IZO

Storm in an Eurasian tea-cup? 2 November: the Eurasian Union of Youth (EUY), headed by Kandinsky Prize-winning painter Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt, announces a public meeting in support of Russian historical values and against contemporary art; the announcement names E. Degot, M. Guelman, A. Erofeev and A. Osmolovsky as the main enemies of Russian culture and says they belong in jail (Open Space, in Russian). 4 November: the four vilified respond (Open Space, in Russian). 5 November: Belyaev-Gintovt denies he said any such thing (Open Space, in Russian). 

Report on the EUY meeting (Geopolitica, in Russian). Below: Belyaev-Gintovt's credo: he explains his debt to Timur Novikov, emphasis his orientation to the past and revives the essentially Stalinist concept narodnost ("peopleness").

I hear that the Belyaev-Guintovt show in Grozny was 100% pre-sold for a seven-figure dollar sum.

Photo report on the Belyaev-Gintovt show in Grozny (pavel_ak).

Interview with Belyaev-Gintovt; according to him (KavkazWeb):

Ramzan Kadyrov thanked the artist for breaching the information blockade of the Chechen Republic organised by western secret services.

Meanwhile in Grozny... (Moscow Times).

Alexey Beliayev-Guintovt is to show new work at the State Theatre and Concert Hall in Grozny, 1-31 July 2009. The title of the exhibition, Akhmad-Haji’s Hajj, reflects "the journey made by the late Akhmad Kadyrov [MB: father of the current Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov] in his efforts to bring peace to Chechnya" (thanks, RA). More here, including this piquant info (Open Space, in Russian):

In discussion with an OPENSPACE.RU correspondent, the owner of Triumph Gallery [MB: co-sponsors of the show] Emelyan Zakharov stated that for about six months he has been deputy Minister of Culture for Chechnya. However the press-service of the Ministry of Culture of Chechnya categorically denied this.

UPDATE: apparently there is a misunderstanding and Mr Zakharov has never claimed to be deputy Minister of Culture. He is an adviser to the Mayor of Grozny.

Poster or leaflet advertising a Mayday meeting of the Eurasian Youth movement(vbelchenko). The artist most closely associated with this movement is Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt; did he contribute to the design?

Eurasian movement TV: writer Mikhail Elizarov argues that "Europe is our enemy" (evrazia.tv, in Russia). On the same site there's also a video commentary by Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt on the Kandinsky Prize, but when I go there I get a message "Connect Failed" (evrazia.tv).

My article on the Kandinsky Prize is up on artnet (artnet). For even more retrospective coverage, click on Kandinsky Prize in the Categories. Artnet also has a list of 300 most searched-for artists; nary a Russian, unless you include Naum Gabo (artnet); number one, currently, is adolescent-girl sentimentalist photographer Sally Mann.

A visit to Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt (John Varoli/Art Newspaper):

“I want to do a Eurasian parade of the future, depicted in about 15 large paintings. I want to give a futuristic view to the Soviet-Stalinist aesthetic.” 

Beliayev-Guintovt doesn't hide his fondness for the Stalinist-era aesthetic, and he is uncomfortable when it comes to passing judgment on the Soviet dictator. “I had family members on both sides during the Stalin era. Some worked for the NKVD (secret police), while others ended up in the Gulag.”

Kandinsky Prize skandal "rumbles on" (John Varoli/Art Newspaper):

Emelyan Zakharov, co-owner of Triumph Gallery, which represents Beliayev-Guintovt, thinks the controversy is rooted in a conflict between two media groups. Ms Degot is a senior editor at Openspace.ru, a web portal for the arts launched last summer by Art Media Group; at the end of December it also launched the Russian-language edition of Art & Auction magazine.

Art Media Group’s main competitor is Art Chronika, one of Russia’s oldest and most established art magazines and published by the Art Chronika Foundation, co-sponsor of the Kandinsky Prize.

Actually, I don't agree with the conflict thesis. As far as I know Degot prosecuted her campaign querying the prize neither at the behest of her employer at Open Space, Valeri Nosov, nor indeed with his prior approval. 

There is interesting background - more than in Wikipedia - on Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt's guru, Eurasian party leader Alexander Dugin, here (Stringer, in Russian):

Dreams of secret societies and great deeds led the young romantic into the dissidents' embrace. Dugin began to frequent the crazy underground salon of writer and mystic Yuri Mamleev. At the end of the 60s, in Yuzhinski Lane, several geniuses of underground Bohemia met and socialised: the artists Antoli Zverev and Vladimir Pyatnitsky, the poets Genrikh Sapgir, Yuri Kublanovsky and Leonid Gubanov, the writer Venedikt Erofeev.

The Eurasian Youth Union, in response to Anatoli Osmolovky's criticism of Kandinsky Prize winner Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt, has apparently condemned Osmolovsky to death (rossia3.ru) (via Open Space) in a statement which concludes:

Many eyes are watching you, sodomite of the spirit. Soon. Very soon.
Heavenly Commissariat of Internal Affairs
Yes, death!

Friedhelm Hutte, the Deutsche Bank representative on the Kandinsky Prize jury, says he regrets voting for Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt to receive the prize (Open Space, in Russian).

A whole collection of comments on the Kandinsky Prize affair, copied from the private site Snob, were posted by Spider on 23 December (David Sarkisyan & Viktor Miziano; Olga Sviblova & Pavel Peppershtein; Emelyan Zakharov; Natalya Semenova & Aleksei Tarkhanov; Ivan Dykhovichny & Pavel Peppershtein; Mikhail Kamensky; Dmitri Khankin). I'll quote Viktor Miziano below:

When we are dealing with an artist who makes use of certain radical ideas it's important to understand the relationship of the artist to these ideas. Because there is a tradition in which an artist plays at being a supporter of such ideas without in fact believing in them. ... Knowing [Alexei] Belyaev [-Gintovt] and the stages of his artistic development, I am of the opinion that he is probably manipulating ideas.

Another take, Western this time, on the Kandinsky Prize (Max Seddon/Frieze):

If Belyaev is persona non grata in Russian artistic discourse, he is perfectly at home among the oligarchs and jet-setters – he is represented by the appointment-only Triumph gallery, which he praises for its ‘metaphysical status’ and ‘palace style, reminiscent of a beautiful era.’ There’s absolutely no contradiction there. Belyaev’s glossy ultra-nationalism is a just winner as the only artist on the list who truly integrates Russia’s Soviet hangover with its hyper-capitalist present. 

Jury-member Alexander Borovsky on the Kandinsky Prize. He defends the jury against the charges brought by Degot and others. Interestingly, he draws multiple comparisons between the current debate and the polemics of the early Stalin era, late 1920s-1937. He explains why he voted for Belyaev-Gintovt.  Belyaev-Gintovt's political views he characterises as part of the artist's aesthetic project, a manipulation of context (ArtKhronika, in Russian):

Liberal critics got worked up about many things. They failed to understand one thing: the artist is manipulating politics, not vice-versa.

Possibly. On the other hand, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

Video interview with Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt about his trip to South Ossetia (newstube, in Russian). There seems to be some disagreement about the pronunciation of Gintovt: in the art world the stress is usually put on the first syllable, but here it is on the second; the art-world way is probably more trustworthy.

Ekaterina Degot, who runs the widely-read art section of the Open Space portal, is under heavy pressure because of her leading role in the opposition to the Kandinsky Prize decision. "Prepare the obituary of a critic," she emails from Kiev. Let's hope she isn't in fact compelled to resign.

Some mystery about the views of of Jean-Hubert Martin, Kandinsky Prize judge and curator of the upcoming Moscow Biennale. When the Kandinsky Prizes were awarded, he was ill and couldn't attend, and therefore didn't vote. But he is on record as saying, of the overall winner, Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt: "I don't understand how such uninteresting works, devoid of any innovativeness, could win such a prize" (IZO, earlier). Yet, according to Kandinsky Prize committee chairman, Shalva Breus, at the long-list stage of voting Martin had given Belyaev-Gintovt nine marks out of a possible ten (IZO, earlier).

Radio interview with Ekaterina Bobrinskaya (judge), Shalva Breus (founder/sponsor), Alexander Borovsky (judge), Emelyan Zakharov (gallerist) and Alexander Panov (critic) about the Kandinsky Prize ceremony (Moskva FM). According to Breus, judge Jean-Hubert Martin, at the long-list stage of the voting, gave Belyaev-Gintovt (hereinafter, ABG) nine points out of ten (I believe Martin is later on record as wondering how such an artist could win the prize). Bobrinskaya says that the judges were pressured prior to the vote; Breus states that in Miami Valerie Hillings was approached by a leading Russian critic and asked not to vote for ABG. Breus's view is that "talented art is patriotic art"; Bobrinskaya states that no substantive artistic criticism has been made of ABG's work beyond objections to his use of gold. Zakharov says the whole scandal is "provincial". According to Bobrinskaya, jury-member Erofeev agitated against ABG on political grounds, even though he had earlier shown ABG's work in a Sotsart context and bought it for the Tretyakov Gallery. Alexander Panov gives an agitated commentary at the end in which he recants from the accusation of Fascism directed at ABG.

Radio interview (by telephone) with Ekaterina Degot about the Kandinsky Prize (Moskva FM). According to Degot, the Deutsche Bank representative applauded as Belyaev-Gintovt made a gesture like a Nazi salute. UPDATE: Ruth Addison, who works at Triumph Gallery, writes to contradict this: 

As for the alleged Nazi salute, I was there. I did not see anything like that. I saw Beliayev hold up the award. I heard Osmolovsky shouting. I applauded. I saw many other people in the hall applauding, including the Deutsche Bank curator, who turned towards Osmolovsky and appeared to ask him to be quiet as Beliayev could not make himself heard. ... the Nazi salute accusation ... could have serious consequences for the reputation of a respectable European curator who has done nothing wrong and it should not stand.

Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt at Triumph Gallery (thanks, MK).

Dmitri Khankin, Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt's gallerist, has made a statement about the Kandinsky Prize award on the snob.ru website (via dmitrivrubel):

Belyaev-Gintovt is not new to the gallery scene, he's been working for a long time, consistently, and his work sells well. He is a good, talented artist. He has quite specific political views. He is a Eurasian, a follower of Dugin and other Russian philosophers. But the prize is awarded not for accomplishments in philosophy but for an art project.

Yuri Albert responds to Ekaterina Degot's analysis of the Kandinsky Prize result and puts the uproar in context (dmitrivrubel):

... it's too late to get upset and shout "For shame!": if you take part in such a contest you have to be ready to lose to a fascist. ... No-one was too fastidious to show next to a fascist until the final ceremony. ... Marat Guelman was not too fastidious to work for Rogozin and to give space to Krylov,  the poet-orgsniser of the Russian March, and to Limonov, the fascist. We weren't worried, we didn't even discuss it. We were indifferent to what Timur Novikov was preaching, and in what way is he better than Belyaev? Everyone's friend, the sensitive watercolourist Volodya Salnikov, publicly annunces he is a Stalinist and in his LiveJournal discusses the quantity of Aryan blood in his veins and we (me, too) prefer not to notice and we shake his hand because he's an old friend and it's awkward not to. It's easier for me not to shake Belyaev's hand because I don't know him. I think the storm of disapproval has blown up because Belyaev isn't one of our crowd, and so it's easier to take a principled stance.

The Kandinsky Prize skandal seems capable of evolving as a confrontation between the old-established contemporary art magazine, ArtKhronika, which sponsors the prize, and the new stable of titles from Art Media Group: the Open Space website, where the Art section is headed by Ekaterina Degot; Blacksquare magazine; and the new Russian Art + Auction. In her most recent commentary on Open Space, Degot describes "Dugin's Eurasian nationalism", of which Belyaev-Gintovt's work is an expression, as "a point of consensus between Russian society and the authorities"; she implies that ArtKhronika, which expresses the views of the "new Russian ruling class", shares this consensus (Open Space, in Russian):

I don't know now how to behave towards ArtKhronika magazine. To advertise in it now is not an innocent act any more. To write an article for it is to support a certain kind of politics.

Boris Grois on the Kandinsky Prize, video interview (Open Space, in Russian).

The inside dope on the Kandinsky Prize jury's voting (Milena Orlova/Kommersant):

"I don't understand how such uninteresting works, devoid of any innovativeness, could win such a prize," said Jean-Hubert Martin ... The charman of the prize steering committee, Shalva Breus, who had one vote, admitted that he voted for the sotsart veteran Boris Orlov. Andrei Erofeev spoke out sharply against Belyaev[-Gintovt], although earlier he had included him in an exhibition. But Belyaev's supporters had the extra vote: voting "for" were art critic Ekaterina Bobrinskaya, head of new directions at the Russian Museum Alexander Bobrovsky, Guggenheim Museum curator Valerie Hillings, and director of Deutsche Bank Art Friedhelm Hutte. The latter two admitted they were startled by the stormy discussion of Belyaev but they were judging the works, not the context. Alexander Borovsky called Belyaev an artist in the tradition of Timur Novikov and Sergei Kurekhin and announced that he would not allow him to be smeared.

More Kandinsky Prize/Belyaev-Gintovt stuff:

1) Dima Gutov on the prize ceremony (kava-bata, in Russian):

Osmolovsky's performance in which he caused a scandal by shouting out "Shame" was as good as his best actions. As the critics of the XIX century used to say: the masks are off. I was afraid the affair might be obscured by giving the prize to me or Orlov. Let them show it around the world, their ugly mugs plain for all to see.

In fact, I'm not sure a Western audience would pay much heed to the content of Belyaev-Gintovt's work. That's the beauty of a culture saturated with messages. But I think his paintings would get even less attention as art. I'm not saying he's devoid of ability, but his work's overblown in all respects.

2) The statement of the Kandinsky Prize protest groups who mounted a picket at Vinzavod (the socialist movement Forward [Социалистическое Движение Вперед]; What Is To Be Done group [группа "Что Делать]; independent critics, artists activists) (kava-bata, in Russian & English):

We could care less about the Kandinsky Prize. It doesn’t matter to us whether the ultra-rightwing artist Belyaev-Guintovt wins it or not. We do not appeal to the powers that be, whether cultural, political or judicial, because we have no illusions about their commitment to democracy. We address our appeal to the art community and civil society. Our purpose is to draw their attention to the fascization of Russia’s ruling class.

This is happening in parallel with the profound crisis of the neoliberal order and its ideology, which makes no distinction between right and left, brown and red, fascism and communism, recognizing only private property and the “self-regulating” market. Thus does the eclectic “left-nationalist” ideology of Eurasianism converge with the stance of the prominent members of Russia’s business and media elite who serve on the prize’s jury and board of trustees. “Let a thousand flowers bloom!” “All ideologies are equal!” “Art beyond politics!” These slogans, which have always served the uncontrolled expansion of the market, are today being spouted by these respectable men and women. As they thus make profitable investments in art, flagrantly fascist utterances are legitimized in the public sphere.

Marat Guelman on the Kandinsky Prize: basically he seems to think along the same lines as me (galerist in Russian):

The worst thing is that despite the starry jury the prize went to the least interesting project of the three on the shortlist. ... It's lifeless kitsch, but because it's lifeless not everyone sees it for what it is. Gilding, pretentiousness - it's rubbish.

Kandinsky Prize follow-up: Cheers and jeers at Kandinsky Prize (NY Times). Osmolovsky leads revolt (Reuters). Dmitri Khankin, Triumph Gallery, defends Belyaev-Gintovt (John Varoli/Bloomberg).

Dmitri Vrubel has a photo of the prize-winner (dmitrivrubel).

Boris Groys, awarding the Kandinsky Prize this evening, before he opened the envelope containing the winner's name, made the point that all the three artists represented on the finalists' shortlist had distinct political views and that the choice of the jury would inevitably have a political resonance. After the choice of Belyaev-Gintovt was announced, a number of Moscow's most prominent art-world figures made their dissent and disgust known to Shalva Breus, owner of Art Khronika magazine, which organises the prize. This event looks like it will turn into the biggest scandal in the Russian art-world for quite some time, dwarfing questions of state censorship of exhibitions etc.

Belyaev-Gintovt's aggressively nationalistic politics, which have been characterised as "crypto-fascism", may be deduced from his work and manifestoes (see for example the website doctrine.ru or the page atnazbol.ru). Belyaev-Gintovt rejects the "fascist" moniker (evrazia.org, in Russian):

I'm more used to being accused of communism than of fascism. But accusations of fascism are obviously misdirected. I am a member of the Eurasian Movement, which looks to the East, to a union with our great Eastern neighbours - China, India, Turkey, Persia and others.

There's an interview with Belyaev-Gintovt in Art Khronika in which he explains his participation in the Eurasian Youth Movement, rejects accusations of anti-semitism, and explains his ambitions for a Grand Style (artchronika.ru, in Russian). I won't analyse his statements in detail here: apart from anything he is a painter and his major utterances are visual not verbal. He appears to be a favoured artist of Alexander Dugin, a leading ideologist of Russian nationalism and expansionism.

The question arises whether the prize's sponsors, Deutsche Bank, and its non-Russian jurors, including Valerie Hillings (of the Guggenheim Museum), Jean-Hubert Martin (curator of the upcoming Moscow Biennale) and Friedhelm Hutte (Global Head Deutsche Bank Art) were or are aware of the political implications of their choice. It's also unclear what kind of horse-trading went on in the jury that Russian members such as Andrei Erofeev, Ekaterina Bobrinskaya and Alexander Borovsky should have participated in the unexpected decision.

Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt has won the Kandinsky Prize. I was, er, wrong ;) And I'm surprised. Congratulations to him.

The Kandinsky Prize to be announced this evening is a three-way final between Dima Gutov, Boris Orlov and Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt. Who will win? Well, I'll stick my neck out and make a prediction. My guess is that Belyaev-Gintovt won't win: he is in the shortlist for reasons of pr, or zeitgeist, or to create a mini-scandal, or whatever; apart from his perceived "crypto-fascism", which would cause a bigger scandal if he won, he is the weakest of the three nominees. Of the other two, my pick would be Gutov, but he is a Guelman Gallery artist and another Guelman artist, Anatoli Osmolovsky, won last year. So I think for that reason, if no other, the prize may go to Orlov, who shows with XL. I'm not saying that the judges will necessarily reason along my lines, but I think they may be subtly guided, or subconsciously incline, in that direction. Meanwhile, Tatyana Nazarenko has today won one of the $50,000 Triumph prizes awarded annually to artists, writers and performers (RIA Novosti, in Russian).

An open letter from the Chto Delat (What Is To Be Done) group of artists and writers to the Kandinsky Prize:

Enough about Belyaev [-Gintovt, one of the artist-finalists]: he deserves the Leni Riefenstahl Prize, as dissenting jury member Yerofeyev aptly put it. What is more important is that this decision is acutely symptomatic of cultural production in Russia today. It is not that the curators and critics in the jury of the Kandinsky Prize are fascist sympathizers, although “the jury’s decision can be interpreted as a show of solidarity with [Belyaev’s] position,” as Joseph Backstein, Moscow Biennale commissar, noted. The problem is that they are ultra-liberals. Their market utopianism makes no distinction between right and left, brown and red, fascism and communism; it sees irony lurking around every corner to make everything nice and normal again.

Actually, I would have thought that Belyaev-Gintovt's "crypto-fascism" or not is neither here nor there: he's just not to be counted among the best artists in Russia, this year or any other year. Just as the over-populated nominees' show seemed to curry favour with every significant gallery in Moscow, so Belyaev-Gintovt's choice as finalist seems to curry favour with the very rich (they say) Triumph Gallery. Or it may reflect a tendentious view, on the part of the jury, of the Russian Art Of Our Times: a belief that it ought in some way to reflect the new Russian religious-nationalistic outlook: so last year's winner was Anatoli Osmolovsky, maker of contemporary "icons", and this year the nationalist Belyaev-Gintovt is pushed forwards.

By the way, neither Lena Hades nor Marat Guelman are happy with the selection of Belyaev-Gintovt as a Kandinsky-Prize finalist. Guelman's objections are vaguely expressed, but Hades is explicit: she quotes critic Andrei Kovalev to the effect that Belyaev-Gintovt is a "crypto-fascist" (galerist, in Russian; lena_hades, in Russian). A whole range of responses to his nomination my be found on Open Space (Open Space, in Russian).

A report on Kandinsky-prize nominee Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt's visit to the South Ossetian capital Tskhinval in his capacity not only of artist but also of Chairman of the Eurasian Union of Youth. South Ossetian President Kokoity offered Belyaev-Gintovt the opportunity to participate in the rebuilding of South Ossetia. Belyaev-Gintovt envisages a stalinesque City of the Sun (MIGnews, in Russian).

The Kandinsky Prize shortlist has been announced:

Project: Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt, Dima Gutov, Boris Orlov.

Young artist: Anna Zhelud, Diana Machulina, Grigori Yushchenko.

Media art: PG Group, Blue Soup, Vladimir Logutov.

The Kandinsky Prize show in the Central House of the Artist is useful in that it assembles work by about 60 artists, I think; it's also odd, most of the work being displayed in a kind of twilight; and much of it is pretty lightweight. In general, the established artists come off best: Dima Gutov, Blue Soup, Escape group all look good. Among the lesser-known and younger artists I also liked Anna Titova's photos and Ksenia Peretrukhina's video portrait series called The Brides of Joseph Beuys (which through some Freudian slip I initially misread as The Brides of Joseph Backstein), although the video quality is poor, for whatever reason.

Diana Machulina:

Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt:

Blue Soup:

Dima Gutov:

Blue Noses:

 :

Escape:

Blokhin & Kuznetsov:

 

Anna Zhelud:

Dmitri Vrubel:

Georgi Puzenkov:

 

Vladlena Gromova:

Alexander Gronsky:

Sergei Kostrikov:

Marina Zvyagintseva:

Anna Titova:

PG Group:

Ksenia Peretrukhina:

Igor Pestov:

The New Patriotism: Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt at Triumph Gallery (Marina Kamenev/Moscow Times). Slide-show here (Kommersant).