The Russian Enigma

Nadya Tolokonnikova
oil on canvas, 7 x 5 inches, 2016

Over the last few weeks this site enjoyed a spike of visitors, nearly all from Russia. I've been trying to figure what caused this sudden interest. To no avail. The only music coming from Russia in this year's top 100 wasn't painted yet, until today. May it serve as bait. I like to know ho or what linked to this site. There have been a number of Russians in the top 100 the past few years, I've painted portraits of Alexander Scriabin, Dmitri Shostakovich, Reet Hendrikson, a portrait of a Chukchi shaman, and no less than five Pussy Riot paintings. Well, here's number 6. The that's being illustrated by this painting is Kill All Sexists! in a version from the HBO documentary film Punk Singer. Can I add that Nadya Tolokonnikova is one of the most beautiful women in the world?

Maria Alyokhina

Maria Alyokhina, 437 x 357 pixels, digital file, 2014

See, it's not just Nadya Tolokonnikova I use to illustrate the next Pussy Riot song. This digital portrait of Maria Alyokhina you see here is a first attempt to make use of this sketchbook full of quick pen drawings. Nothing too serious here, just another illustration for yet another song about Vladimir Putin, the most sung about person in the top 100. (There are a few songs in the list that muse about Allah, but Allah is not a person, is he?)

Nadya Tolokonnikova, 4" x 4.75", digital file, 2014

Alright then, Nadya Tolokonnikova is in the sketchbook too, but here's then yet another Maria Alyokhina for you.

Maria Alyokhina, digital file, 2014

 

Voina

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova
oil on wood
15" x 12", 2014

Putin Lights Up the Fires, Putin Zassal (Putin wets his pants), and Putin Will Teach you to Love the Motherland are three Pussy riot songs that are in the current list of 100. The titles clearly show the main topic of Pussy Riot's music. The last one from the list of three is also the last to appear in the top 100. It was released in 2014, coinciding with the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The video shows Pussy Riot members being attacked by Cossacks. Lots and lots of media attention has surrounded Pussy Riot since their infamous performance at a Russian Orthodox Church in 2012, but it is not just their political activism that gained them this global notoriety, it is the music too that validated the fame. Two of the founding members of Pussy Riot, Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were involved early on with the Russian street-art group Voina (f. 2007). One of the most memorable pieces this group produced is the Giant Galactic Space Dick, a 213 feet long (tall, when in raised position), 89 feet wide phallus painted on a bridge in St. Petersburg.

I take any and every opportunity to bring punk rock into the canon of art history. (By my modest means of bringing it into the art history classroom—I did not show the above image however.)

The demo

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova
oil on canvas board
8" x 10", 2013

Hello again, it's been awhile since a brand new painting was posted here. I've been quit busy with my 7 class assignment this semester. It's not that I haven't been painting, but the paintings I did were all demos for the studio classes. Lots of landscapes (that surely will turn into top 100 paintings), lots of portraits (that I gave to the respective sitters), and also lots of dirty palettes (that will also turn into paintings). This portrait of Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolonnikova was the first to go on top of a palette. I painted it the very day the news came out that she disappeared, moved by Russian authorities to an unknown location. I sure hope all of us will hear her story when she gets out of jail, if she ever gets out alive. Putin Light Up the Fires was Riot's last single before their infamous Orthodox Church performance that was the cause of a jail sentence for two members of the Pussy Riot group. It was in last year's 100, and will be in this year's again. The music is simply where it's at in term of punk rock. Ms. Tolokonnikova, a political activist, and conceptual artist, is the voice of Pussy Riot. She wrote the manifesto to protect the integrity of the group, and was described as "the evil genius behind the group." I suspect she also wrote most of the lyrics for the group. 

Demo painting is an art in itself; you're not supposed to screw up being the instructor. But I also need to keep up the integrity of my own painting practice. Practice what I preach. I preach that creativity is more important than technique, that the unconscious knows more than the conscious mind does, and that a successful painting requires the letting go of that consciousness so that the other part can take over. The trouble is with those demos that you're expected to talk your way through, that while you let your unconsciousness make the decisions on the canvas, your voice immediately translates it to the conscious side of the brain. That, and the need for a good result, creates a lot of pressure, and it requires the utmost form of focus and concentration. Sometimes I mess up. 

The M.I.A. portrait of the stencil print below was done in the context of my art appreciation class to non-art majors. As a homework assignment I had (all 53) students make a stencil in an edition of 10. They would keep one to submit with their portfolio for review, and trade eight with class members and the last one with me. The M.I.A. below was their reward. Not every student did the work so I still have about 10 prints left. Let me know if you want one. You can have one for $50. I've already painted M.I.A. for this year's 100, as her Born Free song makes the list for the fifth(!) time, and now this print then is dedicated to her second best song (in my opinion) Paper Planes. Even for Paper Planes it's already the third time in the list. (No other song of hers ever made the list.)

M.I.A.
stencil print on paper, 45/53
6.5" x 6", 2013

Putin Zassal

Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot)
11" x 8.5", ink, watercolor, pencil, 2013

I read the Pussy Riot manifesto the other day. It is called Art and the Human Manifesto and was written by Nadya Tolokonnikova, one of the two members of the band jailed for hooliganism in Russia, and now serving a two year sentence. The manifesto was written to protect the integrity of the band and makes for a good read that I would recommend to anyone interested in punk rock, politics, current events, feminism, to anyone reading this blog really. It's on the Free Pussy Riot website. Putin Zassal (Putin wet himself) is the second Pussy Riot track in the list. (For those of you who pay close attention to these writings: I indeed made an error a few weeks ago when I stated that Hirut Bekele was the only non-English speaking musician in the Top 100 this year. I had simply forgotten about the band Pussy Riot.) Here's a link to the video for Putin Zassal.

Pussy Riot (Sunset)

Three members of Pussy Riot
14" x 11", oil on canvas, 2012

The background for this painting was done at the same day as the one of Cat Power that I attached  in the previous post. Cat Power's background was done in the AM and for this one I turned the easel 'round in the PM. All these landscapes are done plein-air but I'm not particularly proud of this Pussy Riot painting. I could point out several things that are wrong with it, and that is just on the technical part of it (I won't even get started to self-criticize the conceptual aspects). To top it off I took a less than accurate photograph of it (which actually helps a bit to cover up certain mistakes). I am proud however to have Pussy Riot a part of my Top 100 2012 list. Most of you probably heard of the band Pussy Riot but I bet very few of you actually listened to their music. Pussy Riot, of course, is that Russian riot grrl group that made the world news because of their arrest following a blasphemous performance in a Russian Orthodox Church in which they ridiculed the Church's support for president Vladimir Putin. The group consists of approximately 12 members and performs with balaclavas, face masks to hide their identity. The three members that were arrested (and sit out a two year jail sentence for hooliganism) are not anonymous any more as the trial was a daily hot news item all over the world. The three, that also depicted in the painting, are Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich. Two others whose identity is revealed have fled the country. After hearing about them in the news I immediately looked up their music to listen to it and behold, it is really good, one of the most exciting bands I've heard in a long time associated with that term Riot Grrrl. The Top 100 song is Putin Lights Up the Fires, it is their latest single sung in Russian that was released recently.