The Book of Adam. Alexey Dubinsky

— Vova Lipnitsky curated an exhibition at the We Art gallery on Nikolina Gora, for which I had made a triptych. Sergey Gridchin attended and picked me right out of the crowd. He said, ‘I like everything. Why don't you come to my gallery? Here is my phone number. Let's discuss working together.’ I didn't go right away. I didn't even think about it for a while. But soon enough I took my canvases and paints, called Sergey, and said that I wanted to come visit and get acquainted. I got there, did a portrait and made a sketch, and stayed at Gridchinhall for two more days. I did some other things there, wrote a bit, and after a while I moved in.

— When you work with a series, you are very gentle with it. You do a huge piece and you like it so much… You think you are going to become this great artist who paints big canvases with lots of paint. And after a while, you look at them and think, ‘Well, they’re just paintings. I can add something here and erase something there.’ Over time, you become more realistic and see things more clearly, without emotions, allowing you to actually complete the work. It's like good wine. You can't drink it right away, and you can only understand it after a while.

— I finished the series before I started working at TSUM (the Moscow Central Department Store). I had just finished a painting the day before when I got a call from TSUM asking if I wanted to try my hand there. I thought for five minutes, called back, and said yes. I had never done anything like it before and was unfamiliar with the process, but I agreed. I went to TSUM right after the “Red Project”, and there I began a new phase in my life, a new page in my biography.

 

— There are many moving figures in the “Red Project”. Naturally, this motion was all studied in life and planned out in sketches. You have to learn how certain movements can be expressed, whether a person can move like that at all, and what such movements indicate. This is the task of the observer. The art of observation is the first thing an artist must obtain. Drawing from nature teaches one to be attentive, vigilant, and observant – to contemplate.