Evgenij Kozlov

Art and Alternative Music in Eastern Europe 1968–1994” (Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, 2016; Akademie der Künste Berlin, 2018), they represented the protagonists of Leningrad's art and music scene.

During the nineteen eighties, Kozlov repeatedly turned his attention to the polarity between Russia and America as a factor in world affairs affecting the spiritual state of the Earth.

Approximately 170 paintings, collages, drawings, textile works, handbags, and other objects are documented for this period.

In 1978 Kozlov joined the art group Letopis and then, in 1982, became one of the first members of the New Artists, founded by Timur Novikov, who had also been a member of Letopis.

Kozlov regularly participated in the New Artists' exhibitions, first in Leningrad and later, at the end of the 1980s, internationally (US, Sweden, England, Finland, Hungary, etc.).

He had his first solo exhibition at Timur Novikov's studio / gallery “ASSA”.

The art critic and curator Ekaterina Andreeva points to the influence of his artistic approach on Timur Novikov: “He [Timur Novikov] departed from ‘wildness’ under the influence of Kozlov's strict style".

An important part of Kozlov's large body of work from the 1980s are vivid portraits - provided by his photographs, collages, drawings and paintings - of the artists and musicians allied with the New Artists.

Many of them represent the second Russian avant-garde in art and music: Georgy Gurianov, Oleg Kotelnikov, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Timur Novikov, musicians Sergey Kuryokhin, Viktor Tsoi, the ‘New Composers’ Valery Alakhov and Igor Verichev, among others.

To an extent, the camera was for Kozlov the same as a sketchbook for artists of the past in so much as it captured and preserved a moment of inner life for future interpretation.

These pictures, which the author used for paintings, graphic works and collages, are today not only of an intrinsic artistic value, but also, with their coverage of celebrities and events, a rich documentation of artistic life in Leningrad in the 1980s.

They have appeared as catalogue covers and in books and magazines.

They have also been used as posters for various exhibitions.

At the exhibition “Notes from the Underground.

It starts with “This Century's Dead Caresses, Up Until… ”(1980), a composition reminiscent both of Kasimir Malevich's interpretation of Russian folk art and of Vladimir Lebedev's poster art, and is brought to a close with the constructivist “Points of Contact”, dating to 1989, which portrays this polarity being overcome.

(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov (Russian: (E-E) Евгений Козло́в, tr. (Ye-Ye) Yevgueni Kozlov, IPA: [jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj kɐˈzlof] is a Russian artist living in Berlin. Known chiefly as a founder of the art group "New Artists" (Leningrad, 1982—1989), perhaps the most influential art phenomenon in the Soviet Union in its last decade, he works under the artist's name of E-E which has been his sole signature since 2005. Since 2017, he has been adding People as a second signature to most of his works, stressing the universal character of his approach to art.

Anticipating the struggle for a tri-polar distribution of forces, Kozlov saw China joining the concert of the world powers – as portrayed in the painting CHINA-CCCP, from 1987, which depicts both of these protagonists as guitarists.

The same year, the artist engaged in reworking Soviet symbols such as the star, the hammer, and the sickle, etc. This entailed a certain degree of ‘rebranding’ the logotypes, so as to make them positive.

Three of these works, “Star”, "Star. 6 Figures", and “CCCP (USSR) are now in the collection of Tate Gallery, London.

Kozlov's studio “Russkoee Polee” (“The Russian Field”, 1989–1991) at No. 145 Fontanka River Embankment was a meeting place for artists, curators, and gallerists.

In 1990, the Austrian performance artist Wolfgang Flatz teamed up with Kozlov for a body-painting session; this was filmed for the public by ZDF, the German TV channel.

That same year, he saw the Berlin curator Hannelore Fobo visiting his studio.

Kozlov settled in Berlin and later married Fobo.

At Russkoee Polee, Kozlov created his main cycle of works from the Leningrad period, “Новая Классика” (Novaya Klassika), or “New Classicals”, consisting of six motifs, each painting in a 2x3m format: Love for Man, Love for Woman, Love for the Cosmos, Love for the Earth (two versions, one being in the Collection of Centre Pompidou, Paris. ), Love for Work, Love for the Wonderful (two versions).

The seventh motif, “Love for God” exists as a draft.

The same year, he began building up a unique collection of art, “2x3m”, inviting Leningrad artists to his studio to produce a work in this format.

The initial contributions were made by Oleg Kotelnikov, NIKA (Elena Bogdanova), Ivan Sotnikov, and Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe.

During the night of the 22nd to the 23rd of July 1990, one of the most spectacular exhibitions of Soviet / Russian art took place on Palace Bridge (Дворцовый мост / Dvortsoviy Most), the central part of which opens twice at night.

Ivan Movsesyan conceived the concept of turning the southern segment, opening towards the Winter Palace (Hermitage), into a huge exhibition stand of 30 ms height and 27 ms width.

It displayed six works from Kozlov's collection “2x3m”, five of Kozlov's own works from the cycle "New Classicals", as well as a number of other works by Kozlov's artist friends.

One of Kozlov's first exhibitions in Germany was “Der Weg der ockerfarbenen Elefanten“ (“The Path Of The Ocre Elephants“) at Kampnagel, Hamburg, in 1991.

It was coproduced with the Centre Culturel, Cherbourg where it was shown the same year as “Le Passage des éléphants ocres“.

Kozlov's works included three large paintings from his series “New Classicism“ (“Новая классика”) which were characterized in an art journal as “self-contained and yet irritating to such a degree that they would hold their own in any exhibition.”

In 1994, with support from the OTIS company, Hannelore Fobo and Evgenij Kozlov opened “RUSSKOEE POLEE 2” in Berlin; the studio, a 400 m2 factory space, ran until 2008.

The dimensions of his studio allowed the artist to develop large projects, such as “Miniatures In Paradise”, 1995, an exhibition at the Siegessäule (Berlin Victory Column) with motives of angels as well as the cities of St. Petersburg and Berlin.

Sixteen “miniatures”, original paintings on fabric in a 5 x 2 m format similar to gonfalons, were hoisted on flagpoles around the Großer Stern on June 15, 1995.

The exhibition had to be closed after four of the “miniatures” were stolen.

During its fourteen years of existence, “RUSSKOEE POLEE 2” played a prominent role on Berlin's cultural landscape.

In 2007, Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick included Kozlov into the list of 100 “great solitary masters”.

Kozlov's works are in the collections of the Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Tate Modern, London, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, Turku, Davis Center, Harvard University, and in other public and private collections.