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(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov: Leningrad 80s • No.115 >>
5. “It seems I need a manager.” The Impact of Getting Popular Censorship in a wider sense – lack of time and energy resulting from the Law on Social Parasitism – nevertheless continued being a problem through most of the 1980s, as Kozlov explained in 2023:
Although there were often longer breaks between two jobs, the little money he gained did not allow him to consider looking for a larger studio. Besides, by law, artists’ studios were only available for union members.[2] On the other hand, selling art privately to local collectors was only a theoretical option, as Kozlov’s remarks on the 1985 “Happy New Year” exhibition demonstrate – those few people who could allow themselves to buy art would rather invest in established values, while collectors of contemporary art were not in a situation to spend much money:
Kozlov was frustrated by the situation. After Catherine Mannick’s October 1986 visit, he wrote her:
The transition towards “creating on a large scale” happened in stages, starting in 1987. Although Kozlov’s legal and material conditions didn’t improve, he decided to spend more time on art. Towards the end of 1987, he wrote:
 Earlier that year, in May 1987, Kozlov had quit a last “government” job, disregarding the fact that the Law on Social Parasitism was still in force; it was abolished only in April 1991. This solved the problem of time, though not that of space to paint large canvases nor of money to acquire professional quality art material. But he found a pragmatic solution, using the tiny space of his Peterhof flat and studio “Galaxy Gallery” and “poor” material – red calico, a cotton textile for Soviet banners available in large quantities. With an old Singer hand crank sewing machine, he sewed several panels of calico to large pieces, some of which he provided with carefully created zigzagging contours more >>. He then fixed them to the wall and painted them with white wall paint. The largest work, CCCP, produced in a 2 x 6 m format, was too large for any of the walls of his room, and the material had to be fixed around the corner, to adjacent walls. Three of these paintings from 1987, “Star” more >>, “Star. 6 Figures” more >>, and “CCCP” more >>, are today in the collection of Tate Modern.[4]
In 1988, Kozlov continued experimenting with cloths of different quality and primed them to obtain neutral surfaces for large multifigure compositions. Unable to check his working progress from a distance – because the room was too small – he attached a mirror to the opposite wall and looked at the mirrored image through the wide-angle lens of a door viewer, thus creating an optical illusion of a distant object. Seven large figurative paintings on canvas, with the larger side up to 220 cm, and five works on paper up to 4 metres length have been documented for 1988 more >>. It is difficult to imagine how Kozlov was able to produce such a considerable number of highly complex paintings under these circumstances.
At this point, selling art to foreign collectors, whose interest rose with perestroika, seemed to be the only way to make some money. At the same time, the prospect of selling his art internationally raised new questions, as it meant dealing with unknown variables:
Mannick’s answer came shortly afterwards:
Kozlov didn’t wait for a personal exhibition, and in 1988/1989, almost all of his large works from 1987 and 1988 left his studio for New Artists group exhibitions to Sweden more >>, Denmark, England more >>, Finland more >>, and the USA more >>, making an impact on the western audience. At the beginning of 1989, he stated:
As a matter of fact, for Kozlov, the year 1988 marks the passage from being subject to the local command economy, which had restrained his potential as an artist, to becoming an agent in an international market system, the rules of which he had to govern by himself. Put differently, apart from being an artist, he had to become his own art dealer; only then could he hope to create the conditions to unfold his artistic potential. Fixing prices and royalties[5] were just part of the difficulties that emerged as his art started selling internationally. Unlike other artists, Kozlov didn’t instantly travel abroad with his works; rather, he relied on his fellow artists to whom he handed over his art in Leningrad, in the first place on Sergei Bugaev. It didn’t work out – Kozlov didn’t know what was sold at what price and what remained unsold.[6] What is more, collecting unsold works from exhibitions became a serious problem:
With no place to paint large works while losing control over the works he had sent off, the situation was getting out of hand. Again, Kozlov felt like having come to a dead end. But now, as an art market was gradually emerging in the Soviet Union, he opted for a business solution:
Later the same year, Kozlov indeed found a manager – Rinad Akhmethine, a young man who wasn’t involved in the art scene at all, but saw a potential for future sales of Kozlov’s art. Thanks to perestroika, Akhmethine was able to help him open his new studio Russkoee Polee / “The Russian Field”, a spacious flat in the centre of Leningrad. In Letter Q from December 1989, Kozlov gives a description of his studio and his current situation: “My business is going quite well. My paintings are bought by foreign collectors and museums.” more >> Up to that point, travelling had been an option depending on the circumstances:
Now – half a year later – Kozlov was reasonably optimistic regarding his future and seriously considered travelling to the States: “Many of the latest works have already been transported to the USA and most likely in the spring I will see your Homeland too.” The passage obviously refers to a New Artists exhibition at Paul Judelson Arts, New York, which opened in May 1990 in Judelson’s flat. Paul Judelson had started his career as an art dealer with Leningrad’s New Artists a year earlier through a contact with Joanna Stingray and Sergei Bugaev. The inaugural exhibition in May 1989 was called “The First North American Exhibition of the Friends of Mayakovsky Club, Leningrad U.S.S.R.”[7] Accordingly, the May 1990 exhibit was “The Friends of Mayakovsky Club. Leningrad USSR, Exhibition II.”[8] Kozlov’s works participated in both exhibitions. The young American art dealer established a personal contact with Kozlov in the winter of 1989/1990, when he travelled to Leningrad and visited Kozlov’s studio “The Russian Field”, where he selected numerous works to take to the States, mainly portraits and nude paintings as well as works from the New Classicals cycle. On that occasion, he also offered Kozlov the prospect of a studio of his own in New York. In his last letter, Letter R from March 1990, Kozlov again confirms his plan for the upcoming spring:
 Khlobystin remembers how New York’s social elite felt curiously attracted by the presence of “real” Russian artists. In his book Schizorevolution, he lists some of the celebrities who visited the exhibition, “Richard Gere, Catherine Deneuve, Milos Forman, Bruno Bischofberger, Nam June Paik, and many others".[9] That Kozlov should join his artist friends across the Atlantic looks like a natural consequence of the attraction America’s culture had been exerting on him for many years:
He now starts expressing himself in English:
Paradoxically, and his enthusiasm notwithstanding, he never went. As he explained later, in essence, two arguments convinced him to remain in Leningrad. First, after the end of censorship – both in a stricter and in a wider sense – there was no longer the need to look for better working conditions elsewhere. With the help of his manager, he had moved to a spacious studio, and having proper working material at his disposal, he could paint when, what, and how he wanted. Instead of meeting foreign curators and journalists abroad, they would come to his place (see Letter Q, December 1989). “The Russian Field” also allowed him to invite his artist friends to build up a unique collection of contemporary Russian art, “2x3m”, with paintings in this very format created on the spot more >>. Second, he was not really sure about the support he would find in New York, financially and otherwise, and whether it would last beyond a starting period. In addition, his Stockholm trip in April 1990 had shown him that travelling without good companionship was not that enjoyable (see Letter R, March 1990). This brought him back to the first argument. As a result, instead of Kozlov meeting Mannick in New York, Mannick came to see her friend at the “The Russian Field” in May 1990, and then again in later the same year; it was to become their last personal encounter.
Looking back, Kozlov doubts weren’t unfounded. “Gorby fever” reached its peak around 1989/1990, and very soon, the perestroika bonus, which had promoted a wide spectrum of Soviet and Russian art, faded away. Not surprisingly, there was no “Exhibition III” of Leningrad / St. Petersburg artists at Paul Judelson Art, although Judelson continued working with some of these artists for another while. The end of “Gorby fever” might not in itself have been a major problem for Kozlov’s art, but it limited the scope of what American collectors considered as true Russian art – Sots art, that is, the pop version of Moscow conceptualism with its political-social connotation. Sots art had established itself in New York earlier with artists born in the 1930s and 1940s, such Alexander Kosolapov and the tandem Komar and Melamid. Sotheby’s 1988 Moscow auction intensified this trend with the success of Moscow conceptualism.[10] Kozlov, born in 1955, was still affected by Soviet life, but to a lesser degree, and his concept of art was universal. There is subject matter coming close to Sots art, but this approach doesn’t go beyond the year 1990 – the “USA-CCCP” works from the period of 1980 to 1989 (see Letter J, August 1986) and the “Lenin with Red Eyes” variations from 1990 (see Letter R, March 1990). What is more, the fact that Kozlov embraces a wide variety of styles and often comes up with new ideas and techniques doesn’t facilitate marketing his art. To imagine how things would have worked out in New York is therefore quite impossible. Postscript That Kozlov didn’t leave Leningrad had another, unexpected effect. Coming from Berlin, I was on a trip through the Soviet Union, looking for contemporary art in Leningrad, Riga, Kiev and Odessa. On 9 May 1990, shortly after Mannick’s trip to Leningrad, I visited Kozlov’s studio for the first time. In the Soviet Union, and today in Russia, the 9th of May is “Victory Day”, victory over Germany in WWII, and that day was yet another victory over Germany – I was instantly won over by what I saw, I was thrilled, I knew exactly that I had found what I was looking for. And when the business partnership between Kozlov and his manager broke up in 1991, which led to Kozlov losing his studio, he moved to Berlin, where I found another studio for him – “The Russian Field No. 2” (1994-2008).
It was the beginning of a deep and lasting Russian-German friendship, spiritual relationship, business partnership, and, eventually, marriage. In this respect, Catherine Mannick’s words from 1983 sound prescient:
It so happened that Evgenij Kozlov came to Germany instead of going to America, and that in our personal biography, “Victory Day” turned into Europe Day, which, based on the Schuman declaration of 9 May 1950, celebrates peace and unity in Europe. Hannelore Fobo, 14 April 2024[1] The Petrodvorets Watch Factory “Raketa” was one of the oldest factories in Russia. With perestroika, it made an unexpected market entry in the US, as Catherine Mannick observed: “In New York the most fashionable women wear “Raketa” watches. (Letter 48, August 1989) [2] Sharing a space with some other artists, for instance at Timur Novikov’s Assa Gallery (see Letter N, part 2, 1987), was not an option, since Kozlov needed to be undisturbed to concentrate on his art. [3] Again, union members were privileged in this regard, because they could hope for well-paid public contracts, such as murals or paintings for reception halls, but naturally, their art had to be traditional. As a result, some union artists were traditional when executing public contracts and innovative with respect to their private art. [4] The three paintings were first exhibited in Leningrad in April 1988, framing the stage of the Sverdlov House of Culture (see picutre above). In August 1988, they went to the Swedish Kulturhuset exhibition, and after a long and adventurous exhibition tour, arrived in Berlin at the beginning of the 1990s. [5] Concerning royalties, see Kozlov’s discussion of his picture for the cover of the album “Popular Mechanics. Insect Culture”, Letter N, part 1, autumn 1987. [6] In 2013, Kozlov and three other former members of the New Artists filed suit against Sergei Bugaev, having discovered several of their works in a public exhibition in Saint Petersburg. See: Lost Art in Court. Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2013–2014. Summary more >>. [7] Concerning the title of the exhibition see Hannelore Fobo. The New Artists and the Mayakovsky Friends Club (1986-1990). Chapter 18. The Mayakovsky Friends Club in the USA, 1989-1990. (2021) more >> [8] The line-up of the May 1990 exhibition was Sergei Bugaev (“Afrika”), Timur Novikov, Georgy Guryanov, Evgenij Kozlov, Yevgeny Yufit, and Andrey Khlobystin. more >> [9] Khlobystin, Andrey. Shizorevolutsiia,(Schizorevolution) [Шизореволуция] Saint Petersburg: Borey Art, 2017, p. 114 [10] Grisha Bruskin’s painting “Fundamental Lexicon”, a narrative compilation of Soviet symbols, was on the cover of the auction catalogue. While its estimate was 20.000 £, the actual selling price went up to 220.000 £ – 242.000 £ including 10 % buyer’s premium (author’s private notes taken during the auction). |
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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 >> Published 7 June 2024 Last updated 17 November 2024 |
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