Timur Novikov "Apollo," 1990
"The problem with artists in Western Europe is that they have thrown out what was, until the later 19th century, 200 years of classical tradition," laments Timur Novikov, a leading exponent of modern classical revival in St Petersburg.
Contemporary neoclassicism -- New Academia -- is a purely Russian movement which aims to foster the heroic, classical ideals of ancient Greece and Rome and harks back to the Renaissance when line and form were all important.
Its artists, sculptors and photographers reject the notion that many contemporary Russian artists are particularly avant-garde and instead they feel that many artists, after the fall of communism, have been left foundering in a vacuum, can't find a genuine and original artistic direction of their own and so copy the West.
"Its very difficult to find classical painters in Europe now," said Novikov. The link has been broken and no-one can teach it any more.
"The only people left that know anything about classical art are the people who restore museums and old masters in galleries. Modern artists have simply lost classical aesthetic principles," he added.
The artists who expound this neoclassicism are many but some have collected together in a set of dusty, crumbling apartments on St Petersburg's bohemian art and music hang-out at 10 Ulitsa Pushkinskaya.
From the outside, this late 19th century building looks like it is literally falling down. Pieces of plaster and bricks lie on the pavement, the wide stone staircases and rusting balustrades beckon sinisterly through dark, damp, uninviting hallways.
Yet it is here, in the myriad of tumbledown rooms, that some of Russia's most progressive artistic work is fermenting and has matured since the days of the repressive Soviet regime which never quite managed to snuff out the artistic candle of the underground movement.
Through the first dark entrance to the building from Nevsky Prospect, on the third floor, lie the studios, workshops and exhibition rooms of the collective who refuse to let the classics die.
Of course, the group's critics may well argue that classicism had its day in the ancient world and then had its revival in the mid-19th century when the French, Russian and British Empires embraced the classical style they rediscovered from ruins and archaeological digs in their conquered colonies.
Have we not experienced the wonders of Delecroix, Poussin, Palladio, Quarenghi and others. Are not their legacies scattered around a dozen capital cities and in two-dozen art galleries worldwide?
But let us not forget that St Petersburg, a city largely artificial in creation, hewn out of desolate marshland, was largely built in baroque and classical styles and it is, perhaps only natural that modern artists, faced with formless abstraction, should be inspired by the beauty which surrounds them on every street in this majestic city.
Currently, the artist's exhibition rooms -- the St Petersburg Museum of New Academic Art -- is sporting two fascinating photographic exhibitions which reflect the importance and growing popularity of academic neoclassicism.
Both photographers are Russian but their treatment of subject matter and use of media are totally different. The only thing in common is the use of the classical form in most of their works.
Andrei Barov's "Secret Meeting"
Andrei Barov, was a familiar feature of the St Petersburg artistic landscape before he left Russia for greater artistic freedom in Germany.
Born in 1958 and educated at the Institute of Theater, Music and Film in St Petersburg -- or Leningrad as it was then called --Barov left Russia in 1989 where he has found much success in Munich and internationally.
He has directed two theater productions at the University of Turbingen in Germany, helped produce and direct a film for Sudwestfunk in Baden-Baden and has organized exhibitions since 1991 in Stuttgart, Turbingen and Munich leading to his acclaimed series "Creation of Paperworld II" in 1993 and "New Collage Series" in 1994.
In fact collage and use of different media is what this artist and photographer is all about.
"What he does is to choose a classical object, often a sculpture from Greek or Roman antiquity and include it in a set built up on a maquette of glass, metal, papers, textile and cardboard.
"His works are not simply collages, they take on an almost sculptural quality which he then photographs," explains Novikov."
The effect is startling and different but has that safe, classical image firmly implanted in each creation. Perhaps they demonstrate, through a mixture of forms from different eras, that man's quest for happiness and enlightenment, for aesthetic purity is eternal and transcends all epochs.
Mikhail Rozanov, a young artist from Moscow, treats classicism as it is, in its purest Renaissance form. He doesn't add collage, modern textures and objects to his work. He simply photographs parts of buildings, buildings behind railings and archways including classical empire-style motifs and expressive use of chairo-scuro.
The effect is somewhat disappointing and looks like a collection of Moscow classical city-building snap-shots that didn't quite make the grade. The post card quality is there, the arrangement and juxtaposition of iron railings, stone vases and urns, military motifs and corinthian columns would seem more comfortable in a architecture history book on monumental and decorative sculpture. There seems nothing new in his work at all.
Oleg Maslov and Victor Kuznetsov "Blue Lagoon," 1994
Oleg Maslov and Victor Kuznetsov use both photography and then oils to demonstrate erotic and mythical classical forms. Sensual and theatrical, there is something of ancient Greek tragic theater, of gods and nymphs in an atmosphere they describe as Bacchic Saturnalia.
Their series of figures entitled "Satirikon," draped in flowing togas, crowned with laurel wreaths and the fruits of the meadow, are full, ripe and potent. They echo the voluptuous 18th century baroque beauties of Fragonard and Watteau with their full bodies and pale, tender faces.
The expressions are frightened, doubting and naive, as if these figures understand the futility and illusory nature of life. They are, above all, toys, with which an indifferent fate amuses itself.
Their "Blue Lagoon" series (1993) is pure, unadulterated worship of the human form. Female breasts and male genitalia are allowed to be expressed. The human body is seen as something to be admired not hidden away by late 19th century moral prudery.
Timur Novikov himself has enjoyed success as an artist both in the national and international arena. He has exhibited his work in Los Angeles, America, various Germany cities, Liverpool, England and in Amsterdam, Holland.
The artist is presently enjoying an exhibit of part of his work at the city's Peter and Paul Fortress in an exhibition called "Monarchy -- that sweet thing".
He enjoys using rich colored and complicated patterned fabrics with a Liberty style pattern. Black and white sepia photographs of famous literary figures like Oscar Wilde are planted onto textile backgrounds, colored in rich maroons, azures and cobalts.
It is as if we view a landscape of literary heroes through a peep-hole, a doorway which opens us up to a mysterious world.
"This classical tradition is very important, we're trying to save it and keep it alive," explained Novikov. "If we don't then the entire classical influence will be lost to contemporary art and will be relegated forever to the museums of antiquity."
Andrei Barov "Jeff Kuns"