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Variants of the name of the exhibition batik and porcelain. Exhibition of batik by Tatyana Kapustina

At the end of January, an exhibition of batik by a local artist opened in Cherepovets Kapustina Tatiana called "The Circle".

You can see her batik paintings in the Panteleev Memorial Workshop. In the regional center, such an event is the first for the author. Although Kapustina has been painting on fabric for more than 20 years.

Tatyana Igorevna was born in 1949, in 1973 she graduated from the Moscow Textile Institute.

The exhibition presents works made in the technique of cold and hot batik. These are decorative panels, paintings and other interior items. A distinctive feature of the works is the predominance of abstract, associative and plant motifs. Tatyana especially loves twisted, swirling lines in compositions, which is probably why she called this collection "Circle".

Irina Balashova, who opened the exhibition, noticed that almost always the artist's cold batik is made in bright contrasting colors, but her hot technique loves monochrome combinations.

Many flattering reviews were left about the paintings not only by amateurs, but also by colleagues. Here are the words of the chairman of the local Union of Artists:

“There are works - slipped a glance and went on, and these - they sing! The drawing is subtle, attentive. If we consider this exhibition in spiritual terms, then it is very bright, does not put pressure on the viewer, but, on the contrary, inspires.”

Her work is quite modern, because it harmoniously intertwines the ancient experience of textile masters and the latest developments and technologies, as well as her own, spiritual view of the world.

The works are bright, positive, unusual. Most of all, Tatyana Igorevna loves to make panels, because interior things help to express her creative individuality more vividly. It is always interesting what inspires the author for this or that image? Here is what Kapustina herself says about this.

For some reason, I never perceived batik as an art, or rather, I simply didn’t think about it. Batik is beautiful shawls, interesting needlework, all sorts of drops, drips, overflows and silk.
And then, quite by accident, when visiting the Museum of Water, we found ourselves in a small room lined with canvases. Under the cut I will tell and show what it was)

It turned out that this was an exhibition of students of the College of Arts and Crafts named after Carl Faberge. Here again a discovery: it always seemed to me that institutions with such big names are something old, which was once a school for apprentices, then some kind of school for working youth, then a vocational school, and now a college. But no! This school was founded in 2005!

To my surprise, all the works were not signed, which is a pity and, in my opinion, somehow wrong. However, you will now see that it is possible to distinguish the hand of one author in several works.

According to the annotation to the exposition, the word "batik" comes from the Indonesian batik, in which ba is a cloth, and tik is a drop.

And then I will quote from the description of the exhibition: "The entire exposition consists of 19 works of "silk art" on the water theme, but they are all very different. Young artists are distinguished by their own style, technique, vision, each picture is a part of the soul and attitude of the author.

Here two-layer batik - the most complex painting technique using melted wax pouring, rollers, etc. And all this is expressed in the landscape genre, which gives the author incredible freedom of expression. To convey in a special language the beauty of the water world - this is the task that the "batikist" artists set themselves, and which they undoubtedly coped with.

On the canvases - rivers, cast-iron fences of embankments, quiet streets of cities with stone houses, alleys, temples - frozen music through which artists convey their perception of water.

The landscapes of the paintings are calm and spiritual, gentle and refined, predisposed for reflection. The exposition seems to invite viewers to take a trip along the water surface of the seas, large rivers and small streams, and even look into the mysterious underwater world."

Of course, I am wildly sorry, I have never been an art critic, but in my opinion they were too smart with the description;) You can clearly feel an attempt to unite the entire exposition with one theme, attracting even clearly out-of-the-way plots to it. Why not just call it the Batik Symphony, for example? Or then it would be impossible to exhibit at the Museum of Water?

Whatever it was, the work itself made an impression! It's me, again, I'm sorry, I clicked on the phone, plus monitors often distort. In general, take my word for it: colors, transitions are simply magical!

With great pleasure I looked at the pictures up close - I was curious about "how it was done") With admiration - from afar. All strokes merge into a very realistic (when the plot requires it) picture so that it even seems voluminous.

A variety of styles convinces that technology is undeservedly deprived of attention. At least by me) Do you often meet batik - as art, and not as applied art?

Here, I take my leave for this) Thank you for sharing a little more impressions with me))

p.s. Incredibly, even the Water Museum itself does not have its own website, but only a miserable section on the Mosvodokanal website. So there is no need to say that I did not find information about the dates of this exhibition, and therefore, alas, I cannot recommend it for a visit. But, if someone really wants to, I think you can call the museum.

Publications in the Traditions section

Riddles of patterns of Russian paintings

Have Gzhel dishes always been blue and white, what traditional painting was born after the October Revolution, and why do the painted caskets glow? We understand the secrets of folk art crafts.

Golden bowls. Khokhloma painting

The master began his work by beating the buckets - he prepared wooden blocks (buckles) from linden, aspen or birch. They made wooden spoons and ladles, cups and salt shakers from them. The dishes not yet decorated with painting were called linen. The linen was primed and dried several times, and then painted in yellow, red and black tones. Floral ornaments, flowers, berries, lace twigs were popular motifs. Forest birds on Khokhloma dishes reminded the peasants of the Firebird from Russian fairy tales, they said: “The Firebird flew past the house and touched the bowl with its wing, and the bowl became golden”.

After drawing the pattern, the products were covered with drying oil two or three times, tin or aluminum powder was rubbed into the surface and dried in an oven. After hardening with heat, they acquired a honey hue and really shone like gold.

At the beginning of the 18th century, dishes began to be brought to the Makariev Fair, where sellers and buyers from all over Russia gathered. Khokhloma products were known throughout the country. Since the 19th century, when guests from all over Europe and Asia began to come to the Nizhny Novgorod fair, painted dishes appeared in many parts of the world. Russian merchants sold products in India and Turkey.

Snowy background and blue patterns. Gzhel

Snowy background and blue patterns. Gzhel. Photo: rusnardom.ru

Snowy background and blue patterns. Gzhel. Photo: gzhel-spb.ru

Snowy background and blue patterns. Gzhel. Photo: Sergey Lavrentiev / Photobank Lori

Gzhel clay has been known since the time of Ivan Kalita - from the 14th century. Local craftsmen used it to create "vessels for apothecary's needs", dishes and children's toys. At the beginning of the 19th century, factories appeared in the Gzhel volost, where porcelain was made. The first enterprise here was founded in 1810 by the merchant Pavel Kulichkov. At first, painting on porcelain dishes was colored, but in the middle of the 19th century, the fashion for white and blue Dutch tiles and Chinese porcelain of the same shades came to Russia. Soon, blue patterns on a snowy background became a hallmark of Gzhel painting.

To check the quality of porcelain, before painting, the product was dipped in fuchsin - red aniline paint. Porcelain was painted in an even pink color, and any crack was noticeable on it. Masters painted with cobalt paint - before firing it looks black. With the help of special techniques, working only with a brush and paint, the artists created more than 20 shades of blue.

Gzhel plots are lush roses (they were called "agashki" here), winter landscapes, scenes from folk tales. Children go sledding, Emelya catches a pike in the pond, the villagers celebrate Maslenitsa ... After drawing the picture, the dishes were covered with glaze and fired. Pink products with black patterns acquired their traditional look.

Luminous brooches and jewelry boxes. Fedoskino lacquer miniature

“When we organized the artel, we had only one collection of Pushkin’s works for seven people ... This largely explains the fact that we wrote most of our miniatures on Pushkin’s stories.”
Alexander Kotukhin, miniaturist

In 1932, Palekh artists met with Maxim Gorky, who called the Palekh lacquer miniature "one of the miracles created by the October Revolution". At his request, Ivan Golikov painted miniatures for the deluxe edition of The Tale of Igor's Campaign.

From May 23 to June 29, 2014 in the Central Exhibition Hall of the city of Kolomna there is an exhibition "Invitation to Travel". Let's admire the batik presented at the exhibition.

Lyubov Toshcheva is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia, a laureate of the Malyutin Prize, a regular participant in republican, regional and zonal exhibitions. Some of her works are in Moscow, many others are in galleries and private collections in Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France and Italy. Her stoles are worn by famous women, including Hillary Clinton.

Toshcheva Lyubov "Night Fairy" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Russian beauty" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Lovers" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Secret door" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Prosperity" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Peace" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "At the top" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Infinity" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Queen of winter" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Queen of Spring" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Queen of summer" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Queen of Autumn" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Music of sadness" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov "Song of Joy" Cold batik, silk

Toshcheva Lyubov Cold batik, silk

Marina Edmundovna Orlova

Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Marina Edmundovna Orlova graduated from the Ivanovo School of Artistic and Industrial Design, department of artistic design of fabrics. Worked as a textile artist. Since 1979 he has been participating in art exhibitions. Member of the Union of Artists of Russia (1991), member of the Union of Designers of Russia (2002). One of the significant masters working in the technique of batik is known both in Russia and abroad, a participant in numerous all-Union, republican, regional and international exhibitions. In 2012 she was awarded the Grand Prix for the triptych “Confrontation. Shadows of the Past" at an exhibition dedicated to the war of 1812, held at the Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts in Moscow.

Honored Artist of Russia Marina Orlova "Secrets of the Ocean" (triptych) Gor. batik, nat. silk

Honored Artist of Russia Marina Orlova "Old Leaves" (diptych) Gor. batik, nat. silk

Honored Artist of Russia Orlova Marina Gor. batik, nat. silk

Irina Nikolaevna Kazimirova is one of the most talented batikists,. was born in Ivanovo. In 1974 she graduated from the Ivanovo Chemical-Technological College with a degree in textile design. Her work is well known among artists and specialists in the decorative arts. Her works were exhibited not only in Russia, but also in Germany, India, Italy, Luxembourg. She is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia and the international association of fine arts AIAP - UNESCO.

Kazamirova Irina "Salute to the winners" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "Forbs 1" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "By the water 1" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "By the water 2" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "Alpine hill 1" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "Alpine Hill 2" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "Waterfall" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "Mirror" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina “Keepers. Bird" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina “Keepers. Leo" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "Red Irises" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "Vitamin" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "On the window" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Kazimirova Irina "Evening" Nat. silk, mountain batik

Miloserdova Anna
Anna entered art twice: the first time - having been born and formed in a family of artists, the second - already a mature person with solid experience in the field of German philology, in which Anna received her education at the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, where she was pushed by the dream of translating poetry.
Artistic education (in addition to the invaluable atmosphere of her home) Anna received at the Moscow State Textile Academy. The peculiarity of Anna's creative path lies in the interweaving of poetic, research and artistic aspirations. Love for the wisdom of pagan cultures, research at the intersection of language, psychology and ethnology, numerous translations of poetry, fiction, popular and specialized literature from a number of languages, the creation of the Faculty of Linguistics and Regional Studies at the International Slavic University in Moscow and the leadership of the Unified Faculty of Humanities, the teaching of languages and ancient culture − such is the range of interests and activities of this person. Anna's work is equally attractive both for specialists, colleagues in the shop, and for the widest audience. She was repeatedly awarded certificates of honor and diplomas in the field of artistic creativity. In 2008 Anna Miloserdova was awarded the Diploma of the Russian Academy of Arts for a series of batik and painting panels. At the moment, the artist is a member of the AHDI of the Moscow Union of Artists, the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation, the IHF and the Society for Culture and Art.

Miloserdova Anna "June rain" from the series "Year on the wings of butterflies" silk, mixed. cotton/batik

Miloserdova Anna "Dragon" from the series "Eastern calendar" silk, batik, mix. technique

Continuation.

"Soul Spilled with Paint"

In fact, drawing on the usual hard "carriers" is much more convenient. Even primitive artists knew this, and their creations have been preserved forever. However, some artists face difficulties - they choose painting on fabric. At the same time, everyone selects the technique “to taste”, according to temperament. Someone is inspired by the smell of heated wax and the mystery of ceilings, someone is inspired by the convenience of free painting and modern dyes.

Tatyana Shikhireva says: “I got carried away with hot batik and I try not to deviate ... Anyone who has worked in this technique knows that first you need to do the lightest, then darker and darker. And all the time you have to keep in mind what I had light, what was dark. It is so interesting and exciting that it is difficult to refuse such work.
Others prefer to paint fabrics specifically for clothes: “I like cotton or silk to live - wrinkle, flutter in the wind, sometimes be visible through the light, and most importantly, that it sometimes touches someone’s cheek and is needed by someone” ( Veronika Pavlenko).
Some tapestry masters also work in batik, others stop at one thing. “When it’s hot all the time, you have to think about how it is then, all the time before your eyes it’s not work, but a crust of wax. Fire hazard when doing (it happened once!). In the cold - some kind of frivolity. And everywhere - technology - 90 percent! With a tapestry, everything is exactly the opposite. Yes, there is a lot of preparation. But the process is a fairy tale. It's simple, like 2x2, that is, all the creative tension on the plot, composition, plastic solution ... The pens are clean. The image is visible immediately, well, maybe not everything is on the side, but this is nothing compared to hot batik,” says Olga Popova.
Elena Dorozhkina prefers painting on silk: “The more I do batik, the further away I go from its classical techniques (cold, hot). They limit my creative desires, do not allow me to make complex plot compositional ideas. Cold batik is a contour - a border, it does not allow you to create subtle, picturesque shades. Hot - completely with wax, where everything is very decorative, but monosyllabic and flat, these techniques, as a rule, involve decorating fabric for clothes, in fact, for which batik was invented. It's not enough for me. In the process of many years of work in batik, I discovered my own technique that allows me to realize my plots on silk. My technique is free painting. As a rule, according to a preliminary sketch. Silk allows the paint to spread beautifully, gently, and often suggests new effects itself, you just need to catch them, show them, and emphasize them. The process is complex, subtle, but interesting. We can say that we interact with this technology” .
Dorozhkina Elena(city of Korolev). Summer. 2005. Silk. Free painting. 49x50 cm. WITH ait

Let us turn again to the origins, this time - the origin of the author's batik in the USSR. The founder of the Latvian school of tapestry, artist Rudolf Heimrat (1926–1992), began his career in the 1950s with batik and ceramics. In the early 1960s, Juozas Balchikonis (1924–2010), the founder of the Lithuanian school of artistic textiles, began his experiments in the hot batik technique. These were linen curtains and wall panels based on Lithuanian folk songs and legends. His experience is still interesting, in particular because he seems to be the only artist (in the USSR and present-day Russia) who used vegetable dyes in batik. For example, the artist obtained greenish and brown tones from tree bark, moss and rust. His son Kestutis also created original, poetic works.
Balchikonis Kestutis(Lithuania). Holiday on the Neman. 1978. Cotton. Hot batik. 230x304 cm. National Museum of Lithuania.
Refined figures are sitting on oars, three "grace"s are dancing on the right, in the center of the composition there is a Tree and swans.

Monumental batiks, close to fresco painting, made a strong impression at exhibitions. It became clear that batik is quite worthy to take a place in the public interior.
The exhibition of Juozas Balchikonis in Moscow in the early 1970s made such a big impression on Irina Trofimova that she devoted her entire artistic life to this art form. The artist studied the technique of batik in Delhi. She visited many Asian republics and countries of Southeast Asia. For half a century of work (since 1962) in the author's batik, she has never betrayed the hot batik, her own style and the monumental size of the canvases (usually they are 265x100 cm in size). Irina Trofimova believes that the traditional ancient technique does not limit the possibilities of the author, but helps in creativity. Honored Artist of Russia, she worked in the association "Spring" for more than 30 years. She has created over 1,000 award-winning themed and souvenir designs for headscarves. More than 100 monumental panels, many of which are kept in the museums of the country and abroad. And every year there are new series devoted to various topics. On the canvases there are usually large figures in costumes that exactly correspond to the era, objects that symbolize the chosen theme. The characters pray, read, dance, talk, watch us from there, from their frozen eternity.
Trofimova Irina(Moscow). Egypt. China. Middle Ages. Triptych. 2010. Cotton. Hot batik. 265x100 cm.

In November 2011, Irina Trofimova became the inspirer and organizer of the unique Textile Fresco exhibition at the Belyaevo Gallery in Moscow. Only large-scale works (from 2 meters) by artists from different Russian cities were presented here. Cm.
When we have a large-format work in front of us, you expect deep content from it. This unusual exhibition was intended to remind about this not utilitarian, but high, spiritual hypostasis of batik.
The origins of the current monumental batik go back to ancient times. The complex subject compositions of the frescoes of the cave temples of India later switched to fabrics created using different painting techniques. These were sacred drawings on the curtains of walls, niches and doors of temples, ritual chariots. Fabrics that have been preserved since the Middle Ages have mythical and epic plots, sometimes scenes of court life. Temple curtains are known, reaching the size of 3x6 (8) meters. Drawing on them was applied with a stick of thick paint. Wax batik was developed in southern India.
But back to our country. Following Irina Trofimova, others began to get involved in batik. So from Europe, in a roundabout way, through the Baltic artists, the reserve technique for creating a pattern on fabric again came to Russia.
For an artist working in the textile industry (design of fabrics, headscarves, curtains), the author's batik has become an outlet since the 70s, allowing him to engage in free creativity.
During the period of perestroika, batik was a good help for those artists who were unclaimed. Many tapestry masters switched to painting. Since the end of the 1990s, more and more students choose batik for their thesis work, less and less - labor-intensive tapestry. In recent years, decorative art has come to life after the "Time of Troubles", large-scale biennials, triennials (albeit with reservations to the tastes of the organizers) provide an opportunity to see artists from all regions at the same time. There have never been such exhibitions on batik, but the Internet is gradually destroying borders and distances, making it possible to see a lot, although the impressions of a “live” work and a virtual one can be very different.
Bulychev Yuri. Time. Mechanics. Album.

There are artists who have been successfully working all their lives in the chosen technique and in one style. There are multifaceted authors, it is impossible to make an impression about their work from one work, so I give, where possible, the addresses of their sites. We have known some of them for many years, others are just beginning to work interestingly in various textile painting techniques. In order not to build fashionable now "ratings", then I present the artists in random order.

In the works of Elena Kosulnikova, the elongated format of narrow fabric (250 (300) x 90 cm) does not interfere with seeing the breadth of Russian open spaces “behind the scenes”. Native and always a little sad landscape, little changed over the centuries and perestroika. In the recent work from this series - "Russian North" more color appeared, as if the sun came out, melted the snow, broke the gloomy monochrome and pleased us with the approaching spring.
Kosulnikova Elena(Moscow). Russian North. 2011. Hot batik.

The latest works of the author reflect the impressions

The works of the Honored Artist of Russia Tatyana Shikhireva are a "one-artist theater" sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow. Her works in the technique of hot batik on silk are immediately recognizable. These are stories about the serious passions of the Beautiful Lady, Columbine, Pierrot, Harlequin. Each composition becomes an exquisite story from the history of different countries and eras. “I want to show the drama, the tragedy that develops in this image. I always go from some intrigue. I really like to draw details, for example, a neck with a frill, a wedding with flowers. Interesting reference to some other era. I dig a lot in books on history, fashion from different eras, find some image for myself and create my own picture,” says the artist. Often several scenes are played out at once on several canvases of different shapes, which make up not a series, but a single composition. The action, at times, continues on the frame, where you can also meet the author, who cares about his characters. And who is hiding behind the column? Isn't it Himself...?
Shikhireva Tatiana(Moscow). Annunciation. The left side of the composition. 2000. Hot batik Album.

In a series of batiks by Ivan Kharchenko, the breathtaking difference in the scale of a man, his barely visible head and the colossal, but graceful, carcass of a bull that did not fit on the canvas, seems unbearable. As if we are looking at it in a sharply compressed perspective due to a very close low point. And, nevertheless, a small man dressed in a Russian folk costume wins this bullfight. Overcomes the "animal in itself."
Kharchenko Ivan(Sergiev Posad). Taming of the Shrew. OK. 2010. Cotton. hot batik

And such a daring plot as Tatyana Chagorova's ("Many girls - I'm alone"), it seems, has not yet been in batik. The form is also unusual - it is a single composition consisting of five large canvases.
Chagorova Tatiana(Penza). "Many girls - I'm alone." Polyptych. 2010. Cotton. Hot batik. 180x80cm. each part

Snow is a fertile subject for artists working on fabric, because batik usually begins with a white canvas. It remains only to apply color spots to the remaining places ... Olga Gamayunova's triptychs resemble mother-of-pearl inlays, alluring with a mysterious brilliance and gentle play of tones: “The world of my works is an idealized Middle Ages: castles and small villages among the endless expanses of fields and forests, mountains and rivers. The seasons change there, and life goes on as usual. Of course, there is the influence of Walter Scott and Tolkien, but all this is already part of my inner world, which I try to tell in my works. The three parts are not formally connected, but are a single composition.
Gamayunova Olga(Moscow). Winter. The central part of the triptych. 2006. Silk. Cold batik

Marina Lukashevich (1968–2000) disproved the prejudice many years ago that not all subjects are suitable for batik - she once came up with a title for her exhibitions: “Is there life on silk?”. And on her silk, indeed, there was a real life, and a fabulous one. In her works in the technique of cold batik, absolute looseness, light, free drawing, boundless imagination, humor, bright decorativeness, and original handwriting are visible.
The images, as if in a race, are in a hurry to come true, to escape from non-existence: “My soul, spilling paint, can so freely, so accurately be imprinted on silk matter.” She invented the technique of two-layer batik, in which two almost transparent compositions on thin silk are located in parallel: “Just leave two flat transparent images on one stretcher for a while - they will immediately merge into ... a third, already “volumetric” picture.” The result is the illusion of living, moving images, especially if the viewer himself is moving.
Lukashevich Marina(Moscow). Angel. Silk.

Lukashevich Marina. Man and cat. Silk. double batik

(Photo from personal site)

Talent is often multifaceted: being an actress of the cabaret theater "The Bat", she wrote fairy tales and essays on philosophical topics, and was engaged in animation. The works of Marina Lukashevich, who passed away early, can be viewed at her website.

Unusually decorative works of Anna Miloserdova can be considered for a long time, gradually finding more and more significant details. Apparently, William Blake wrote about such artists (translated by S. Ya. Marshak):
“In one moment to see eternity,
The vast world is in a grain of sand,
In a single handful - infinity
And the sky is in a cup of a flower.
From a kaleidoscope of the smallest details and symbols, bewitching, graphically accurate, concise images are formed, behind which large cultural layers are felt. Real birds, tigers, snakes, sheep turn into fabulously beautiful creatures. The works attract unexpected angles, hyperbolicity, a close and kind view of the world. Birds are especially good: an arrogant turkey, someone's sleepy, warm comfort of down and feathers, the joy of a sparrow splashing in a spring puddle. Patterns on cheerful multi-colored elephants turn out to be dimensionless women's skirts ...
A witty technique for connecting individual panels into a single work by joining some details, for example, elephant tusks.
Miloserdova Anna(Moscow). The course of things. Triptych. 2007. Silk. Cold batik, painting. 70x210 cm. Moscow, Darwin Museum Album

It is interesting to observe how traditional symbols come to life in the work of contemporary artists not as a formal quotation, a set of well-known signs, but organically. When a symbol takes on a new shape, it is as if reborn, refracting with the author's, today's understanding of life. In the work of O. Lozhkina. "Song of the Ancestors" - primitive drawings of elks and hunters, moved from the rocks to a thin fabric so that they could be seen in distant lands. Drawings and symbols multiply and multiply, turning the rocky shores on the fabric into a mixture of ancient signs from different eras. Letters come to the surface of the earth, crowding, as if saying: “Here we are! We are alive, we are with you, do not forget us, because we are the voices of your ancestors, the very first book written by mankind! The lower island rises, comes to life and grows up to the sky, one of the mythical celestial moose - the mistress of the world, and the second is already separated from it ...
Lozhkina O.(Izhevsk). Song of the ancestors. Cold batik. 145x60 cm.

Serious (not custom-made), sometimes philosophical themes in batik are a rarity, and solved ones are also interestingly decorative - doubly so. Svetlana Shikhova added a traditional Uzbek quilting technique to the painting. The stitch passes along the lines of the reserve, then separates the color spots.
Shikhova Svetlana(Uzbekistan, Fergana). Melon seller. 2010. Silk. 70x60 cm.

As soon as the artist takes as a basis even a simple technique, for example, a completely free painting, as in the works of Alexander Talaev, and the canvas turns into monumental art.
Talaev Alexander. Christmas night. 2009. Silk. free painting

The plots of Maria Kaminskaya are infinitely varied. These are field and garden flowers, marine life and insects, real and fictional characters surrounded by realistic everyday details, landscapes, elegant decorative compositions, sometimes mysterious, sometimes poetic, sometimes bright, sometimes gloomy. In this artist's world, even fish have their own face and character. The interior is always with a window behind which the city is either real or invented. Multi-color or subtly monochrome panels, laconic or with details that can be looked at endlessly. Whatever is depicted in the work, it is always decorative, picturesque and realistic at the same time. Album.
Kaminskaya Maria(Moscow). Ulya. From the Silk Road series. 2011. Silk. Painting. 70×70 cm.

Kaminskaya Maria. Dragonflies. From the Silk Road series. 2009. Silk. Cold batik. 33×80 cm.

Finding your own theme in art, your own style, so that you are recognized without looking at the signature, is a serious task for the artist. Bright author's handwriting creates the main miracle of art.
How much patience, time and ingenuity an artist sometimes needs to realize his plans! Sometimes experiments give rise to quite unusual techniques, as in the works of Sergei Pushkarev (1954–2006). He used silk-screen printing from sketches on wax paper with watercolors. The artist developed his own technique of painting with dyes on fabric laid in folds. In a flat form, the image was added with an airbrush. Album.
Sergei Pushkarev(Sergiev Posad). Winter sun. 1985. Silk. Author's technique. 90x160 cm

Sergey Pushkarev. Ancient music. Part of a triptych. 1980. Silk. Author's technique. 90x110 cm. Moscow, Museum of Modern Art

An unusual technique helped to convey in the work what is so difficult to express: impressions, emotions, philosophical searches for the meaning of life:
“... We fly infinity in us and above us,
It's sad on the firmament of the earth.
(From the artist's poems).

When combining different types of art, something interesting often comes up.
Victoria Kravchenko(1941–2009) supplemented batik with etching. More work.

Book graphic artist Elena Uzdenikova, working on batik at the same time, organically combined painting on silk with book illustrations for Persian fairy tales. When published (unlike ancient scrolls), the illustrations will be made in the usual printing way, but the miniatures will retain the unusual effect of drawing on the fabric. Album.
Uzdenikova Elena. Illustration for the Persian fairy tale "The Golden Carp". 2002. Silk. Cold batik, painting. 15x25 cm.

About the soul, acrylic and museum textiles

Any living feelings and thoughts that excite the artist, no matter how strange it may seem to someone when talking about decorative art, can be conveyed in a painting on fabric. And if the author really has them, then it is easy to find a corresponding non-standard, natural compositional solution. Then there will be no need for formal methods of dividing the plane with squares, stripes and other geometric shapes, these "scaffolding" that do not carry any semantic load.
Once I was present in Stroganovka at a discussion of a sketch of a student's graduation project with a teacher. Her tapestry was dedicated to the image of George the Victorious in a completely canonical version. The sketch was competently divided into three parts and even into different parts inside ... I thought: “What is Hecuba to her?”. It did not seem that the young girl was so passionate about this plot that she could spend many months of her creative life on it ...
“Spill your soul with paint”, and you willy or unwittingly share your pain and joy with the viewer. Then there will be a response in his soul.
For the viewer, if he does not understand the techniques of painting, it does not matter in what technique the work is made. He perceives the image as a whole.
Flowers that seem to flutter with petals, or a wave that is about to fall on an enthusiastic viewer, amaze with illusory authenticity and technical skill. Professional skill is undeniably necessary. But is technique the main thing in a work of art, and is photographic accuracy the goal of the artist? Recall Anatoly Zverev, who could ingeniously and concisely draw a portrait on a napkin with anything.
Working with hot wax is fascinating, it is akin to ancient magic. If an artist works in the "pure" technique of hot batik, this is of particular interest, but this does not mean that cold batik and other, author's, mixed techniques are "worse". They are just different ways of decorating fabric. The techniques for creating a pattern directly with a dye on a fabric are most likely even older than the methods of reservation. Painting on silk with mineral paints is traditional for China. Japanese artists have long used to create, for example, a kimono at the same time reserve, stencil, exquisite painting, embroidery, gilding.
Kimono. Fragment. Japan

In our time, when not only separate types of art are mixed, but even art, technology and science, it is not surprising that an inquisitive artist combines different techniques in one work, although the purity of a certain type of painting has its own charm. New methods of working on fabric are constantly being invented, and the industry quickly responds to new requests (or organizes them itself).
Acrylic paints are a modern analogue of ancient mineral paints and previous methods of dealing with dye spreading, such as adding salt to paints, thickening from starch, tragacanth, gelatin, etc. Oil paint was actively used in Russian old prints, in creating theatrical costumes. A picture painted with oil paints on canvas is also painting on fabric. But painting on fabric in other techniques, which can be mistaken for oil painting, for example, can hardly be considered a positive phenomenon, as well as any imitation of one technique by means of another. Dense covering paints gave artists the opportunity to draw on the fabric freely, as on paper. The artist chooses the technical means that will help to express his ideas as much as possible. Different types of dyes are used for different purposes: dense dyes are convenient for creating paintings on fabric, but are not suitable for clothing.
“A professional, it seems to me, is a person who is familiar with all known and owns all available technologies. I am for the experiment, as it gives rise to new effects, new techniques and technologies, often of the author's, and with them - new moods and sensations in the viewer, up to a new view of the world ...
I actively use acrylic, I think that good inventions should not be neglected. This is versatility, a wide, active palette, durability, long life, new effects. True, paints react differently to light, this must be taken into account ... Why acrylic on fabric, and not on paper? Because fabric is not paper. Acrylic does not equalize paper and textiles, and it does not determine the choice of technique. Different properties, different effects, hence different solutions, different results, different perceptions. If the work in textiles suggests why not on paper, then the author does not fully know and understand the material and does not know how to use its features,” says Anna Miloserdova.
Having moved from the category of a utilitarian product to an easel work, batik, at times, loses its decorative effect and acquires features characteristic of paintings: perspective, volume, chiaroscuro. The "pure" technique of hot or cold batik forces the artist (or helps him) to remain within the framework of decorative art, using the specifics of classical methods.
Choosing covering acrylic paints, the artist goes for the fact that under them a clear interweaving of cotton threads, a lively sheen of silk threads will be hidden. “The body paints cover the surface of the silk too thickly and prevent the painting from having a shine and proper transparency,” noted the silk painting manual, as early as 1624. The pattern remains on the surface without penetrating into the structure of the fabric, without turning into a single whole with it, as is the case with traditional dyeing of batik in a vat or painting with liquid dye.
It happens that techniques are piled on top of each other, this is perceived as violence against the pattern and fabric. The simplest solution is usually the best one.
The use of rollers, stamps or mechanized techniques reminiscent of them in easel batik seems meaningless. That's why it's author's, unique. The stamp is appropriate for the replicated production of fabric or utilitarian products.
And about the sad thing: more and more often the concept of beauty is leaving the works of art, the concept of beauty.
Bright colors do not yet guarantee a "bright" work. It is the personality of the artist that makes it so. Apparently, she also helps to find her own unique handwriting.
Batiks, which are actively sold at our opening days, in art salons, and via the Internet are now being made, at times, quite professionally. But they are replicated, they rarely have their own author's style, because they are designed for the average tastes of buyers (“so as in the photo, in detail, understandable and pretty”), and therefore do not have serious artistic value.
Of course, the problem of implementation always confronts the artist. Museums rarely pay attention to batik. The vulnerability of thin fabric, light and water fear, the fragility of batik, which is inferior in this to tapestry, and even more so to pictorial canvases, reduce its value in the eyes of buyers (and reduce prices).
In talented hands, batik is infinitely diverse. These are clear lines of drawing drawn with a glass tube, a pin or chanting, and live, unique strokes with a wax brush. This is staining with local spots inside the reserve line or smooth overflows of free painting, combined with a clear graphics of new materials.
Today, more active experiments with the use of batik in synthesis with other art forms, in interior design, would be interesting.
The works of contemporary artists show that everything is subject to batik. Any themes and scales: large-format, high-format, and even serial, thus overcoming the initial limitations of the width of the fabric.
All genres are available to batik: landscape and portrait, abstract decorative compositions and genre scenes, still lifes and animalistics.
Godich Marina. Winter evening. 2010. Silk. Cold batik. 56x56cm. Album.

Batik can impress the audience before the start of the performance with a large-scale curtain or grandiose sizes at an exhibition, in a museum or in a public interior. It can please with a small picture hanging at home above the sofa or in a strict director's office. Batik can turn into tablecloths, napkins, traditional national and European clothes.
He has only one weak point - defenselessness against time. And yet, a short-lived fabric often outlasts its creators. If there were an archive of works of art, where they could find a haven for the work of any authors, we would be much richer. So far, to some extent, only museums have overcome this problem. It is time to create a museum in Russia, if not of batik, then of textiles in general. And one could start with a serious, large-scale exhibition dedicated to both history and modern batik.

I thank E. Dorozhkina, M. Kaminskaya, T. Mazhitova, E. Uzdenikova, I. Kharchenko, and the family of Sergei Pushkarev for the photos.
P.S. I remind you that you can write comments even if you are not a member of LiveJournal.

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