Slava Mogutin Puts Five Questions to Rita Ackermann

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Having encountered Rita Ackermann’s work years ago, shortly after I emigrated from Siberia to New York City in the mid-’90s, I immediately fell in love with her universe. I was impressed with the scale of her paintings, collages, and objects and the kind of seductive, contagious energy that they radiated. Her imagery is primal, sensual, and phantasmagorical, while her style is raw, spontaneous, and organic. Unlike most artists, she’s not afraid of switching from one medium to another, redefining them and mixing them all together. All this, coupled with her Eastern European background — similar to mine — made Rita one of my favorite artists and a major inspiration for my own practice. But it was only recently that we met and became friends. Visiting Rita’s studio and witnessing her creating new work with her daughter, Marika, was a truly captivating experience. I couldn’t help thinking that I’d love to join them. — Slava Mogutin

There’s a whole tradition of contemporary painters, from Chuck Close to Elizabeth Peyton, who paint primarily from existing photographs. I’ve seen some of your own pictures and know that photography is one of your many creative outlets. How do you feel about using existing images as a source material for your work?

I was going to ask you the same question: how do you, an artist/photographer who is reluctantly seeking inspiring subjects, feel about paintings that are transcribing images of photography into the medium of painting? I use photography to create a new image or a composition through collage, building it into my imagination. Painting from photography can often leave one with a rather empty feeling that only entertains the eyes but not the soul.

I’ve always felt restricted by any particular genre or medium, and wanted to realize myself in all the things that interested me: writing, photography, performance, video work, installation, etc. One of the most appealing things about your work is the fact that you combine many different elements and mediums. Your latest paintings are, in fact, giant collages or objects constructed of many elements, including various found objects, pieces of personal clothing, even shower curtains. What’s your preferred medium du jour?

Actually, since my last show, my new works are rather straight-up Expressionist paintings that combine drawing, printed-paper, and sculptural elements as painterly mediums. The result of using all the mediums together is primal — almost like cave paintings. They are heavy like rocks but translucent and ghostly at the same time, like a map of the surroundings and thoughts and feelings traveling through one’s mind. My goal is to make them look very simple, with all the complexities of human experiences. They would strike with the primitiveness of the first drawing that a human ever made, so looking at them, the image can go through anybody’s consciousness as a primal feeling. Therefore, I like to use my hand instead of a brush to become one with the feeling: the urge of leaving a mark behind that strives for perfection.

I like working with kids because they don’t think of a process of picture-taking or artmaking as something forced or heavily conceptual. When I photographed you working with your daughter, Marika, I saw how you two complement each other and feed on each other’s ideas and energy. How did you start working together, and what’s the most exciting thing about your collaboration?

Painting can find its most sophisticated concept in the masterpiece of a child. For me, children’s artworks are the ultimate perfect images that visualize the vanishing point of perfection where the beginning and the end of civilization melt in one. If you look at the works of master imitations, primal, brut, childlike arts are the ones that succeed to exhibit both ends. Watching children make art is the greatest thing. They don’t manipulate but follow their inner drive; however, as they get older, they become more and more conscious of the rules of good and bad.