that are attractive to a wide audience, and serious, almost academic studies. The authors paint everywhere and constantly, and now they offer to look at the world through their eyes.
Ekaterina Shalina
exhibition curator:
“Until recently, architects rarely publicly showed their drawings, more often to acquaintances and friends. This is usually a very personal, intimate story. And now, with the development of social networks, the emergence of the "ArchiGraphics" competition, and in Moscow, in particular, with the support at the level of the city's architectural leadership, a large-scale trend of promoting architectural designs can be traced. And this is good: handicraft is the most creative part of this profession, and it must be shown. The process of the maturation of ideas displayed in the drawings, what is happening in the head of the architect - this is the most interesting thing! A different attitude to the profession is returning - an architect-artist, and not just some anonymous, technical specialist who creates drawings.
The most valuable thing in an architect's drawing is the imprint of his personality. And when an architect, as this exhibition shows, paints life, he manifests itself even more clearly. This cast of the author's individuality is sure to be seen later in the constructed buildings, again convincing that architecture is, first of all, art, and only then business, politics and everything else. Therefore, we sincerely thank the developers who decided to provide their showroom for the exhibition of architects, thus showing attention to their work, to the artistic side of their personalities. Thus, they not only acquaint potential buyers of apartments with those who design houses, but also show how talented they are.
The graphics presented in the exhibition are a kind of diaries. There are many sheets of compact notebooks in which thoughts and everyday observations are usually sketched. Galina Shashkina, for example, calls this process "drawing therapy". This is, indeed, akin to a relaxation reboot, when a person is distracted from work and plunges into a free creative process that is not related to any TK. Such works can be seen in the works of Elena Sadkovskaya. And Arsen has classic plein-air drawings, created during student summer practice. By varying techniques, he emphasizes the different characters of the buildings. He can depict the harsh, rough walls of a medieval building with coal, and the delights of the classicist decor are detailed in thin lines, in contrast to generalize the neighboring rough building with a dark spot. That is, while still a student, a person tried to understand its nature and imagery in architecture, and this is important.
Viewers see the landscape and see a drawing for an architectural project by one person. And the question is often asked - what is the connection between them? Why should an architect go somewhere, go out into the open air, sketch historical monuments, if he then designs something completely different from them? The answer is simple - first, he studies proportions, spatial and large-scale relationships, the connection between the whole and the details, absorbs their harmony with his eye and hand, and then he will draw something of his own, ultramodern, well and beautifully. Fortunately, in Russian architectural schools, unlike many Western schools, this practice continues and develops."
The exhibition presents architectural landscapes of Arsen Orekhov, which he created during his student practice in Vyborg. Arsen believes that, as in a drawing, the basis is nature itself, and in projects, the most important thing is the context.
Arsen Orekhov
architect of "ABV Group":
“Drawing helps in work, considering that in a sense, drawing is the perception of the world around, a way to analyze, let the environment pass through and depict on paper. It also helps because it is an extension of your hand, a continuation of your thoughts. It helps to find an image, first of all to formulate what is in the head, to translate it into something more real.
The idea of the exhibition is to show that apart from drawings, architects also have another side, when they draw, do creative work, make sketches and sketches. Of course, you can draw in drawing programs, but when a thought appears, it is easier and faster to express and catch it on paper. In architecture, there are more specific tasks, and, therefore, a more specific approach. Drawing is a hobby, it is a help in work, it is a way of thinking."
Galina Shashkina offers another look at drawing. Her vivid sketches with landscape views, architecture, interiors and people seem to tell about every minute of her life. Galina's drawings are an academic school and professional training that have turned into a modern, bright and light style. Sketches of marginal and contrasting places in travel help Galina to better feel her own architectural ideas.
Galina Shashkina
architect of "ABV Group":
“The modern world rarely allows drawing, and especially thinking with your hands. All work is done on a computer. But the very sense of proportions, scale goes more through the hand. You can only catch the proportions intuitively. This is the well-known academic principle - from general to specific. In architecture, an idea, a concept, an idea is first born, and then it is worked out, up to the stage of architectural supervision. A matter of technology - a matter of convenience: someone can use a computer. And the academic school means the ability to think with your hands.
The idea of the exhibition is partly our ambitions, because it is a pity to paint on the table. Still, these ambitions stimulate, allow you to create further, to develop in the key of manual presentation.
Drawing a head on an exam at a university helps, one way or another, to get in touch with a sense of proportions, perspective. You have the proportions of the face, you remember the proportions and how it goes into perspective. Not bad already! And when you pick up shadows in tone, depending on the lighting, you also feel the volume.
I paint so as not to forget the academic school. If you paint from the age of four, to one degree or another, starting from the art school, continuing at the art school, at the school at the Academy of Arts, and then at the Academy itself, you don't want to quit, there is a desire to keep it at least as a hobby. Now there are computers, you can think on them, but you still continue to do as usual. As a result, modern technology and hand-drawn graphics are one of the forms of creative thinking. Drawing is one of the components of the thought process, no matter what sphere it is. This is creativity, this is self-expression."
Elena Sadkovskaya has more intimate and personal graphics. Her abstract, with naive elements, sketches tell about the perception of life, about work and leisure, about how you can see the world around you, if you pick up a pencil and paints. Elena is close to the style of book illustrations, among her drawings you can find quick sketches with a pen of living, emotional portraits. Elena transfers her sense of the presence of life to architecture - when designing, she always imagines the future way of life in this or that building. In addition, for some time Elena was engaged in drawing with children.
Elena Sadkovskaya
architect of "ABV Group":
“The purpose of the painting process is to capture the image. It is more difficult to do this on a computer: you start going into details, sometimes losing integrity. And some general image is easier to create by hand. When you draw a head on an exam, if you have previously drawn Socrates 15 times in 3/4, you simply repeat what you have learned. And this does not mean that you can draw something else. But you are taught to draw in the process, as practice shows. But as a result of such training, a sense of proportion, harmony, perspective, volume, the same integrity is acquired, which is important for an architect.
There are difficulties when strangers ask me to draw something. They seem to be familiar with my work in advance, but in the end they expect something different, probably more academic."
*** The MFC itself, designed by the ABV Group architectural studio, has not yet been completed, but the implementation has been actively going on since the fall of 2015; the end is scheduled for the end of 2019. It is located in an extremely prestigious area of Moscow near Kutuzovsky Prospekt, although it is somewhat constrained by the proximity of railways. Volleyball arena "Dynamo" for 3,500 spectators will be part of the apartment complex. The project has won numerous awards, and the interior of the Match Point sales office, designed by the UNK project, won this year's Interia Awards.
