“Russia is a bird, not a bear”
Tatyana Voltskaya
November 21, 2015
Radio Svoboda
Yelena Osipova’s “naïve” posters remind us of the link between politics and street protests
A cozy basement with uncomfortable pictures: that is how one might describe in a nutshell the exhibition of paintings and posters by Petersburg artist Yelena Osipova currently underway in the Petersburg office of Open Russia, which shares the space with the Petersburg office of the Parnas party.
The exhibition marks a milestone—Osipova has turned seventy—but it is her debut exhibition. She has never been a member of any artist unions and groups, but she has stood outside in the rain, frost, and heat at nearly all the protest rallies that have taken place in Petersburg in recent years. The striking posters that Osipova holds at these rallies expose the latest injustices or crimes, warn of dangers, and empathize with the plight of others, whether they have been victims of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, dishonest elections or civil rights violations.
The exhibition was not easy to put together. The organizers set out to show not only Osipova’s best political posters but also her paintings, mainly portraits and landscapes. The show also includes two large genre scenes, the first featuring an ordinary Soviet beer hall, the second, a group of punks. Perhaps they are the link to the posters, which call to mind not only the tradition of political satire but also primitivist painting.
“This exhibition is the first in my life,” says Yelena Osipova. “And I love the room and these vaulted ceilings and the fact you can see how my paintings segue into the posters. The latest poster, showing a mother with a dead infant, is about the dead Tajik boy Umarali Nazarov, while the first was prompted by the Nord-Ost tragedy in 2002. Then I went to the Mariinsky Palace [seat of the Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly] with a simple lettered poster, handwritten on a sheet of wove paper. I just could not understand why no one took to the streets then, why everyone was silent. On the fortieth day after the deaths of the hostages, I made a poster in which I painted a picture in acrylics on fabric.
You are a professional artist. Where did you study?
“I graduated from an art school. It was then called the Tauride Art School, now it is the Roerich Art School. Marc Chagall had studied there in his day, though not for long. I had then wanted to apply to the monumental painting program at the Mukhina Academy. I had been influenced by the frescoes of Andrei Rublev and Dionisius, by the size of their figures and their schematic manner. But young women were just not admitted to the monumental painting program, and I have no regrets about it now. What would I have done? Painted murals in the subway? I am an artist and educator. I taught for over thirty years. We organized three art schools from scratch.”
So you mostly painted landscapes and posters, then Nord-Ost happened and you turned to posters. What exactly happened after Nord-Ost?
“An ever more horrible event: Beslan. No conclusions had been drawn! I had two posters: one was lost, while the other version is exhibited here. The lost version was two-sided. On the reverse side, the slogan “Moms of the world, give birth to little princes. They will save the world!” was written on a blue background. I made the next poster, “Don’t believe in the justice of war!” when the war in Iraq began. I stood outside the American consulate, the British consulate, outside the consulates of all the governments who had supported sending troops into Iraq. There was no reaction. When it was the anniversary of the Beslan tragedy, the mothers of the dead came to Petersburg and wanted to walk down Nevsky Prospect to the Russian Museum holding icons and candles. Ultimately, no one joined them. Just one other woman went with the Beslan moms, plus me with my poster. So we marched alone, amidst the general indifference.”
But this indifference has continued. Look how many people came to the rally protesting the death of the Tajik baby Umarali Nazarov, who was taken away from his mother.
“Yes, but more people are coming than before. Civil society is slowly emerging. We have had the Marches for Peace, and certain rallies have drawn a good number of people. It used to be that no one came to these things at all.”
Have you been detained at protests?
“Of course I have been detained. There was a G20 summit here one summer. I went there with two posters: Don’t believe in the justice of war! and another one about the disposal of nuclear waste. The police detained me then, and I have been detained many times since, sometimes quite roughly. There were unpleasant incidents outside the Mariinsky Palace on St. Isaac’s Square when the war with Ukraine began. Yet the people who go to these events think like you do, and that is quite important. You feel you are not alone with your thoughts, that there are other people who think the same way. Okay, so there are not so many of them, but they are out there.
“Now, perhaps, it will become more difficult, and people will retreat to their apartments, as they did in Soviet times. The laws that have been passed [restricting public protests] are tough to deal with even financially. It used to be that the biggest fine I got was five thousand rubles. People collected the money on the web, and later I sent it on to the Bolotnaya Square prisoners. But the fines now are so high that you cannot pay them. It is too bad that society resigned itself from the outset and did not oppose these laws. After all, they could have resisted and taken to the streets, but, unfortunately, when people have begun to live better, they become indifferent.”
Are there any landmark works, works important to you at this exhibition?
“Yes, for example, Theater Entrance. I painted it during my fourth year at art school. I was really into the theater then, and my thesis painting had a theatrical motif. There are also three paintings here from my Vologda series, pictures of fields in Vologda. There is a landscape painting of Gurzuf, in Crimea. The big painting shows a beer hall that was behind the Nekrasov Market. It had these big round arches, and the beer was poured straight from a tap. You could meet professors and students and artists there. I have painted Russia there with a halo, looking sad. It was the nineties, a very complicated time. And my other painting on this subject is Punks in the Subway. I knew all those kids.
And what is Oh mania, oh mummy of war…, featuring two crows?
“It’s an anti-war poster. I drew it after Boris Nemtsov’s murder. I used a poem by Marina Tsvetayeva. She wrote it in Germany, and I saw the resemblance with our circumstances. The poster Not everyone who is naked is needy is about the death of Berezovsky. I play on the birch motif [Berezovsky’s name is derived from the Russian word for birch tree, berëza], and there are funereal crows.
Do you appreciate some of your posters more than others?
Maybe this one, Don’t believe in the justice of war!, and the Beslan poster. In fact, the political posters about tragedies I always rendered in the three colors of the Russian flag.”
Will you continue to make new posters and freeze on the streets?
“At one point I though that maybe there was no need for this and I wanted to quit, but people said I should do it and told me I gave them hope.”
At the entrance to the exhibition is a small poster, Vote for the bird. At the bottom of the poster is a heavy United Russia, pumped full of oil; on the top is a bird.
“The bird has always been the symbol of Russia,” argues Yelena Osipova.
And to her mind, Russia’s color is blue, as in a certain painting by her beloved Wassily Kandinsky. True, Osipova now sees less and less of the color in her homeland’s plumage.
Translated by the Russian Reader. All photos by the Russian Reader except where otherwise indicated. Yelena Osipova’s work will be on view at 19 Fontanka Embankment until November 25, 2015.
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Your art is fantastic…I am lost for words…
You’re telling me, the editor of this blog, that, but if I see Ms. Osipova anytime soon, I’ll be sure to pass on your sentiments, which I very much share.
I have just watched a BBC programme on The art of St Petersburg and Yelena Osipova’s work was shown. I would like to know more about her paintings. Is there any other articles about her or where her work might be shown?
Other than referring you to this site (Osipova has been mentioned and discussed more than once here) and a possible profile in the now-defunct St. Petersburg Times by reporter Sergey Chernov (the article may be hard to find because the newspaper’s owners shut off its website and thus made its archive hard to access except by means of things like the Wayback Time Machine), the only other sources would be in Russian, e.g., http://paperpaper.ru/osipova/. Osipova is not a gallery artist and has had only one or two shows that I know of (one of which is described in this article), and she came to fame, if you can call it that, as a stalwart of the Petersburg protest scene.
Oh just saw you on TV in Britain, I love your work, more power to your elbow…..I visited Leningrad as was when I was at school…..it is always in my heart.
Are Yelena ‘s paintings for sale ?
Please don’t refer to an elderly Russian woman who is not your mother or blood relative as “Yelena.” It’s incredibly disrespectful. I edit, write, and translate this blog in my spare time away from work. I’m not going to also start acting as intermediary between you and Ms. Osipova. If you’re interested in her paintings, buy a ticket to Petersburg and come and meet her. She would never sell paintings to someone she’d never met, I’m nearly sure, and in any case you would have to go to the special art and valuables export office here and do lots of paperwork to export the paintings and pay a fee to take the paintings out of the country legally. Ms. Osipova cannot do it on her own and probably has no idea how to do any of it. Besides, her art is her way of protesting the current state of affairs in her country. It is not a commodity. When people who know her, such as me, want to help her out materially, we have done different things, such as buying her art supplies. Another group of people did buy a painting from her but immediately donated it to the collection of a local university. That’s a much easier transaction than dealing with the art export office.
Hello! I know this is an older article but I just read it today as I just found out about this amazing artist/activist because of the present war.
I also wanted to say “bravo” as you are very protective of her and that is beautiful!
Please stay safe, and may the war end soon. Take good care.
Thank you,
Isabelle Prenat
Victoria British Columbia Canada
all very good points . does she have a donation page. I’m in the US, but would love to help support her work
Thanks for your feedback! Ms. Osipova doesn’t have a donations page, nor does she ever sell her work. But in the past she has permitted friends and supporters to raise money and buy her art supplies, for example. Her supporters have a Facebook community page. You can write to its moderators and ask them your question. Please keep in mind, however, that due to sanctions, it is now very hard to send money to private individuals in Russia. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1305946946191990
Have just seen a repeat of the BBC programme featuring Osipova and was very moved by her story, her spirit and her art.
I also saw Ms Osipova in an BBC show and I also am very interested in her art, such wonderful feeling and wealth of expression. Would she perhaps consider doing exhibitions abroad, in scandinavia specifically?
Thanks for the kind comment, Johannes. Although I’m not Ms. Osipova’s agent, I do know her personally and would contact her or have someone I know contact her to communicate your interest. But do you have the money and means, including a gallery space, for mounting an exhibition of her work? Among other possible difficulties, I could imagine the Russian authorities might make it hard for Ms. Osipova or anyone acting on her behalf to export her works from the country or bring them back home after such a show. I know lots of Russian art curators, and they have been telling me in recent years that customs officials have been making it harder to take contemporary art out of the country for shows abroad, and in their case the art is not political. Ms. Osipova’s art is not only hyperpolitical, but she herself has a long rap sheet with the police: she’s been detained dozens of times over the last ten years during “unauthorized” protest rallies, and occasionally she’s been charged with administrative offenses. One time, she was slapped with a huge fine that was paid off by the community of her admirers in Petersburg coming together and either buying some of her works or simply donating money to pay the fine. So, anyone who wants to mount a show of her works in Scandinavia would have to deal not only with the usual problems faced by curators and exhibition organizers, but potential interference from the Russian government. If you’re serious about dealing with that, then I can try and contact her.
By the way, Ms. Osipova has personal pages on Facebook and VK:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012588576269
https://vk.com/id335396241
But I don’t know whether she manages them herself or, if she does, whether she would responds if you wrote to there. She knows me, for example, but still hasn’t approved my friend request on Facebook.
Please could you tell me which BBC show that featured Yelena Osipova?
Thank you
I just want to thank you for doing this interview and publishing so many interesting pieces on Ms. Osipova. Her work is incredibly inspiring, both her paintings and her protest pieces/efforts. I’m not digging up all the Russian articles I can find on her to learn more. Thank you, again!
Dear hecksinductionhour,
my name is Fabio Lovati and I’m an Italian journalist. I would love to write an in-depth article about Ms. Osipova, her art and story, which Italian media didn’t focus enough, I think. In fact the power of arts has not frontiers and due to last fact happening, I believe it is relevant focus on culture, artist and people form Russia, to avoid an ideological polarization which in Italy and Europe is growing cause uncertainty and fear. For this reason I would kindly ask you whether may I use some of the picture of paintings you posted. I’m going to link this article and cite the owner with copyright.
It would be wonderful to have a confrontation with her, through an online visual platform. I speak Russian and my partner is from Russia and from different she appreciates her art and her works. I think it is very useful to be able to communicate with her to further sensitize society and show a different side, which exists, of Russia. Not a bear, but a bird.
Probably I’m asking too much, but since I love my job and recording stories, I would blame myself not trying to ask you. Waiting for you kindly response.
Fabio
You certainly have my permission to use anything on this website, Fabio, as long as you acknowledge your source. I’ve met Ms. Osipova several times in real life, but now I’m – happily (and sadly) – as far away from Petersburg as physically possible. Let me see whether I can find a way for you to contact her, okay? It might take a few days to figure out, if it’s possible at all. And we can continue this conversation on email. Please write to me at the address listed on the right side of the page.
Fabio,
I discovered that Elena Andreevna has a support group that has a community page on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1305946946191990
You should join it and ask how to get in touch with her.
Good luck!