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(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov: Leningrad 80s • No.115 >>

Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies Special Collection • Harvard University

USA-CCCP. Points of Contact.
Catherine Mannick – (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
Correspondence 1979 – 1990

Text and Research: Hannelore Fobo, 2021/2024

6. Leningrad Artists and Musicians in E-E Kozlov's Pictures

previous page: 5. “It seems I need a manager.” The Impact of Getting Popular

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Table of contents: see bottom of page >>

Leningrad Artists and Musicians in E-E Kozlov's Pictures

The New Artists in Pictures

In the 1980s, photography became a distinguishing feature of Kozlov’s art. Amid approximately 6000 black and white negatives, 2200 are directly related to the Leningrad / St. Petersburg art scene more >>. Documenting encounters and events, Kozlov processed the films in his own laboratory and printed selected pictures he often gave away to his friends more >>. Around 1983, he started converting the vintage prints into painted art-objects or used them as inspiration for his portraits, LP-covers (Letter G), and multifigure compositions (Letter F). Today, his pictures are in many private and public archives, such as the Garage Archive Collection, Saint Petersburg, and Liverpool John Moores University. In the Davis Center Special Collection, there are and forty-three unpainted prints, sent as loose inserts, as well as fifteen painted pictures and eight painted photo collages, most being an integral part of a letter. Many present the New Artists, a group of “unofficial” artists of which Kozlov was a permanent member (Chapter 2). Founded by Kozlov’s friend Timur Novikov in 1982, it became a follow-up group of the Letopis, ("Chronicle”) group, where both had been active. Kozlov sent Mannick pictures of the 1981 Letopis exhibition at Novikov’s place, (Pictures 1981 – Flat Exhibitions / Letopis).

The New Artists became Leningrad’s most influential avant-garde group of the 1980s, experimenting with painting, collage, mail-art, artist’s books, poetry, fashion, theatre, design, and music – the latter especially on stage with Sergey Kuryokhin’s Pop Mekhanika (Popular Mechanics) orchestral improvisations. Kozlov’s pictures predominantly illustrate the group’s most active period, lasting from 1984 to 1987, and present a Who is Who of Leningrad’s alternative art-scene and its actions.[1]

A first – implicit – reference to the New Artists is in Letter G from September 1984, when Kozlov writes “The fine art of Russian culture is alive, but unfortunately there is no possibility to advertise it on a large scale.” This is not long after the New Artists’ first private group exhibition in the summer of 1984, documented by Kozlov with black and white pictures more >> and by Alexander Boyko’s thirty-two colour slides; Kozlov gave the slides to his American friend, probably during her October 1984 visit (see Alexander Boyko’s colour reproductions of works by five New Artists, 1984). He hoped that in this way Mannick might help spread the news about Russia’s art-scene in her country. Generally speaking, art reproductions in his correspondence fulfil a double purpose – to involve his friend in his art activities and to promote Russian art in the West. In October 1986, Kozlov introduced Mannick to some of his friends and their studios, and the visit left a lasting impression on her (Letter L).

Pictures and collages from the USA-CCCP. Points of Contact correspondence include private and public performances and concerts – Fashion Show, 1984 (Letter K), Anna Karenina, 1985 (Chapter 2), the experimental band New Composers, 1985 (Letter H), Pop Mekhanika’s Happy New Year performance and exhibition at the Leningrad Rock Club, 1985 (Letter I), and another Pop Mekhanika performance in 1986 (Letter L). A series of vintage prints from 1987 documents Timur Novikov’s ASSA art squat and gallery shortly before it was closed (Letter N Part 2).

The following list presents, in alphabetical order, the names of those protagonists of Leningrad’s independent art and music scene that can be seen in Kozlov’s painted and unpainted vintage prints and collages. It includes most New Artists’ “core” members – that is, visual artists, marked in the list as NA – as well as a number of other people with whom they performed.[2] In some of the painted pictures, identifying a person is possible only when looking at the original negative. Pictures and photo collages that are not related to any of the letters were linked to the pages where they were published.

• NA artist and performer Sergej Bugaev (Introduction – Let's Talk About Art, Letter L)

• New Composers Valery Alakhov and Igor Verichev (Letter J, Letter H, Letter L Letter N)

• performer Ágnes Fehdenfeld-Horváth (Letter L)

• singer-songwriter Boris Grebenshikov (Letter I)

• painter and drummer Georgy Guryanov (Letter J, Letter L, Letter N, Letter Q)

• NA artist and writer Vladislav Gutsevich (Chapter 2, Letter L, Letter I)

• NA artist and poet Oleg Kotelnikov (Letter I, Letter K)

• NA artist (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov (Letter G, Letter K, Letter L, Letter Q, Letter R, and numerous pictures without a New Artists context)

• NA artist and musician Andrey Krisanov (Letter L)

• NA artist and writer Yurii “Tsirkul” Krasev (Letter K)

• musician and composer Sergey Kuryokhin and his Pop Mekhanika / Popular Mechanics performances (Letter I, Letter L)

• performer Katia Liverovskaya (Letter L)

• NA artist Andrey Medvedev (Letter L)

• NA artist and curator Timur Novikov (Letter I, Letter J, Letter K, Letter L, Letter N, Letter Q) and his studio ASSA (Letter K, Letter N),

• artist and performer Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe (Letter Q)[3]

• performer and model Natasha "Dlinnaya" Nazarova (Letter K)

• musician and Kolibri band managner Galina “Gasya” Ordinova (Letter K)

• singer and performer Natalia Pivovarova (Letter L)

• NA artist and animation filmmaker Inal Savchenkov (Letter L)

• performer Katya Selitskaya (Letter L)

• artist, film maker, and founder of the “Nekrorealists” group Evgeny Yufit (Letter L)

• actor and scenarist Rodion Zavernyaev (Chapter 2)

Fashion desinger Garik Assa (Oleg Kolomeychuk), musician Mikhail Chernov (saxophone), Chris Cross (bass guitar), (Letter I)

Hannelore Fobo, 13 March / 8 November 2024

[1] Leningrad’s underground culture is also in the focus of an introductory text written on Café “Saigon”, a hot spot for Leningrad’s bohemia and one of Mannick’s and Kozlov’s meeting places during Mannick’s 1982/1983 studies in the USSR (Letter E).

[2] There is no general agreement on whether musicians who also painted – like Igor Verichev – should be considered New Artists, too.

[3] Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe started performing with Timur Novikov in 1989 or 1990, when the New Artists were about to cease their joint activities. There are diverging views on whether or not he should be considered a New Artist. (See Chapter 2, footnote 6) .