Ovchinnikov, Nikolai: The Sky (1989)

Nikolay Ovchinnikov currently lives and works in Moscow. Already at a young age he used to frequent the circle of non¬conformist sculptors led by Boris Orlov (b. 1941), who is also represented in the Collection of Ludwig Museum Budapest. Ovchinnikov studied theatre and stage design, but he also made book illustrations. Since the eighties he has been featured at every Moscow-related international exhibition. In his early works, Ovchinnikov unites nostalgia with irony: by using the most diverse styles and raw materials, he contrasts the past and present of Russian culture, generating an opposition between the representation and the “masking” of real¬ity. His works exploit the relationship between the monumentality of iconographic elements and signs, and the arbitrary character of depiction, reflecting on the hierarchical and centralised character of Russian and Soviet culture. Ovchinnikov combines this approach with random subjects in his paintings, within the physical bounds of which he leaves the “control” to the power play between the scene, the characters and the situation. The motif of the birch tree came into the focus of his art at the end of the 1980s, as a fundamental element of Russian culture and national symbol of Russia. Similarly to the rest of the series, in his painting The Sky, the subject of the picture emerges from behind the obstructive trunks that appear as a kind of curtain in the foreground, at first glance concealing the background structure: the sky. “Penetrating” the dense forest, a phenomenon believed to be unattainable actually becomes accessible and tangible – perhaps even real.