A well-known contemporary artist, who uses irony, a classic of Sots-Art and one of its founders, Rostislav Lebedev, in his new project “Cherished Fairytales”, combines the radicalism of current art and the tradition of Russian craft, contemporary political commentary and the brutal eroticism of popular primitivism.
The project “Cherished Fairytales” presents a series of boxes, made by masters of the lacquer miniature, using Lebedev’s sketches in the classical style of Palekh painting. At the base of the miniatures lie the motifs of cherished Russian fairytales, gathered by Afanasiev, the famous folklore collector, the subjects of which are rather frivolous and capable of embarrassing even the contemporary reader.
The artist reminds us about the subversive power of the culture of folk humour. Fusing the eroticism of traditional folklore with the Palekh style, Rostislav Lebedev laughs at the hypocrisy of contemporary dogmatists, who speak of “the return to roots” and at the same time bashfully hide the healthy folk roots from the public and from themselves as well.
Rostislav Lebedev was born in Moscow in 1946. In 1969 he graduated from the graphic arts faculty of the Moscow State Institute of Printing Arts. He has been a member of the Moscow Union of Artists from 1994. His works have been shown in the largest exhibition projects worldwide. Solo exhibitions have been held in Moscow and New York. His works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, The Pushkin Museum, the largest collections of the USA and Germany, and also in private collections in Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, France, England, Sweden, Australia and others.
Fairytales about cherished roots.
The ironic author of classic Sots-Art objects, Rostislav Lebedev, in his new project “Cherished Fairytales”, reminds us about the subversive power of the culture of folk humour. The name of the project refers to the studies of the great folklore collector Afanasiev, – the subjects from folk “cherished fairytales”, recorded by him, lie at the base of the lacquer miniatures, made on boxes in the style of Palekh painting, using Lebedev’s sketches.
The artist Lebedev is drawn towards working in many styles. His rich biography as an artist reminds us, for example, of the artistic community, which grew out of get-togethers in the studio of Prigov and Boris Orlov, “No 13 Rogova Street”, where new art was being created and where working in many styles was the norm. When in 1974 Lebedev, already a member of this conceptual circle, settled nearby, that search became even more intensive. And Lebedev’s recent works of 2008, shown at the exhibition “Russian Lettrism”, demonstratively contained that multiplicity of plastic languages and solved the tasks of the creation of stylistically multilayered space.
In this way the stylistic sterility of his new project may seem the answer to a formal challenge. The challenge comes from the very space of pure style, from the conservative aesthetics of artistic craft. It seems that Lebedev was inspired by the possibility of blowing up the ornamental space of Palekh from within – and of resurrecting that method which had exhausted itself in Sots-Art, and which seemed to be buried forever in the history of Art along with the reality of the USSR.
Palekh, politically, is the style of traditionalism, eagerly exploited by all Russian regimes, from the Tsarist to Putin’s. This is the space of the silent speech of unknown artisans and craftsmen, the space in which the State “provides them with the freedom to satisfy their inherent need for Art, in the way they are able” – the famous manifesto of Adolf Loos is relevant here.
What does Rostislav Lebedev’s new project mean today, in the Russian situation of the frozen political project? And also in the context of all that the artist has done earlier? This, in essence, is the study of language. And, since any language is totalitarian, – this is a study of language as a worldview. The artist did something similar with the Soviet symbolism and paraphernalia in Sots-Art works. His “Cherished Fairytales” also contains a clear political vector, which returns the spontaneous revolutionary character to non-dogmatic folklore, – and what else should the mocking laughter be called, which on encounter with the hierarchies of power make them crumble?
But we are missing something in the unbridled laughter, and since, for some reason or other we need to figure out what is making us laugh, then it’s worth looking at contemporary tradition, that is, at the very idea of cultural roots. It is a construct of ideological consciousness which is trying to call itself tradition, being the drapery of falsehood. Ephemeral roots are growing out of the contemporary and do not have anything in common with cultural reality or human nature.
The profound folk culture, preserved by Afanasiev in the cherished fairytales, was hypocritically ignored by any authority, because it referred to the reality of human desire. Through the erotic subjects of traditional folklore and the Palekh style Rostislav Lebedev dissects the hypocrisy of contemporary dogmas – political, religious, aesthetic. In his day the artist Lebedev opened up Russian art, by combining the parody on Soviet dogmatism with international imagery.
In his new project we see his reaction to the new cultural situation – to the social need, which is called “the return to roots”. But healthy roots – this is just that which society bashfully hides from itself, chuckles the classic of Sots-Art.
Alexander Evangeli
Pop/off/art gallery doesn't review or accept new artists portfolios
