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      (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov: Leningrad 80s >> ART>>

E-E KOZLOV

The Atlas of Ontology




Chapter 1. Aby Warburg's cosmography and E-E Kozlov's cosmogony

When I determined Kozlov’s sixty-three collages from E-E Drafts as his Atlas of Ontology, I was relating them to Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne or Mnemosyne Atlas of the 1920s, a series of collage panels dedicated to the art of the European Renaissance – “…black and white photographs of art-historical and cosmographical images. Here and there [Warburg] also included photographs of maps, manuscript pages, and contemporary images drawn from newspapers and magazines”, as Christopher D. Johnson described Warburg’s panels in his book Memory, metaphor, and Aby Warburg’s Atlas of images, the fundamental ideas of which are available at the Website of the Warburg Institute. [1]

Why Warburg? In 2020, I visited a large exhibition at the Berlin HKW, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, dedicated to Bilderatlas Mnemosyne external link >>. I realised that the number of Warburg’s reconstructed panels amounts to sixty-three, like that of E-E Drafts, and this interesting coincidence triggered my research into similarities and dissimilarities between Warburg’s and Kozlov’s collage panels.

Warburg’s collage panels, a selection of which is presented with comments on the website of Cornell University external link >>, display an abundance of images assembled according to subject matter and meaning, thereby creating a new meaning on a meta-level. It is the same principle Kozlov applied in his E-E Drafts collages, many of which he actually completely as compositions in 2007, applying additionally features with brown parcel tape more >>.

On the website of Cornell University, Johnson explains the principle of Warburg’s semantic approach: “Warburg’s combinatory experiments in the Atlas follow his own metonymic, intuitive logic” external link >>.

Combinatory experiments following intuitive logic is exactly what Kozlov’s tables are, and we should add here that for Kozlov as for Warburg, intuitive logic is not just metonymic, that is, based on conceptual relations between images, but to no less degree based on their aesthetic or expressive nature – the form imparts meaning. Warburg calls them “Pathosformeln”  – emotive formulas, as David Britt translated “Pathosformeln” in Aby Warburg 1912 lecture “Italian Art and International Astrology in the Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara”.[2]

We can state that for both Kozlov and Warburg, the panels display more than a simple enumeration of elements but describe a specific field or area (topography), and therefore “atlas” is a valid term in both cases.

There are, of course, important differences between Warburg’s and Kozlov’s panels. Besides such obvious ones regarding size (Kozlov’s are smaller) and material (Kozlov used almost exclusively images taken from newspapers and magazines), fundamental differences concern the purpose those panels served for Warburg and Kozlov, respectively.

Johnson interprets the Mnemosyne Atlas as “a belated memory palace, which invites us to contemplate Warburg’s syncretic vision of the afterlife of pagan symbolism and cosmography in medieval, Renaissance, and post-Renaissance art and thought.”[3] The “afterlife of pagan symbolism” means that “pagan” symbols reappear in a new shape in later epochs, as shown in panel 61-64, displayed on the website of Cornell University:  “Building on panels 41a and 60, Warburg explores how late Renaissance and Baroque festive art employed a Virgilian Neptune to symbolize both order and violence.” external link >>

Warburg’s comparative method thus leads to cognition “A summa of symbolic images, Mnemosyne strove to make the ineffable process of historical change and recurrence immanent and comprehensible.”[4]

Kozlov went the opposite way: he assembled a collection of mostly contemporary images as inspiration for further works, thereby creating his own cosmography, although I would prefer the term cosmogony for Kozlov, since he uses images not to make the universe comprehensible, but to create existence.

The choice of subject matters is therefore different for Warburg and Kozlov. Here is another example Johnson quotes from Warburg:

    For instance, the headings summarizing the astrological symbolism of panel 22 read: “Spanisch-arabische Praktik. (Alfonso). Hantierung. Kosmisches System als Würfelbrett. Zauberei. Steinmagie” (Spanish-Arabic Practice. (Alfonso). Manipulation. Cosmic System as Dice Table . Sorcery. Lithomancy).[5]

E-E Kozlov did not determine his collages, but we can do so without much difficulty, quoting, once more, from E-E Drafts:

    Kozlov placed up to fifteen images – some with captions attached – on sheets of paper, arranging them according to their subject matter: groups of people, children, movie couples, heads, hand gestures, human anatomy, animals, folklore and ethnology, history, sports, musical instruments, architecture and constructions, space rockets, cosmonauts, doctors and researchers, soldiers and military parades, ships, etc. Some collages combine different subjects that follow some aesthetical principle, for example certain shapes or movements. In other cases, a single picture covers the entire surface of the paper. Based on a thematic and aesthetic concept, these collages constitute panels or tableaus in the larger sense. more >>



(E-E) EVGENIJ KOZLOV • E-E-Drafts • Panel 12 – 36.5 x 47 cm / no. 44
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
E-E-Drafts • Panel 12 – 36.5 x 47 cm / no. 44


(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov Untitled Crayon and marker on transparent paper, 24.2 x 17.8 cm, 1998
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Untitled
Crayon and marker on transparent paper, 24.2 x 17.8 cm, 1998
see cut-out bottom left on panel 12 (above)




Accordingly, those twenty-one images from Kozlov’s collage panels I identified in his drawings and paintings vary not only with respect to their subject matter, but also with respect to the degree of transformation they undergo in a “follow-up” work. The pencil drawing of an Asian girl (1998) is highly realistic, while Love for Work (1990) and Love for the Cosmos (1990), both from the New Classicals cycle, are constructivist compositions that are not easily identifiable with the original images (unless you know).  

ITAR-TASS press picture, 7 November 1962 Soviets cosmonauts Pavel Popovich, Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova, Valery Bykovsky, Andriyan Nikolaev, and German Titov (from left to right) Detail of panel 27 Workers in hazmat suits and gas mask carrying dangerous goods. Detail of panel 35
ITAR-TASS press picture, 7 November 1962
Soviets cosmonauts Pavel Popovich, Yuri Gagarin,
Valentina Tereshkova, Valery Bykovsky, Andriyan Nikolaev, and German Titov (from left to right)
Detail of panel 27 more
Workers in hazmat suits and gas mask
carrying dangerous goods.
Detail of panel 35
more
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov Untitled (Love for the Cosmos) two-sided, on bus-stop sign Oil on wood, 42.5 x. 59.9 x 2 cm, 1989 (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov Untitled (Love for Work) two-sided, on bus-stop sign Oil on wood, 42.5 x. 59.9 x 2 cm, 1989
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Untitled (Love for the Cosmos)

two-sided, on bus-stop sign
Oil on wood, 42.5 x. 59.9 x 2 cm, 1989
All works from the New Classicals cycle >>
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Untitled (Love for Work)

two-sided, on bus-stop sign
Oil on wood, 42.5 x. 59.9 x 2 cm, 1989
All works from the New Classicals cycle >>
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov Любовь к космосу / Love for the Cosmos Oil on canvas, 2 x 3m, 1990 (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov Любовь к работе / Love for Work Oil on canvas, 202 x 306 cm, 1990
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Любовь к космосу / Love for the Cosmos

Oil on canvas, 2 x 3m, 1990
Love for the Cosmos at E-E Kozlov's studio, 1990 >>
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Любовь к работе / Love for Work

Oil on canvas, 202 x 306 cm, 1990
Love for Work at E-E Kozlov's studio, 1990 >>
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov Cover design for the LP START New Composers with Kino, 1987-2015 Photo: Hannelore Fobo Notes from the Underground, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, 2016 with three of E-E Kozlvo's works. Left: Love for Work, right "Shark” Photo: Hannelore Fobo
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Cover design for the LP START
New Composers with Kino, 1987-2015
Photo: Hannelore Fobo more >>
Notes from the Underground, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, 2016
with three of E-E Kozlvo's works.
Left: Love for Work, right "Shark”
Photo: Hannelore Fobo more >>




We find the same variety in the compositional function these images acquire in Kozlov’s works. When we study the Virtuoso Reality cycle from 1996, we notice three different functions: a “collage” image may be dominating a composition (e.g. the landscape in In Paradise the Apples are like Stars), be equally important as other features (the figure on the right in What is forbidden – it can be done), or it may be complementary (the strawberries in Men’s Dream).

(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Statue with painted moustache
Detail of panel 19 more

(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Right part of panel 20 more

(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
E-E Drafts, panel 49 more

(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov То, что Нельзя – то можно What is forbidden – it can be done Mixed media on canvas, 166 x 171 cm (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov Мужская Мечта / Men's Dream Mixed media on canvas, 209.5 x 147 cm 1996 (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov В раю Яблоки как звезды In Paradise the Apples are like Stars Mixed media on canvas, 202 x 150 cm 1996
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
То, что Нельзя – то можно
What is forbidden – it can be done

Mixed media on canvas, 166 x 171 cm
1996 more >>
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Мужская Мечта / Men's Dream
Mixed media on canvas, 209.5 x 147 cm
1996
more >>
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
В раю Яблоки как звезды
In Paradise the Apples are like Stars

Mixed media on canvas, 202 x 150 cm
1996 more >>




For the sake of clarity, we should distinguish between a feature’s function and its relevance in a composition: what I call a feature’s complementary function doesn’t determine this very feature as being of secondary importance. In principle, Kozlov considers as equally relevant – non-ornamental – all elements of his compositions.



[1] Johnson, Christopher D., Memory, Metaphor, and Aby Warburg’s Atlas of images, Cornell University Press and Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York, 2012.

A PDF-document of the book is available at https://uberty.org/

See also website of the Warburg Institute. ( https://live-warburglibrarycornelledu.pantheonsite.io/about)

[2] Aby Warburg, The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity: Contributions to the Cultural History of the Renaissance. Translation by David Britt

Edited by Kurt W. Forster; translated by David Britt. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1999, p. 563

[3] Johnson, Memory, p. 10

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.




next page: Chapter 2. Changing emotive formulas: Mata Hari as bacchante

Introduction:
E-E Kozlov’s photo archive as part of the his Atlas of Ontology
Part 1. The Atlas of Ontology - collages
Chapter 1. Aby Warburg's cosmography and E-E Kozlov's cosmogony
Chapter 2. Changing emotive formulas: Mata Hari as bacchante
Chapter 3. The travelogue of a pair of strawberries

Part 2. The Atlas of Ontology - photographs

Chapter 4. From picture to painting: Portrait of Timur Novikov with Arms Consisting of Bones
Chapter 5. An image not based on likeness: Shark
Chapter 6. Seeing colours in a black and white picture (forthcoming)
Chapter 7: Working with pictures: Kozlov, Richter, and Sherman
Chapter 8. Transformation and transfiguration
Chapter 9. From Abbild to Urbild (forthcoming)



Research / text / layout: Hannelore Fobo, January / February 2021.

Uploaded 15 February 2021