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E-E Evgenij Kozlov: ART>> • Leningrad 80s >>
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov and The New ArtistsPortraiture (1987–90)
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A leaflet edited by (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov and Hannelore Fobo in association with the exhibition ‘Notes from the Underground’, Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, Poland, 2016 Text, design and reproduction of artworks, unless otherwise attributed: Hannelore Fobo, 2016 Copy editor: Kieran Scarffe back to page 1 |
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Page 2: (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov and the ‘New Artists’
The figures of Vladislav Gutsevich, Sergei Bugaev and Rodion Zavernyaev – from one of the pictures taken at a performance of ‘Anna Karenina’ in 1985 – are given a different treatment. In the painting from 1988 later entitled ‘Anna Karenina (2)’, the artist retained the triangular, renaissance-like position of the three figures, but set the figures in space. The Earth appears below them as a distant planet, and the composition now echoes that of Raphael’s Sistine Madonna (albeit mirrored around the latter's vertical axis). However, while in the Sistine Madonna we look in the direction of Heaven from the perspective of the Earth, in this case the standpoint of the viewer is taken from above the group of figures. The Earth is also present in the globe (the backpack) held by the central figure. This additional vanishing point makes the perspective more complex than in Raphael’s famous painting: the perspective of the viewer is doubled, not only extending from within the cosmos to the earth below, but also projecting towards centre of the cosmos – the globe.
The ‘Portrait of Timur Novikov with Arms consisting of Bones’ (1988) is another impressive example of Evgenij Kozlov’s capacity to absorb the masters of religious painting into a work of ‘classic novelty’. If ‘Anna Karenina (2)’ illustrates the significance of Western religious painting, this composition reveals striking parallels with the icon of Christ Pantocrator at Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai – seen in the following ways: in Timur Novikov’s eyes (one looking up, the other down), in his posture, in the gesture of the third (red) hand, in which a book is being held (as indicated by the pages of the book in relief), in the vaulted opening of the gazebo and its intersecting bars – corresponding to the halo of the icon and the cross on the Bible – and last, but not least, in the background, with its architecture and landscape. Likewise, the main feature is the intensity of the gaze. The artist himself made the following comment with regard to this portrait, in 2010: ‘To be more precise, it is not Timur that is portrayed in this painting from 1988, but the state of being which he eventually attained.’ This painting has been frequently reproduced in the press and has the potential to become a new icon.
The full-body portraits of the ‘New Composers’ Valery Alakhov and Igor Verichev both relate to photographs from 1986 or 1987. ‘Igor’ refers to a single picture whereas ‘Valera’ blends features from several photographs – three at least – perhaps even six. The photograph of Igor led to another composition around the same time. The photographic appearance of the two works is further enhanced by the adoption of a monochrome negative structure, with a reversal of dark and light: the background is black, while forms and shapes are defined by means of delicate white contours and hatches. These contours and hatches have been painted using an oil colour, but they still display the hasty nervousness of a pencil stroke. In some areas, softer and more regular strokes allow the deep blackness of the background to shine through the white colour; light arises from darkness. It is a ‘natural’ blackness, revealing a subtle geometric pattern that has been obtained by gluing together a considerable number of light-proof paper bags designed for use with photo paper (‑which the artist had previously used to print his negative films). A small number of features that are nevertheless significant emphasize the figures’ relation to death and life: the corona around Valery’s head, the tongues of fire along Igor’s body, and the skeleton hand reaching from below the earth towards Igor, who answers ‘No’ to its quest for peace.
In the course of a discussion relating to these works in 2007 – in the context of the exhibition at the Finnish Kiasma National Gallery, Helsinki – Evgenij Kozlov first noticed certain striking parallels with two large icons by Andrey Rublev from the 15th century that portray the apostles Peter and Paul, which were originally in the Uspensky Cathedral (the Cathedral of the Assumption) in Vladimir, but are now in the collection of the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. ‘Igor’ and ‘Valera’ both possess the same elongated format as Rublev's icons, together with the characteristic low horizon at foot level; indeed, their postures and the positions of their feet are also reminiscent of these two icons. Furthermore, as with icons, specific borders separate the world of the image from what the viewer takes to be the real world, although here the borders are slightly irregular, and are in powerful contrast to the monochrome paintings.
But if icons are an image of spiritual truth, i.e. the ‘triumph of Life over Death’ which is something that cannot be found in the physical world, then, correspondingly, within the portraits of the ‘New Composers’ the physical world is endowed with a soul. Things, objects that are within the physical world, can be given
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Daniel Muzyczuk (left) and David Crowley (right), curators of 'Notes form the Underground’, holding two leaflets (front and reverse) |
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