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Evgenij Kozlov
„E-E“
Photographies of the Leningrad eighties
A project by Hannelore Fobo, Berlin <halo.fobo@t-online.de>
in collaboration with Igor Khadikov, St. Petersburg
The following is a description of a project by Hannelore Fobo, Berlin, Germany, intended to use the huge art-photo material of Evgenij Kozlov as an archive for scholars working on the period of Leningrad art of the 1980ies.
The project is carried out in collaboration with Igor Khadikov from St. Petersburg, Russia. The original negatives are currently stored in Berlin. Copyright of the photos is held by their author Evgenij Kozlov
1. The artist. The period.
Evgenij Kozlov, one of the leading artists of the most prominent artist group of the Leningrad eighties "Novye Khudozhniki" made a habit of taking pictures by the end of the seventies, when he was in his early twenties. Inspired by the example of his father, an engineer and a passionate hobby photographer with a deep interest in art, the camera accompanied him to meetings with his friends indoors and outdoors. As in his painted work, people, their expression and their relation to each other are the principal features of his photographs, whereas nature or abstract compositions are of little relevance.
When Evgenij Kozlov becomes a member of the first Leningrad avantgarde artist group "Letopis" in 1978, the first photographs of other artists (Timur Novikov, Elena Figurina) and their works appear. Since 1983, the body of his photographic work increases considerably. It is the moment when the so-called "unofficial" Leningrad art scene starts making a reputation for itself as the leading artistic movement of the eighties, breaking through the restrictions of conservative party policies with a passion for directness, action, style and everything new ("New Artists", "New Composers").
Evgenij Kozlov, then living outside St. Petersburg in the quiet and idyllic town of Peterhof, the former summer residence of the Tsars, combines his need for concentrated artistic creation at home with the thrilling atmosphere of artistic happenings, performances, exhibitions and concerts in downtown Leningrad, to which his photographs bear witness. He shoots several films of the rock group "Kino" for their LP "Natchalnik Kamtchatki". He is asked to make the cover of "Insect Culture (Nazikomaya Kultura)", the first LP of "Pop Mekhanika" with the "New Composers", edited in 1987 in Liverpool, England. The list of persons to be found on his photographs reads like a "Who's Who" of the Leningrad art scene of the eighties: Valerij Allachov,Georgy Guryanov, Oleg Kotelnikov, Konstantin Kintchev, Monro, Timur Novikov, Grigoryj and Viktor Sologub, Igor Verichev, Svinya, Ivan Sotnikov, Viktor Tsoy, Evgeny Yufit, to name only a few.
Strange as it may seem, and despite the immense historical value of his photographs, Evgenij Kozlov never intended to "document" this period. He is an artist, not a journalist. He focuses on the artistic feeling of each picture: a person, a group of persons, their gestures, their interaction. He develops and prints the black and white photos himself, works on negatives and prints, assembles them to photo collages of up to 3,20 x 1,80 m, and paints them over. Most importantly, they inspire his paintings, where he combines photorealistic elements with an absolute intuition of timelessness. Whenever he chooses a photograph for a portrait, he detects in it a spirituality which he confers to the painting in an unexpected, stunningly intense way. One of his portraits of Timur Novikov is chosen for the catolgue cover of the first international show of "The New Artists" in Sweden in 1988, and like many others, it disappears into the hands of anonymous fans of Evgenij Kozlov.
The beginning of the nineties sees some crucial changes: Leningrad is given back its historical name St. Petersburg, "The New Artists" cease to exist as a group. Evgenij Kozlov gives up black and white photography in favour of colour photography. He also gives up his legendary studio on Fontanka "Russkoee Polee" (Russian Field), reopening it some time later in Berlin as "Russkoee Polee No.2". No less important is the fact that the new studio ensures the continuity in his intense artistic creation. Again he makes use of his photos, new ones as well as the old ones from the eighties. This stresses the potential of each single picture of the archive, each one waiting to be blown up to a size 3 x 2 m in order to demonstrate its artistic value.
2. Description of the photographic work and its value as an archive
Outstanding in its quality and quantity, the body of the photographic work is unique in the history of the Leningrad art scene of the eighties. It comprises approximately 6,000 black and white negatives which can be roughly divided into three categories:
2a. photos relating to the Leningrad art scene from 1981(some earlier) up to 1988
(approximately 80 films with 1,600 photos)
These films show the following events (examples in brackets):
- concerts (Kino, Pop Mekhanika, Strannye Igry in Rock-Klub, DK Mayak, DK Lenina)
- exhibitions in private and public showrooms (Gallery of Timur Novikov, DK Sverdlov)
- performances in private and in public (Anna Karenina, Balet Trekh Nerazlutchnikov -"Ballet of the Three Unseparable Ones - in Klub na Tchernishevskogo)
- meetings, parties in private appartments (at the homes of Timur Novikov, Oleg Kotelnikov, Ivan Sotnikov, Evgenij Kozlov, Georgyj Gurianov),
walks in parks and squares.
The „New Composers“ Valery Alakhov and Igor Veritchev, the most influencial avantgarde musicians of the eighties, are especially featured in these photos.
2b. photos taken in Evgenij Kozlov’s studio „Russkoee Polee“ in 1989/1990
approximately 25 films with 600 photos. About 200 photos feature Vladislav Mamichev „Monro“, the famous artist and actor, in the role of Marilyn Monroe.
2c. 3800 photos of a more private character, encounters with friends not primarily related to the art scene
2d. Additionally, a couple of hundred colour slides and negatives exist.
2e.There is a small number of large black and white negatives.
2f. Several hundred original prints of photos still exit, many of them painted over.
2g. On the basis of the prints, Evgenij Kozlov created a large number of original art works, either by using the prints directly for albums, collages, large works on paper or by using their compositions for large-scale paintings and portraits. Of the latter, several are to be found in museum collections, among them the State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg
3. Documentation of the photographs and their use as an archive
As mentioned above, the photographs were not taken with the idea to document a determined period of time and therefore lack any chronological or other order. However their intimate and very personal artistic approach makes them even more valuable as a potential archive for anyone who wants to study this crucial period in Russian art
To use them as anarchive demands for a comprehensive description of the films. Date, place, persons, and, if possible, a historical appreciation of the event have to be indicated.
In order to make this research viable, the category 2a was chosen by Hannelore Fobo as the beginning for a detailed analysis. She first recomposed the film-strips of 2a to their original order, digitalized the negatives and codified each negative. With the help of a special computer programme, the original films can now be looked at on the screen in a slide show
She then invited Igor Khadikov from St. Petersburg to collaborate in this project. Igor Khadikov talked with the protagonists of the photos in order to establish the necessary references, find out the names of the persons on the pictures, and wrote a description of the events. The results of these researches were regularly published by Igor Khadokov and Hannelore Fobo in the St. Petersburg art journal „Na Dne“, with a total number of 12 articles in 2001.
Hannelore Fobo, May 2006
halo.fobo@t-online.de