I haven’t written anything here for a while, but today I received such a remarkable review that I decided it deserved a post. Normally, I try to ignore ridiculous comments and strange customers. After this many years in business, you get used to pretty much everything. I’ve been involved with art for almost my entire life. I started working with my father when I was around 13 years old. I’m almost 50 now. That means roughly 36 years of my life have been connected to the business — first my father Leonid Afremov’s paintings, then his studio, and today also the new artists working with our gallery.
So believe me, I’ve seen every kind of review. When someone says, “I received my painting and I don’t like it,” I have absolutely no problem with that. It happens. Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe the customer expected something different. Maybe they simply don’t like the painting. Art is subjective. We can refund the purchase, exchange the painting, or find another solution.
But today I received a truly wonderful review.
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To summarize it:
“My father bought me one of your paintings many years ago. I liked the painting. I understood what I was receiving. But now I’m giving your company one star because I don’t like the fact that you use AI in your advertising videos.”
Now THAT is interesting.
Yes.We use AI. Terrifying, isn’t it?
We take an existing Leonid Afremov painting and use modern AI tools to create promotional videos. The painting begins to move. Rain falls. Light reflects on the water. People walk. The camera appears to travel inside the painting. It’s a video. It’s animation. It’s advertising.
here you can see examples
We are not using AI to create “new Leonid Afremov paintings” and pretending that my father painted them. Every artwork sold on our website is described according to exactly what it is. If it is an original Leonid Afremov painting, we say so. If it is a studio work, we say so. If it is a painting by another artist working with our gallery, we say so.
Please take a look at examples of descriptions
https://afremov.com/the-windows-to-the- ... rwmby.html
https://afremov.com/fashion-window-oil- ... llery.html
https://afremov.com/lovely-street-of-flowers.html
AI is something we use to create promotional content.And you know what? I like it. I wanted to create videos like these many years ago. But back then, making a painting “come alive” beautifully would have required Final Cut Pro, After Effects, designers, animators, video editors, and a huge amount of time. My brother Boris has studied TV and film production in university. He spent 2 to 3 days of work to make something that AI did in 5 minutes.b basically, you needed a small production studio and a lot of time.
Today, I have myself, a computer, and AI. A few clicks, some experimentation, fixing whatever ridiculous thing the robot decided to do this time — boom. We have a beautiful video.that is called progress. And this is where things become really funny. Every time we publish one of these videos, somebody inevitably appears:
“How DARE you use AI with Leonid Afremov’s paintings?!”
Why exactly shouldn’t we?
Legally, there isn’t even a question. The copyrights belong to our family. We have every right to create promotional materials based on these artworks.
But the moral argument is much more interesting to me.
Why is using new technology somehow disrespectful to an artist?
I actually think it is the opposite.
Leonid Afremov has been gone for seven years. Yet his paintings are still alive. People buy them. People discuss them. New generations discover them. And now some of those paintings can move, come alive, and become little visual stories watched by millions of people. Where exactly is the disrespect?
My brother once said to me:
“Maybe we should just stop making these AI videos if some people are so upset about them.”
And I thought about it. No. Maybe the people who are so offended by them should simply unfollow us. Because AI isn't going anywhere. You can love it.y you can hate it. You can complain that everything was better before. You can demand that the world return to 1995. The world isn't going back. AI is a tool. Humanity has gone through technological changes like this many times before.
Artists once complained about photography. Then digital photography. Then Photoshop. Then computer-generated imagery. Now it's AI's turn.
A few years from now, arguing about whether it is acceptable to use AI to create an advertising video will probably sound about as strange as arguing today about whether it's acceptable to edit video on a computer instead of physically cutting film with scissors. By the way, my brother has learned how to edit by hand, by the computer and by cassette editing console. He graduated in 2008. Now I doubt they teach the film cutting and video editing consoles
And yes, AI sometimes produces complete nonsense. Sometimes a person suddenly has six fingers. Sometimes a tree apparently decides it would rather fly away. We laugh, fix it, and try again. But the technology is getting better almost before our eyes. And I intend to use it. I don't want to turn my father's legacy into a museum exhibit that has to sit behind glass while everyone is terrified to touch it.
I want his art to remain alive. I want it to evolve with the world around it. I want new audiences to discover it. I want it to exist in the world we actually live in today — not the world we lived in thirty years ago. So to everyone who enjoys our paintings, our experiments, and our slightly crazy AI videos:
Welcome. I'm genuinely happy you're here with us. And to those who believe that using modern technology is somehow a moral crime against art, I sincerely hope you find a gallery that perfectly matches your vision of how the world should work.
And if I can say it a little less diplomatically:
If you don't like it, good luck.
We're moving forward.