Oleg Tistol for Forbes, Ukraine
August 2015
PALM OF SUPREMACY
Oleg Tistol is not the most expensive Ukrainian artist, but he is very popular. Why do art collectors love him?
Maxim Birovash
Pages of school notebooks, receipts from supermarkets, hotel bills, old letters, posters and air tickets. This is only a small part of the materials artist Oleg Tistol uses in his works. In his pictures of "Natsprom" series photography gets along with painting, the basis for "Mountains" series was a picture on a pack of "Kazbek" cigarettes, and for his famous "Palms" the artist uses stencil technique.
Tistol is not alone to enjoy such experiments. In 2013, his "Coloring Book" painted by 31st Ukrainian Fashion Week visitors in a joint installation by Tistol and designer Anastasia Ivanova, was sold at Phillips auction for a record $53,900. "He is like searching from which side will he be seized by the market and carried off into the world's top segment", says Denis Belkevich, director of the Red Art Galleries group of companies.
For 20 years Tistol paintings have been exhibited at 80 international contemporary art exhibitions, and 30 times they were traded at the largest world auctions. Over the past three years, the total capitalization of publicly traded Tistol's work has doubled and amounted to $278,000. "He created his own signature style and filled it with his meanings and interpretations", says Ruslan Tarabukin, art collector, founder of Art Capital Partners.
In 1972, the newly appointed head of Nikolaev regional department of culture Valentina Bolgarina departed from ideological standards of the Soviet official. Instead of books with reproductions of paintings by ideologically correct artists, Shishkin and Repin, the head of cultural department was buying scarce monographs on Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse works. At home a faithful reader was waiting for her, son Oleg, pupil of children art school. "My mother was my first and most important teacher", says Tistol.
After graduating from the children art school in 1974, he became a student of Kyiv Republican Taras Shevchenko Art School, where at various times many of now well-known Ukrainian artists have studied. There he became friends with Nikolai Matsenko and they still do joint projects together, and Marina Skugareva who later became his wife. "I came to Kyiv as advanced kid already: I painted in Matisse and Cezanne style and knew what I wanted to do next", says Tistol.
After his studies in Kyiv, he worked as a graphic designer at Nikolaev Art Fund. There were a lot of impressions: for about a year the young man painted posters and plaques, created visual propaganda. Tistol admits, that because artist in Soviet Union was destined for the role of propagandist he decided to go to study at Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts instead of Kyiv Art Institute. "With Lviv Institute diploma I could make design without sinking into an ideology", explains Oleg. But ideology did not let him go: in the army he had to deal with visual agitation too.
Although he did that in his own way. In the barracks of military unit near Kyiv Tistol met with artist Konstantin (Vinny) Reunov. "I worked in pop art style, and Kostya longed for expressionism. We were blending and practicing these techniques. After the army, we already knew what to do next", says Tistol.
In 1986, when Tistol returned to civilian life, "perestroika" was already unfolding in Soviet Union. But nobody was going to let contemporary artists into the cultural life of the country. It was possible to get your works to exhibition only as a free supplement to the works of giants of Soviet socialist realism. But heedful gallerists helped this new wave of artists come into prominence. For example, at the Republican Youth Exhibition 1987 works of giants were specially placed almost at the ceiling, while a new wave paintings were hung at visitors eye-level. "Then the floodgates opened, and a new generation burst into soviet stale air. Tistol was the first whom I met in this cohort", says Alexander Solovyov, art critic, deputy director at "Mystetskyi Arsenal" museum.
In 1987 Tistol and Reunov announced formation of creative association named "Volitional Face of National Post Eclecticism". The artists chose national symbols as the main object of study, on the wave of interest in national movement in the country. Unusual for the Soviet art mixing of different artistic techniques, original materials for paintings and play with holy symbols for Soviet citizen has interested many art curators. A year later Tistol was invited to take part in the first Soviet-American exhibition "Soviart", which was held in Kyiv. Then he met with Moscow artist Dmitry Cantor who offered Tistol to work in his studio at "Furmannyy lane" squat in Moscow.
Tistol decided to move without hesitation. The same year first in the history of USSR Sotheby's auction was held in Moscow, and European collectors started flocking to the capital to discover Soviet alternative art. "Focus on Soviet art was bolstered by the flow of collectors and art dealers into such squats as "Furmannyy lane ", confirms Solovyov.
Nobody knew how to work with foreign collectors and representatives of auction houses. Aspiring Russian curator Olga Sviblova took the talented Ukrainian artist under her patronage. She was already known abroad as director of films about contemporary art, she was familiar with European art market and her relationships gave Tistol an opportunity to get to the main exhibitions of the time — in Glasgow, Helsinki and Reykjavik. "He is one of those artists that up from the Soviet times were constantly involved in both domestic and international artistic events", says Tarabukin.
First sales brought good amount of money to Tistol. The artist remembers that for two paintings, which he sold to art collector from the United Kingdom in 1991, he bought a three-bedroom apartment in Kyiv. However, the earnings were unstable at the time. Interest in Soviet contemporary art began to fade as soon as the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Economical collapse and transition to barter aggravated the situation still. "Artists often were paid with VCRs, refrigerators and TVs", recollects Matsenko.
In 1993, the artist returned to Ukraine. Moscow connections allowed him to become a participant in the Brazilian Biennale of Sao Paulo in 1994 and in Moscow Photo Biennale in 1996. In addition, Ukraine was in the midst of mass privatization, and wealthy Ukrainians have become even richer. It was then, notes Matsenko, when first domestic collectors of contemporary art appeared. Tistol and Matsenko with their "Natsprom" and "Ukrainian Money" projects, which were based on symbols of the young Ukrainian state, quickly became popular. At the beginning of 2000s Tistol's works got into collections of businessmen Igor Voronov and Viktor Gordeyev, architect Andrei Suprunenko, and in the mid-2000s, a billionaire Viktor Pinchuk. "Some of my collectors, such as Slava Konstantinovsky [Vyacheslav Konstantinovsky, a restaurateur and co-owner of Kyiv Donbas Development Group], I know for a long time, he was one of the first to collect my paintings. These collectors are my favorite", says Tistol.
In 2007, key event in the modern Ukrainian art happened: Sotheby's European division director Marc Poltimor visited Ukraine. Top manager of the largest auction house was impressed with the level of Ukrainian artists. But the joy soon passed. Sotheby's experts did not know with whom to negotiate participation of Ukrainian works in the auctions. According to Tistol there was simply no one to represent artists from Ukraine.
Long-time admirer of Tistol's art, businessman Igor Abramovich decided to take a lead. He was not a professional art dealer, his initial profile was transportation of various goods, and paintings were on of them. Gradually Abramovich learned the subtleties of Ukrainian art market, he became friends with artists and began to gather their works. He started with Tistol. "I bought his first work long before we started to collaborate", says Abramovich.
He actually tested the new craft on Tistol. Their first joint project was the artist's solo exhibition at Moscow Museum of Modern Art in 2009. The same year Tistol's paintings went to London for Sotheby's auction. One of his joint works with Matsenko was sold for £5,000. Owing to Abramovich's activity Tistol's paintings have visited most important exhibitions and auctions over the few years. According to estimates by Belkevich, 17 of his 30 auctioned paintings were sold exactly in 2010 and 2011, and total cost of the works sold at auctions was about $130,000.
Collectors of Tistol's art enjoy his prices. In conversation with Forbes the artist allowed that some of his paintings has seriously appreciated in value, but he does not hurry to change the price tags. The memory is fresh about a cautionary tale of his Moscow friend, artist Nikolai Filatov. In 1988, Elton John bought his picture. The transaction amount was sensational for the Soviet art of that time: $300,000. After that Filatov's pictures got into London catalogs and galleries and prices soared. But that was all. The legendary singer was the first and the last, who could afford to invest so much in a Soviet art masterpiece. "Filatov spent 10 years with no money and even the sum earned from Elton John he received in the form of some cheques. I learned this economy lesson", notes Tistol.
A sober approach to pricing has another advantage: his paintings are almost always sold above estimate. For example, "Ocean" was sold at Phillips de Pury in 2010 for $28,750, which is considerably higher than the estimate. In 2013 at Sotheby's auction "Eggs with mayonnaise" painting went to private collection for twice the price, $12,400. In the same year at Sotheby's "Chinese III" painting was sold for $36,500, one and a half times higher than the estimate. Rising prices are a sign of profitable investment in Tistol's art in the eyes of many collectors. At the same time, stresses Belkevich, Tistol's rate of unsold works does not exceed the European average, about 30%.
Tistol has a gentlemen's agreement with Abramovich: art dealer takes a 20-40% commission of the sold paintings price. The artist is completely satisfied with the scheme. According to him, before Abramovich has engaged in sales process, price spread for the painting was very big, from commercial prices for collectors to quite accessible ones for friends, among whom, however, were also collectors. "When Igor got involved, I switched exclusively to presentation of paintings, while he conducts sales", explains Tistol. "Now, I know many buyers just as some good guys, but I do not know what they bought."
LAST YEAR the artist suffered a heart attack. Heart has malfunctioned during the events on Maidan. Tistol has painted little at that time, instead he was making plywood shields for protesters. These shields, charred and with traces of bullets, became exhibits for "I'm a Drop in the Ocean" exhibition held last spring in Vienna. "Oleg was very worried; it is respected among collectors, but Tistol lost health because of this", regrets Abramovich.
Tistol's admirers has repeatedly offered him to move to Europe, but the artist does not plan to leave Ukraine. "Exactly now and here, in Ukraine, in the state on the edge of Europe, the most urgent cultural issues in the past 70 years are being resolved", believes Tistol. "Crises are very stimulating for the creative process. Fed and serene artist works little", says art crtitic Olesya Avramenko, head of Visual Practices Department at Modern Art Research Institute of Ukrainian Academy of Arts.
According to art curator Evgenia Smirnova, amid the unstable political and economic situation since the end of 2013, a large number of interesting works has appeared on the market. Solovyov hopes that crisis will force collectors to invest more in modern art, which is not getting cheaper, but only appreciates. "It is easier for a foreign collector to catch talented art works in Ukraine, as there is a strong school and high emotional stress", says Avramenko.
TOP TEN
Oleg Tistol's most expensive auction sales.
Source: Sotheby's, Phillips
2009 "Yalta, the city of happiness", "Palms" series, Phillips de Pury, $20,400
2011 "Sea", "Yu. Be. Ka" series, Phillips de Pury, $28,800
"Lamp", "Yu. Be. Ka" series, Phillips de Pury, $26,200
2013 "Coloring Book", "Palms" series, Phillips, $53,900
"Chinese III", "Aliens" series, Sotheby's, $36,500
"Polyptych", "Food" series, Phillips, $22,000
"Rope", "Palms" series, Phillips, $18,000
"Eggs with Mayonnaise", "Food" series, Sotheby's, $12,400
2014 "Caucasus №32", "Mountains" series, Sotheby's, $23,500
"Caucasus №31", "Mountains" series, Phillips, $17,500
