Tanja Kuschpel was born in Moscow in 1989. Initially, she completed three years of studies to become a primary school teacher, but at the end of her studies she realized that her work would not offer her the development opportunities she sought. Against all and every advice, she decided to study art. For two years she took classes at a small school of design and composition to prepare for the entrance exam to the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of Ilya Glazunov, one of the most prestigious art schools in Moscow. In 2010 she was accepted, and in 2011 she received a scholarship from the academy for the remainder of her studies. Tanja graduated in 2017 with the best final thesis of her year and worked as an icon conservator in Moscow in the years that followed.
In contrast to museum conservation and restoration, the restoration of Russian icons is supposed to remain invisible. The work of art is supposed to appear as if it had been preserved intact and gently aged without suffering any damage. This requires knowledge and mastery of historical, especially medieval, painting and craft techniques, as well as the ability to induce artificial aging processes. For an invisible restoration, it is necessary to know exactly how the primers, adhesives, paints and varnishes were made and applied at the time in history when that particular work of art was made, and how to produce and apply them using modern materials under modern conditions. Furthermore the work requires a high level of expertise in various methods of applying and working with gold leaf. From these learning experiences, Tanja learned to love natural materials, such as egg tempera, oil paints and watercolors, as well as the painting- and working techniques of the old masters.
In 2020 Tanja went to Switzerland to marry her husband, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, and the question arose as to what to do with her career. Clients from Moscow were willing to send her their icons to Switzerland for restoration, but Tanja recalled her original desire to become an independent artist and, starting with a small sketchpad in the forest of Allschwil (BL), began her own career as an artist. In recent years, she techniques required for oil painting, acrylic painting and embroidery. In 2022, to be closer to nature, Tanja and her husband moved to the picturesque city of Thun in the canton of Bern and now, in 2023, Tanja begins to take her work to the public.
She has already been accepted as a participant of the prestigious Cantonal Berne Jura Exhibition 2023.
Tanja has made it her mission to find new ways of expression (such as the creation of multiple pictorial planes) using historical techniques, to search for interesting compositional solutions, and to combine different techniques and materials in her works (e.g. embroidery and painting).
She is convinced that new ideas in art can only succeed if the artist is familiar with the visual means that have been invented before her/him. Only when the artist has gathered all this knowledge, s/he begins to think outside the box, s/he gets the opportunity to rethink what has already been created and to find new solutions, detached from the inner compulsion to reinvent the wheel.
Tanja works daily, including weekends, in her studio in Thun, Switzerland. Her love of systematization and structuring allows the artist to work efficiently and quickly. On her study trips to Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, she has collected inspirations, notes and sketches for hundreds of works that are currently waiting impatiently to be transformed into complete works.
