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The New Artists and the Mayakovsky Friends Club (1986-1990)

Text: Hannelore Fobo, 2021
Chapter 13. The Report about the first year and corresponding New Artists chronicle entries
previous page: Chapter 12. Document H. Mayakovsky Friends Club.Report about the first year (Sept.86-Sep. 87)
next page: Chapter 14. Document I. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Appl. to the Main Department of Culture 1987
Table of contents: see bottom of page >>



Chapter 13. The Report about the first year and corresponding New Artists chronicle entries

Comparing the information retrieved from Novikov’s Mayakovsky Friends Club report for 1986 / 1987 with entries from Ksenia Novikova‘s chronicle for the the same period delivers some interesting results. I have already done so for 1986 on the previous pages. Below is an overview of those three chronicle entries; all three events happened at the Vodokanal Club:
• 3 September, general meeting of the club, passing the charter (New Artists, 2012, p. 273), see Chapter 8, document D.
• 27 September, “The fragments of the New Design Exhibition” (New Artists, 2012,p. 274). This event cannot be identified in Novikov’s report, although with some amount of good will, it might be assigned to the theatre section: Театральный отдел проводил подготовку сценического действия оркестра «Популярная механика». / The theatre section conducted the preparation of the stage action for the “Pop Mekhanika” orchestra. See also Chapter 11. Document G.
• 21 December , a theme evening at the Vodokanal Club (New Artists, 2012, pp. 274/275). See Chapter 11, document G. If the “Out, Moonshine” performance didn't happen earlier, on 27 September, it might have taken place on that evening. “Out, Moonshine” is mentioned both in the Club’s working plan for 1986 / 1987 (Document F) and the report about the first year from 5 October 1987 (Document H).

The situation is different for 1987. There are only two chronicle entries that mention the Mayakovsky Friends Club, and they both mention the New Artists. Neither event took place at the Vodokanal Club.

The first entry concerns the Forum of the Leningrad Creative Youth:

    23-26 April
    Leningrad. The Palace of Youth. Forum of the Leningrad Creative Youth. The exhibition of the New Artists and the V. V. Mayakovsky Friends Club.
    Timur Novikov, Ivan Sotnikov, Oleg Kotelnikov, Evgenij Kozlov, Sergei “Afrika” Bugaev, Inal Savchenkov.

The conjunction “and” in the sentence “The exhibition of the New Artists and the V. V. Mayakovsky Friends Club” paradoxically leads to a division of the six participating artists between the two groups (with five possible distributions: 1 + 5, 2 + 4, 3 + 3, 4 + 2, and 5 + 1)

The second chronicle entry refers to the closing event at the ASSA Gallery on 12, 13, and 14 May. The Mayakovsky Friends Club is presented as one of the organising institutions, while the New Artists are called participants.

All other events mentioned in Novikov’s report are listed in the chronicle with the New Artists label, that is, without any reference to the Mayakovsky Friends Club. I identified the following ten events:




14-26 January (New Artists, 2012, chronicle, p. 276)

    Leningrad. Exhibition Pavilion of the Harbour. The Ninth Exhibition of the Society for Experimental Visual Art (TEII). The New Artists display: Timur Novikov, Ivan Sotnikov, Oleg Kotelnikov, Vadim Ovchinnikov, Vladislav Gutsevich, Sergei “Afrika” Bugaev, Inal Savchenkov, Andrei Krisanov.

Listed in Novikov‘s Mayakovsky Friends Club report as participation in the TEII exhibition.

Note: The list of participating artists in TEII book (pp. 270) also mentions New Artists Alexei Kozin, Evgenij Kozlov, Oleg Maslov, Evgeny Yufit, but not Andrei Krisanov.




April (New Artists, 2012, chronicle, p. 276)

    Riga. Office of Rigas Modes.
    The festival Days of Culture – Art Kontakt. The New Artists featured in the festival programme: Oleg Kotelnikov, Ivan Sotnikov, Evgenij Kozlov, Timur Novikov, Sergei “Afrika” Bugaev, Inal Savchenkov.

Listed in Novikov‘s Mayakovsky Friends Club report as Days of Culture in Riga, дни искусств в Риге.
Note: According to information I recieved from Irena Buzinska (Riga) in early 2021, the New Artists did not exhibit their works at the Office of Rigas Modes, but some Leningrad artists from the older generation of TEII members showed their works at the Railroad Workers’ Palace of Culture.

By contrast, some New Artists’ paintings were shown during Sergey Kuryokhin’s Pop Mekhanika concert with DJ Westbam (West-Berlin) on 15 April 1987, which was part of the festival. more >>

Riga, 15 April 1987. Pop Mekhanika featuring Westbam Sergey Kuryokhin, Yury Kasparan and Viktor Tsoy. Left: (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov “Timur on Horseback”, 1985  top: a painting by Sergei Bugaev  right: joint work, probably with the participation of Andrey Krisanov Fragment from the LP cover “Pop Mekhanika featuring Westbam Live at Riga”, Low Spirit, 1987

Riga, 15 April 1987. Pop Mekhanika featuring Westbam
Sergey Kuryokhin, Yury Kasparan and Viktor Tsoy.
Left: (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov “Timur on Horseback”, 1985
top: a painting by Sergei Bugaev
right: joint work, probably with the participation of Andrey Krisanov
Fragment from the LP cover “Pop Mekhanika featuring Westbam Live at Riga”, Low Spirit, 1987 more >>




23-26 April (New Artists, 2012, chronicle, p. 276)

    Leningrad. The Palace of Youth. Forum of the Leningrad Creative Youth. The exhibition of the New Artists and the VV. Mayakovsky Friends Club.
    Timur Novikov, Ivan Sotnikov, Oleg Kotelnikov, Evgenij Kozlov, Sergei “Afrika” Bugaev, Inal Savchenkov.

Listed in Novikov‘s Mayakovsky Friends Club report as Forum of the Leningrad Creative Youth, Форум творческой молодежи Ленинграда.




23-26 April (New Artists, 2012, chronicle, p. 276)

    Moscow. The Palace of Culture of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. The newspaper Soviet Culture (Sovetskaya Kultura) organizes the Folklore-87 arts festival. The participants of the visual arts exhibition: Timur Novikov, Oleg Kotelnikov, Sergei “Afrika” Bugaev, Vladislav Gutsevich.

Listed in Novikov‘s Mayakovsky Friends Club report as ”Festival ‘Folklore-87’ of the ‘Soviet Culture’ newspaper.




12, 13, 14 May (New Artists, 2012, chronicle, p. 276)

Leningrad. The ASSA Gallery.

    The V.V. Mayakovsky Friends Club, the Trailbreaker (Novator) Association, the Leningrad Documentary Film Studio and the Leningrad Polygraphic Machines Factory (LENNIIPOLIGRAFMASH) organize the Festival of All Sorts of Arts, dedicated to the closing of the ASSA Gallery. Participants: the New Artists group, Popular Mechanics, the New Theatre, fashion designers from Moscow and Leningrad, the industrial group of the V.V. Mayakovsky Friends Club.

This event is not in the 1987 report, but it is interesting in some other respects. Here, the Mayakovsky Friends Club is made one of the organising institutions, while the New Artists are called participants. Actually, the New Artists are also "constituents” of Popular Mechanics more >>more >> • more >> and the New Theatre more >> • more >>, and from here it follows that the New Theatre is also a constituent of Pop Mekhanika. "The industrial group of the V.V. Mayakovsky Friends Club”, in turn, is a reference to Pop Mekhanika‘s "industrial group” Novikov mentions in “The Celebration of Arts”, a text he wrote after the “Happy New Year” Pop Mekhanika performance at the Rock Club, December 1985. In this text, published on p. 91 of the 1995 New Artists Antology 1982-1987, Novikov used the same cross references for groups and individuals as the chronicle entry. As a result, the number of participants appears to be larger than it actually is. I discussed Novikov's strategy in “Timur Novikov's New Artists Lists” (2018):

    For instance, in his article “The Celebration of Arts” (Праздник искусств), Novikov lists ten groups participating in Pop-Mekhanika‘s “Happy New Year” performance. Among them are “a group of artists”, an“industrial group“, and the “New Theatre”. The group of artists consisted of “Leningrad artists Oleg Kotelnikov, Evgenij Kozlov Timur Novikov, Sergei Bugaev, Vladimir Gutsevich, Moscow artists Nikita Alexeev and Nikolai Ovchinnikov”. (Antology, p. 91). Of those, Timur Novikov, Sergei Bugaev belonged to all three groups or sets, and Vladimir Gutsevich to two, namely a “group of artists” and the ”New Theatre”. … All members of the ”New Theatre” and the“ industrial group“ (noise-producing artists), were also members of “a group of artists”. The group doesn’t get larger – it doesn’t turn into a movement more>>. [1]




20 May-17 June (New Artists, 2012, chronicle, pp. 276-277)

    Leningrad. The Palace of the Youth. The Spring Exhibition entitled The Gallery of the Society for Experimental Visual Art (TEII). Among the participants: Vadim Ovchinnikov, Evgenij Kozlov, Ivan Sotnikov, Timur Novikov, Inal Savchenkov, Oleg Kotelnikov, Sergei “Afrika” Bugaev.

Listed in Novikov‘s Mayakovsky Friends Club report as participation in the TEII exhibition.

Note: the list of participating artists in TEII book (p. 290) also mentions New Artists Evgeny Yufit, Aleksei Kozin, and Oleg Maslov, but not Evgenij Kozlov, Inal Savchenkov and Sergei Bugaev (but V. Bugaev).




October (New Artists, 2012, chronicle, p. 277)

    Leningrad Znamiya Movie Theatre. The exhibition “Neat Tendencies in the Work of the ‘New”

Listed in Novikov‘s Mayakovsky Friends Club report as exhibitions at the movie theatres “Aurora”, “Znamya”, Kolizei




December (New Artists, 2012, chronicle, p. 277)

    Leningrad. The Palace of Youth. The concluding exhibition of the New Artists at the premiere of the feature film ASSA.

This exhibtion is not included in Novikov’s Mayakovsky Friends Club report, but the film ASSA is mentioned in the theatre section.




December (New Artists, 2012, chronicle, p. 277)

    Leningrad. Kolizei Movie Theatre. The New Artist exhibition. Participants: Vadim Ovchinnikov, Ivan Sotnikov, Oleg Kotelnikov, Evgenij Kozlov, Timur Novikov, Sergei “Afrika” Bugaev, Inal Savchenkov.

Listed in Novikov‘s Mayakovsky Friends Club report as exhibitions at the movie theatres “Aurora”, “Znamya”, Kolizei




December (New Artists, 2012, chronicle p. 277)

    Leningrad. Aurora Movie Theatre. Solo exhibition of Vadim  Ovchinnikov

Listed in Novikov‘s Mayakovsky Friends Club report as exhibitions at the movie theatres “Aurora”, “Znamya”, Kolizei.


[1] This is the reason why I separated, in “Timur Novikov‘s Artists Lists”, the New Artists as a group of visual artists from the New Artists as a movement that also included musicians, poets etc. more >>. While Novikov himself was inconsistent with regard to such a exclusive / inclusive definition – for example in his lecture from 2002 – the structure of the Mayakovsky Friends Club mirrors such an “exclusive” definition: The New Artists as a group are all in the visual artists section, while those others constituting the larger New Artists movement (remaining anonymous in the report) are found in the other sections of the Mayakovsky Friends Club.

Synopsis and Introduction

Chаpter 1. Soviet Clubs and Houses of Culture

Chapter 2. Chapter 2. Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky

Chapter 3: Source material and references

Chapter 4. Index of documents 1986-1987

Chapter 5. Document A. Charter of the New Creative Association

Chapter 6. Document B. Application by the New Creative Association, 4. 8. 1986

Chapter 7. Document C. Application by the New Creative Association, 5. 8. 1986

Chapter 8. Document D. Front page of the Mayakovsky Friends Club charter, 3. 9. 1986

Chapter 9. Document E. Registration card for young associations

Chapter 10. Document F. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Working plan for 1986-1987

Chapter 11. Document G. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Invitation card, 21. 12. 1986

Chapter 12. Document H. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Report about the first year (Sept.86-Sep. 87)

Chapter 13. The Report about the first year and corresponding New Artists chronicle entries

Chapter 14. Document I. Mayakovsky Friends Club. Application to the Main Department of Culture 1987

Chapter 15. The Nch-Vch Club

Chapter 16. The Mayakovsky Friends Club Party 1990

Chapter 17. The Mayakovsky Friends Club in Europe, 1988-1989

Chapter 18. The Mayakovsky Friends Club in the USA, 1989-1990

Chapter 19. Concluding remarks


Research / text / layout: Hannelore Fobo, March 2020 / August 2021

Uploaded 17 August 2021
Last updated 22 August 2021