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(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov: Leningrad 80s • No.115 >>
Letter I (Spring 1986) – Happy New Year at the Leningrad Rock Club Letter I is incomplete, and hence, there is no date, but considering the references to Catherine Mannick’s letters (Letters 32, 33, and 34), it was probably written some time in spring 1986. On the cover of Letter I is Kozlov’s painted picture from a Pop Mekhanika performance at the Leningrad-Rock Club on 27 December 1985; it was later called The New Year Concert or Hunting for the Indo-Tibetan Goat (Новогодний концерт или Охота на дикого индо-тибетского козла). The concert accompanied the opening of “Happy New Year” (or vice versa), the first large-scale exhibition of the New Artists, some of whom also performed on stage. The picture is signed with transfer (Letraset) letters: катя С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ, женя / katia, Happy New Year, zhenia. As often in his letters, Kozlov used the short forms of Catherine and Evgenij (Yevgueni). Seven more pictures in Mannick’s archive belong to the same letter, four displaying the performance and three of Kozlov’s exhibits.
 In the nineteen-eighties, the Leningrad Rock Club (1981-1991), Pop Mekhanika (Popular Mechanics, 1984-1995; see also Letter G >>) and the New Artists (1982-1989) were key terms of the Leningrad underground scene as it was fighting for an existence between state (and KGB) control and unlimited creativity. The exhibition “Happy New Year” brought these three together. Interestingly, Kozlov simply speaks of a “new exhibition”, “selected artists” and a “concert of modern music” and doesn’t mention the venue at all. He probably took into account that his letters might be read before leaving the country, and this must have caused him not to provide names. The event was particularly significant for the New Artists, as the Rock Club provided them with an opportunity to demonstrate their talent to a wider audience. The Rock Club was actually a branch of the LMSDT, the Leningrad Inter-Union House of Amateur Culture,[1] and used the premises of the LMSDT located right in the centre of town, in a turn-of-the-century theatre at 13, Rubinshtein street more >>. The concert and exhibition have already been quite well documented previously. In 2001, I published Igor Khadikov’s notes on the concert more >>, based on some of Kozlov’s pictures and on Novikov’s article from 1986, The Festival of Arts (“Праздник искусств”, also The Celebration of Arts), written under Novikov’s pseudonym Igor Potapov External link >>. In 2017 / 2018, I followed up with a detailed description of the concert more >> and exhibition more >> presenting Kozlov’s pictures (about one hundred photographs, both colour and black and white), Timur Novikov’s manuscript catalogue more >>, and Alek Zander’s review of the concert in Roksi, Leningrad’s samizdat music review more >>. Evgenij Kozlov discusses both events in his letter. However, the larger part of the letter, or, more precisely, of the available text, is dedicated to an attempt to define the undefined situation with his American friend. While Mannick admits of her contradictory feelings, Kozlov tries to convince her of the seriousness of his commitment, which includes the possibility of starting a family. In his opinion, the situation would be different if they were to meet more often – letters are no substitute for encounters. He again offers his support and understanding of her situation and makes it clear that he would never restrict her freedom. Yet he seems to consciously overlook the fact that his friend, in one of her preceding letters, had told him – as delicately as possible – that she had recently engaged herself with someone and that she felt happy in this relationship. The artist then transitions to the next point.
Kozlov uses the English words “Wild and crazy”, and he explains in detail why they actually describe the situation quite well.
“Happy New Year” gathered works by twelve artists of whom, retrospectively, ten were considered New Artists – Sergei Bugaev, Valery Cherkasov, Kirill Khazanovich, Oleg Kotelnikov, Evgenij Kozlov, Andrey Krisanov, Timur Novikov, Vadim Ovchinnikov, Ivan Sotnikov, and Evgeny Yufit. At this point, the group had attracted more members and was about to consolidate its identity. The other two artists, Nataliya Batishcheva and Arkady Tager, were guests. Using the term “selected artists”, Kozlov implicitly refers to a complicated process of establishing the New Artists as a progressive group of artists, setting them apart not only from mainstream artists, but also from “unofficial” artists of the older generation. This included esteemed artists like Bob Koshelokhov and Solomon Rossin (Rozin), considered as “neo-expressionists”. Kozlov’s pictures of the so-called “meeting of the expressionists” in 1983 or 1984 show, next to Koshelokhov and Rossin, several New Artists, as well.
It appears that the exhibition at the Rock Club was originally planned with artists from that meeting, but it had to be postponed. As a result, the line-up of artists changed. In “The Festival of Arts”, Timur Novikov writes:
К сожалению, в выставке не могли принять участие запланированные новые экспрессионисты, школа которых особенно сильна в Ленинграде (Б. КОШЕЛОХОВ, Е. ФИГУРИНА, А. РОЗИН), из них остался только Аркадий ТАГЕР, зато новые художники развернулись вовсю External link >>. To understand the principle of those fresh trends, it pays to look at Kozlov’s exhibits described in the letter. In this respect, it is interesting to read about not only what was displayed, but even more so, what he wasn’t allowed to show. The pictures he sent in his letter are numbered а, б, В [2] to relate them to his text. A and B were taken in his studio, while б is from a performance with the New Composers at the Rock Club.
All three paintings from the pictures were carried out as graffiti art, that is, as a combination of image and words. Here is Kozlov’s description from 2023 of (a),“Animated Films”:
In (б), the large work dedicated to the music of the New Composers, the two letters Я – Я, pronounced “Ya-Ya” in Russian and meaning “I – I” in English, take the function of a name tag. It replaces the more popular E-E, pronounced Yeh-Yeh. The letter Я, the last letter of the Russian alphabet, is also the last letter of Женя, Zhenya, a short form of Kozlov’s first name Evgenij which the artist used up to 1990. He sprayed the composition on a black piece of paper consisting of numerous light-proof paper bags. Its symbols – a skull-headed manikin, a puppet, a rocket, a palm tree, a skyscraper, arrows, dots, a + - + - chain, and some more – clearly stand out against the background, and it is easy to imagine them sprayed on the wall of a building. It is no wonder the painting made an impact on Timur Novikov. In his article “The Festival of Arts” we read: “Evgenij Kozlov looked quite extraordinary on a giant black paper”[4].
With all public exhibitions, a municipal exhibition committee was in charge to approve the exhibits. While it had no problem to admit "Animated Films" and “Ya-Ya”, it refused painting (B), also signed “Ya-Ya” – because of its English text: “There are no nearby hills or promontories from which the art gang could admire their WORK, ЖЕНЯ.”
It is very unlikely that the censors actually understood the allusion to “the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities” (Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti). However, banning the work from being publicly shown, they were on the safe side. The same goes for those “15 photos painted with felt-tip pens, also from a private collection.” Unfortunately, neither the photos nor the name of the collector have been documented, but we may assume that Kozlov applied his newly developed comic-graffiti style described for the picture in Letter H. (Since they were from “a private collection”, it is possible that they are identical with the “ten painted photos for the cover” Kozlov gave Sergey Kuryokhin for the “Insect Culture “ album, see Letter H) Kozlov’s pictures of the exhibition – taken before the opening – do not document all the works of his fellow artists, or even his own works (with the exception of YA-YA). The exhibition views, however, demonstrate that these artists worked in a number of other genres besides comic and graffiti art. Primitivism was also significant, while “portraits in a realistic style” like Kozlov’s were an exception. What united the artists was a feeling for vitality and originality, and it attracted them to Sergey Kurokhin’s Pop Mekhanika performances. Letter I ends with a short fragment of Kozlov’s description of the exhibition and concert.
Eighty people on stage – it seems that Kozlov counted very generously, but to him it was more important to render the spirit of the evening than to pedantically compute numerical data. With his references to verses from other continents, he turned the “concert of modern music” into an international happening, a world affair, in a manner of speaking. To feel part of the world was essential, and the world indeed had an effect on what was created. According to journalist Alexander Kan, Kuryokhin’s close friend, Kuryokhin was inspired by the German band “Globe Unity Orchestra” and their LP “Jahrmarkt / Local Fair”, released in 1977. I discussed the history of Pop Mekhanika in my article Pop Mekhanika in the West from 2017/2018:
Alek Zander, one of the pseudonyms of Alexander Startsev, editor of Leningrad’s samizdat music review Roksi, gives an account of the evening:
Второе отделение - ПОП-МЕХАНИКА Сергея Курехина. Оркестр объединенных сердец. Там были и старые саксофонисты-джазмены, солировавшие по очереди, и дуэт БГ и Грини Сологуба, и Гаккель, и Борис Райскин из КОНСОРТА и Игорь Тихомиров с контрабасом, на котором он играл смычком, и песня эх-да за Одессу. "И тут один французский боцман" исполненная на четыре голоса - Цой, Витя Сологуб, БГ и Андрей Молев, и соло Андрея Молева - ветерана ленинградского рока, и специальный гость - бас гитарист группы УЛЬТРАВОКС Кристофер Кросс, устроивший бас-дуэль с Александром Титовым. Как можно описать музыку? Кроме избитого "кайф", ничего в голову не лезет. Радость души, да и только.
Pop Mekhanika (1984-1995) was not a band with steady members – rather, it was an occasional gathering of musicians, most of whom were members of their own bands. Thus, the “Happy New Year” concert saw members of KINO, Strange Games, Aquarium, and the New Composers; it goes without saying that special guest Chris Cross of Ultravox was snuck in by the other musicians and appeared on stage incognito. The core of Pop Mekhanika performances were the rock and jazz sections, at times combatting each other to produce what Kuryokhin called "develop unpredictably” and “tutti, and spontaneous improvisation” more >>, that is – unpredictable tutti. Over time, Kuryokhin would integrate not only folklore ensembles and chamber musicians, but also opera singers, military choirs, as well as dancers and other performers in fantastic costumes. Another important “component” were animals on stage – for instance the hens and a rooster during the The New Year Concert of Hunting for the Indo-Tibetan Goat. Its title notwithstanding, this Rock Club performance had no goats, but later, goats appeared in other Pop Mekhanika performances, as well as a baboon, goats, snakes, a pony, and geese.[6] However, the distinguishing feature of The New Year Concert was a graffiti art happening carried out by musicians and artists on huge piece of cloth, a kind of backdrop for the stage. Kozlov’s picture on top of Letter I shows a fragment of this painting. New Composer Igor Verichev is sticking his head through a hole in the cloth with a bewildered gaze. No wonder: next to him, two musicians from a folklore ensemble clad in traditional coats are blowing huge animal horns. On the left, the four letters ACCA, or ASSA, can be seen – an exclamation (with the stress on the first syllable) that became popular among the New Artists around that time (see Letter N Part 2, “ASSA”).Kozlov highlighted the letters red, and they match the situation perfectly.
Timur Novikov refers to ASSA in his concluding remarks of “The Festival of Arts”:
The happy and elated audience did not go home for a long time! !! ASSA !! Остается сказать о главном (так как всего о "Популярной механике" не сказать, и даже каждая написанная песня заслуживает отдельного исследования) - о заключительной сцене концерта, сцене всеобщего ликования, сцене "АССА", вобравшей в себя все самое светлое, сильное, здоровое в новом искусстве. "АССУ" плясали практически все находившиеся на сцене и большинство находившихся в зрительном зале.
Among the Pop Mekhanika pictures sent with Letter I, there are some more close-ups of New Artists painting on stage. Although by far not all artists from the exhibition participated in the “Happy New Year” performance, it still fostered their reputation as a group of multifaceted talents who were engaged not only in visual art, in writing texts, and playing music, but also collaborated in art happenings and occasionally created joint works.[7]
This having been said, not all New Artists engaged themselves in all activities, but on the other hand, no one expected that they should perform professionally in all fields. What is more, the Soviet legal system, which designated “unofficial” artists – a category pertaining to most New Artists – as “amateurs”, implicitly justified a “punk approach” to the arts.[8] Evgenij Kozlov’s attitude to this “wild and crazy” aspect remained ambiguous. He enjoyed the spontaneity and carefreeness of Pop Mekhanika and other performances, and through his pictures, they inspired his art. But what appeared wild and crazy in his works was often the product of carefully developed concepts, each meticulously composed over a longer period of time. With his painting Shark from 1988, a multifigure composition integrating an image of Novikov from the Happy New Year concert, he brought this concept to perfection.
Hannelore Fobo, 9 June 2023 [1] Leningradskii Mezhsoyuznii Dom Samodeyatel’nogo Tvorchestva / Ленинградский Межсоюзный Дом Самодеятельного Творчества more >>. [2] а, б, b, pronounced a, b, v, are the first letters of the Russian alphabet. [3] In all likelihood, Кино / Cinema more >> is identical with the painting listed as Шик, Шок, Шоу / Chic, Shock, Show in Novikov’s catalogue more >>. See also: E-E KOZLOV The Atlas of Ontology, Chapter 2 more >>. [4] “Неожиданно выглядел Евгений Козлов на гигантской черной бумаге” Quoted in E. Andreeva, catalogue Brushstroke, St. Petersburg, 2010. Originally published in the catalogue Novye Khudozhniki 1982–1987, P. 91 External link >>. [5] In the Soviet Union, New Year’s Day replaced Christmas, and eлка, yolka / spruce, is also translated as Christmas tree. [6] Towards the end of the nineteen-eighties, when Pop Mekhanika started touring abroad, the presence of animals on stage raised a controversy among the Western audience. This, in turn, was met with incomprehension on the Russian side, as Sergey Letov wrote in 2007:
Зарубежные же выступления показали, что европейская публика не принимает веселого безумия. Тупоумные немецкие зеленые бросились «защищать» козла в Мёрсе, представленного недостаточно уважительно. […]. Запад не понял и не мог принять смещения планов реальности. External link >>. For a detailed discussion of this topic see my article from2017/ 2018: Pop Mekhanika in the West, page 5 : Geese and goats as antithesis more >>. [7] Who actually became a New Artist and at what stage is a question answered differently by different people at different times. If Kozlov spoke of “selected artists”, Novikov, quite the contrary, tried to gradually expand their number to create the image of a growing mass movement. Thus, in his autobiography from 1998, Novikov included musicians who were also painting, such as New Composer Igor Verichev, KINO drummer Georgy Guryanov, and Viktor Tsoy, lead-singer of KINO, and even New Composer Valery Alakhov, who almost never painted. For a detailed discussion of this topic see my article from 2018: Timur Novikov’s New Artists list. Page 7. The New Artists group and the New Artists movement more >>. [8] In 1986, when a new law permitted founding amateur clubs more easily, Novikov tried to implement the principle of versatility with two associations, the “Club of the Appreciation of Amateur Creativity” and the “Mayakovsky Friends Club”, each supplied with a numerous sections such as literature, music, visual art, scholarly criticism, cinema, photography, theatre, fashion, and archive. It allowed a generous distribution of one and the same member to several sections at once. Novikov, with his alter ego Igor Potapov, was omnipresent. Thus, in the “Club of the Appreciation of Amateur Creativity“, he participated in five sections, while Kozlov, modestly, was assigned to two. However, since both associations never much left their initial stage of foundation, the sections had no further importance either. For a detailed discussion of this topic see my article from 2018: Timur Novikov’s New Artists list. Page 8. The “Mayakovsky Friends Club” and the “Club of the Appreciation of Amateur Creativity” more >>.
see also (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov, Catherine Mannick, and Hannelore Fobo papers, 1979-2022 (inclusive) Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies Special Collection Harvard University>> |
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Published 17 June 2023 |
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