Video: The artist transfers the heroes of classical paintings to ironic surreal collages
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Oleksiy Kondakov is a Ukrainian digital artist who skillfully integrates the heroes of classical paintings into modern scenes filmed on the streets of cities. He places figures from famous medieval paintings in the metro, markets, cars and many other places familiar to us, but rather unusual for the characters of ancient salon painting. Alexey's works create an interesting contrast between the subtle and expressive art of the Renaissance and the sometimes dull and boring scenes of everyday life. The best works of the genius of surrealism, irony and paradox are further in the review.
Alexey Kondakov started this project in 2015 and called it “The Everyday Life of the Gods”. Most of the photos were taken in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Most of the classic paintings are from the Renaissance. The artist uses Photoshop to create these surreal scenes, and they look extremely impressive.
When the artist places the characters of the paintings in our daily life, they seem to lose all their epic, gracefulness and beauty. In this case, context is very important. We can see what the gods and goddesses would look like in the paintings if they lived such a simple life as we do. We would spend our days doing daily activities, going to work, preparing food and everything else that is characteristic of us mortals.
Alexey has 140 thousand followers on his Instagram account. People really like what he does. The pictures he creates are quite comical because of the scenes in which he puts people. They seem out of place, lost, or confused. The combination of modern life and classical painting is quite funny, and sometimes even very related.
Alexey Kondakov, talking about what inspires him, said: “Everything that surrounds me inspires me to be creative. If you are attentive enough to yourself and your surroundings, someday you may have a desire to share your observations in a form accessible to all."
The artist described how he began to create these unique works: “I was sitting in the office once, bored, leafing through blogs with pictures for inspiration. I saw a painting by Caesar van Everdingen "A Nymph Offering Wine and Fruit to Bacchus." I thought: "And these guys know a lot about rest, they drink on the benches, just like us." On the way home from work, I took a photo near the Osokorki metro station, where I saw more than once companies drinking while sitting on a concrete parapet. I made a collage and thought that I want to make a whole series. A day later, I took a couple more photos for other paintings, which also reminded me of various everyday scenes. I posted them on my Facebook - and it all started."
Markets, transport and crossings dominate in Kondakov's collages. The artist admits that he loves public transport, where you can gawk at people. It is these observations that become the basis of many plots. Alexey says that it often happens that he looks at a picture and immediately imagines what kind of everyday situation it looks like. Further work is a matter of technology, the selection of a suitable entourage.
It happens that the artist first takes a photo, after applying it to the picture, he decides what needs to be reshomed. Alexei knows what specific place he needs and just sits down and goes there. He said that he once spent an hour at a bus stop waiting for a trolleybus of the right color.
Surprisingly, earlier Alexey was not too interested in salon painting. Now he is intensively studying it, getting to know new authors. He says this fascinated him so much that he advises everyone to be more interested in art.
Kondakov shares what he likes most in his work: “I like all stages of the creation process. There are more and less attractive ones. An artist's work involves many tasks."
“I really enjoy listening to music. Basically, this project is taking up most of my time, but I'm going to get it over with. My dream is to do something else, photography or sculpture,”Aleksey answered when asked about his hobbies.
Kondakov spoke in detail about the process and how long it takes to create these pictures. He says that this is individual for each plot. Sometimes he finds the old work of art he needs and sees how he can change it in a modern situation. At other times, it happens that the artist simply photographs the places that he likes. Then he imagines what can happen there. Classical painting easily merges with the modern environment.
The key idea of Alexei's work is to make the picture real, but strange. It is difficult to say how long this may take. An artist can dig for days, studying works of art in search of the desired plot. After all the pieces of the puzzle are put together - two or three hours of work in Photoshop and you're done.
If you like what Alexey Kondakov is doing, look for him on social networks. Maybe even buy one of his works! If you like creative creativity, read our article on how a girl from St. Petersburg became famous all over the world, recreating classic paintings.
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