LENING-ACCEE–RAD

In the context of this exhibition, Evgenij Kozlov's joint work with Oleg Kotelnikov is of great interest, because unlike other "New" artists, Kozlov rarely participated in the creation of joint works. Rather, his contribution to common activites consisted in inviting his artist friends to stage performances for his camera – especially in the period from 1984 to 1986 – which inspired his works in many ways, leading to important painted photo collages and portraits. But the work in question is not only a rare example in Kozlov's body of works, it is also a very large specimen of a joint work, or should we say, it was a very large specimen – what happened to it after the exhibition no one remembers. We must therefore rely on some four black and white pictures to recreate the story of this painting, which can be done to some extent. Obviously, the pictures are not revealing us the title of the work – if it had any at all. I decided to call it "LENING-ACCEE–RAD" based on the reading of the letters that appear on the painting, from left to right. The three fragments of this "word" correspond to three different sections within the composition, each of which can be clearly attributed to either Kotelnikov or Kozlov.

To put it differently – in this particular case, "joint work" means that both Kotelnikov and Kozlov painted their own sections on the material laid out on the floor, each in his own distinctive style, not interfering with the other: Kotelnikov painted the central section (ACCEE) which was framed by Kozlov's designs to the left (LENING) and right (RAD).

E-E-pho-EX11, detail (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov creating a joint work with Oleg Kotelnikov. St Peterburg University, (SPBU), Palace of Culture and Science, Peterhof Photo: Nikolai Veinert, 1988

To define the medium is no easy task. Picture EX11 shows us that it was rolled out in a single piece, with a height of about 120 cm and a total length between five to six metres. My first guess was that it was a piece of paper from a paper roll, but as Evgenij Kozlov and I started discussing the wave patterns appearing in some areas of the material, we came to the conclusion that paper wouldn't display such softness: it must have been a large piece of fabric, not paper. Very probably, it was a cotton textile – red calico (red looks grey in a black and white film), the same material the artist had used for his large works the previous year, the so-called "White on Red" series. more >>. To keep the material in place while working on it, Kozlov put one of paintings, "Lofe" on the left border page 2 >>, while on the right we see a long (cardboard?) roll.

E-E-pho-BR21, detail Central piece of LENING-ACCEE–RAD with Oleg Kotelnikov's section. St Peterburg University, (SPBU), Palace of Culture and Science, Peterhof Photo: Nikolai Veinert, 1988

However, red calico is rather thin and paint seeps through it immediately. How did Kotelnikov and Kozlov protect the parquet flooring from getting stained with paint? They must have put a protective sheet underneath the fabric. Yet the pictures are not showing us anything looking like a protective sheet. By all means, it should have been larger (wider) than the calico lying on top, at least in Kotelnikov‘s section. This central part of the painting was completely covered by paint, up to the lower and upper borders of the fabric.

Picture E-E-pho-EX11 demontrates that Kotelnikov first painted the lower part of his section, an elongated rectangle, and we can still clearly distinguish this lower part from the upper part of the compostion in E-E-pho-BR21. Did Kotelnikov bring along two separate paintings on paper which he subsequently attached to the fabric, only to add some some finishing brushstrokes to it? This seems to be a wild guess, but it would solve the question of the paint seeping through the material, at least in part. It is a pity that neither Kotelnikov nor Kozlov remember anything about how they proceeded with their joint work.

E-E-pho-EX15, detail Oleg Kotelnikov painting his section of a joint work with E-E Kozlov St Peterburg University, (SPBU), Palace of Culture and Science, Peterhof Photo: Nikolai Veinert, 1988

Thus, Kotelnikov used a painterly style for his composition – a landscape with some palms (E-E-pho-EX15), in all likelihood a seashore or beach at the bottom –the elongated rectangle of the lower part of the composition. Above it, there might be a sea turning into an open sky. The letters ACCEE domiante the upper part of the composition. "ACCEE” is a combination of two important New Artists sound images from the 1980s: ACCA, pronounced ASSA, and E-E, pronounced Yeh-Yeh. Both were popular with Oleg Kotelnikov and sometimes appeared in his paintings. (While Evgenij Kozlov has always remained critical to ASSA, he adopted E-E as his signature in 2005.)

As a matter of fact, Kotelnikov might have written all four letters ACCA and applied the first of the E‘s on top of the second A; at least this seems plausible when we compare E-E-pho-EX15 with E-E-pho-BR21.

Kotelnikov placed E E on another dominating feature – the head of beast in profile. It resembles Yevgeny Yufit‘s "punk" figures with their long protruding snout; Yufit's figure is even a bit more "beasty" than that of his friend Kotelnikov.

E-E-pho-BR21, detail LENING-ACCEE–RAD after completion. Centre: Oleg Kotelnikov's painting. Left and right: E-E Kozlov's sections St Peterburg University, (SPBU), Palace of Culture and Science, Peterhof Photo: Nikolai Veinert, 1988		Evgeny Yufit. Detail of a painting from 1983. The Kozlov & Fobo Collection, Berlin. Photo: Hannelore Fobo

Kozlov, for his part, used stencils for script as well as for his constructivist figures. In picture E-E-pho-BR21, the letters ЛЕНИНГ or LENING can be seen left of Kotelnikov's painting, while on the right, where the photograph ends, a Р, appears, the Russian letter R. The R is the first of the three remaining letters of Leningrad – РАД, or RAD. This is a play on words: in Russian, "rad" means happy, and Kozlov decided to separate "Leningrad" in a new way – not "Lenin–grad", which means the city of Lenin, but "Lening–rad", Lening is happy. Kozlov had first created this semantical "reform” of the name Leningrad in a double portrait of his friend Andrey Fitenko from 1987, as part of his approach to rebrand Soviet labels and stereotypes. Discussing the play of words, he told me that at he sensed that "Leningrad" and "Lenin", were about to disappear altogether, just as "CCCP". It actually happened in 1991, when Leningrad was re-named Saint Petersburg and the Soviet Union dissolved (although, as we know, Lenin's embalmed body is still being preserved in the Mausoleum at the Red Square).

Galaxy Gallery, E-E Kozlov's flat and studio at Peterhof, 1987 or 1988. From left to right:
(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov, young woman and Andrey Fitenko with Kozlov's double portrait of A. Fitenko Lening-rad from 1987.
Kozlov is holding his work CCCP-USA from 1987, exhibited at Peterhof University in 1988 see page 2 >>
Picture from E-E‘s archive

In 1988, E-E created another work called "Lening-rad", one of several large works on paper made with a technique he developed at that time. I included some pictures of these works on the previous page see page 2 >>, since it is likey that they were also part of the exhibition at Peterhof. The printing technique could be described as a monotype silkscreen print: Kozlov started painting with ink through gauze lying on top of the paper and then, having removed the gauze, continued directly on the paper. He would therefore obtain two quite different works: the painted gauze and the work on paper. Of "Lening-rad" (as of most other works from that series), only the painted gauze has been preserved; it clearly shows the gap between ЛЕНИНГ and РАД.

E-E-pho-CW23
Kozlov took this picture at his Peterhof flat and studio Galaxy Gallery, in 1988. It displays several of his works.
On the right is Ленинг-рад / Lening-rad, mixed media on paper, approx. 102 x 290 cm, 1988, Inv.no E-E-188015.
The artist created this work applying a print technique with the help of the gauze shown on the picture above.

Here a slight digression seems appropriate. Another example of Kozlov's semantic perestroika – "rebuilding" of meaning – is the T-shirt from 1987 he was wearing during the installation of the exhibition: he created the lay-out with a "grid" consisting of six by six letters, of which thirty-five are curly “C"s, with the very last being a P. In this way, CCCP, the abbrevation of Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (SSSR, Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR), became CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCP, which, if pronounced in Latin, as s and p, respectively, "resembles the sound produced by a train running on the rails at constant speed – before it finally comes to a halt at the P”, as I wrote in my text from 2020 about the large painting CCCP (1987). more >>

Exhibition at Peterhof, detail of E-E-pho-BR24 E-E- Kozlov wearing his T-shirt from 1987 more >> Photo: Nikolai Veinert, 1988		E-E-pho-BR24 E-E Kozlov wearing his T-shirt CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCP On the wall is his painting КИТАЙ-СССР / CHINA-CCCP, mixed media on canvas, 161 x 213 cm, 1987 Galaxy Gallery, 1987. more >>

Letters and words have always played an important role in Kozlov's work, both as semantical and as compositional elements.
In picture E-E-pho-EX13, we actually see, next to the wall, the cut-out letters from the cardboard stencil of "ЛЕНИНГ".

Creating the lay-out for the stencil, Kozlov arranged these letters with a specific rhythm – vertically, in three pairs of two: ЛЕ-НИ-НГ. Sitting on his haunches, on the cardboard sheet, he applied them to the material with white paint. The lettering is slightly irregular, similar to Kotelnikov's painted letters, but it is a calculated irregularity: the straight, "clean" borders of the letters act as a counterweight to irregularity.

This type of seeming spontaneity is also present in the figures completing the work on the left and right margins. Kozlov employed a constructivist shape based on a sketch of a male figure from 1987, E-E-187075, but chose triangular shapes for hands and feet. Instead of using a negative stencil to create a positive shape of the figure (as with the letters), Kozlov used a positive stencil to create its negative shape on the material, painting around the stencil's borders with a big brush (E-E-pho-EX13). The brushtrokes for the figure on the right border of the picture (on the painting's left end) are more genereously applied than those marking the contours of the left border of the picture (on the right end of the painting). Variation is another principle Kozlov employs to avoid repetitious monotony.


In a next step, Kozlov partially filled the "void" of the figures with a pattern similar to those created in the painting "Star. 6 Figures" from 1987, thsu making them more individual and dynamic more>>.

Detail of E-E-pho-BR21 The fragment displays Kozlov's constructivist figure on the left part of Kozlov's joint painting with Oleg Kotelnikov		( E-E) Evgenij Kozlov Detail of Star. 6 Figures from 1987 more>>

E-E-pho-BR21
E-E Kozlov and Oleg Kotelnikov discuss their joint work after completion. Photo: Nikolai Veinert, 1988

Having discussed the contribution of both artists, what can we say about the composition as a whole?
The first thing that comes to mind is that it is bold expression artistic assertiveness – at a moment when political restrictions on artists were gradually being lifted, although still present. The sheer size and monumentality of letters and figures turns this work into a large banner, comparable to those artist banners from the early Soviet period – with the dfference that a that time, artists were celebrating the beginning of communism, while Kozlov and Kotelnikov were celebrating the end of communism.

The second thought is that the general concept of this joint work is based not on a fusion of styles, but on a combination of styles, displaying them side by side. Taking into consideration Kotelnikov's free-style approach and Kozlov's conceptual approach, I suppose that a fusion of styles would have have been difficult to achieve without turning the composition into some kind of eclectic chaos. It is the lettering that integrates into one whole what might otherwise appear like competing fragments, and this is why I have called the work "LENING-ACCEE–RAD".

That thought leads us back to the first point: "LENING-ACCEE–RAD" shows that, contrary to what was professed by the Soviet system, individualism isn't the same as egoism: in a joint work, individual contributions may remain clearly distinguishable, without leading to a collective work of anonymous contributors. Yet the Soviet cliché or propaganda of anonymous collective works – of altruism defeating egoism – had left its traces on the New Artists, too, more specifically on Sergei Bugaev and Timur Novikov. In their introduction to the catalogue of the New Artists exhibition at London based Young Unknowns Gallery earlier the same year, in February 1988, we read:

…the numerous joint works allow us to present a unified exhibition, without the need to divide the work according to the artist. This is a COLLECTIVE exhibition […] They [the artists] do not strive to develop individual methods or style.“ more >>

As often, what might be right in some cases proves to be wrong many other cases, although Buagev's and Novkov's assertion was wrong even with respect to the London exhibition. more >>

A the Palace of Culture and Science of Petersburg University, the size and stylistic novelty of "LENING-ACCEE–RAD" must certainly have made quite an impact on visitors, especially if we imagine that it could have been displayed (hypothetically) not in the foyer of the theatre hall, but on stage, or above the stage, as was the case with Kozlov‘s work form 1987 "CCCP" at the Leningrad Sverdlov House of Culture more >>.

Perhaps one day, a colour reproduction of LENING-ACCEE–RAD will appear, of perhaps even the work itself will reappear. This would allow us to continue reflecting on this work in particular and, more generally, on the differences between a joint work, on the one hand, and a collective work on the other hand.

Hannelore Fobo. 17 October 2020

Text and research: Hannelore Fobo, October 2020

Page 1: Introduction

Page 2: E-E Kozlov‘s paintings

Page 3: E-E- Kozlov and Oleg Kotelnikov: The creation of LENING-ACCEE–RAD

Page 4: Documentation

Uploaded 17 October 2020