Contemporary Ukrainian Photographers Series
Violin
Yevgeniy Pavlov
Rodovid
English and Russian
Softcover
128 Pages
300 x 300mm
2018
ISBN 9786177482269
Yevgeniy Pavlov took his first steps in art in the late 1960s, and by 1971, along with his friend Jury Rupin, had already established Vremia (Time), a group of avant-garde Kharkiv photographers (Boris Mikhailov, Oleh Maliovany, Anatolii Makiienko, Oleksandr Sytnychenko, Oleksandr Suprun, and Hennadii Tubalev). The group’s arrival marked the beginning of the phenomenon of the Kharkiv school of photography, known for its “blow theory.” For a long time it was the only active center of the photo avant-garde in Ukraine.
Only in the context of these years when defeminization and demasculinization were imposed by the Soviet regime, can the cult of the naked body, which dominated Vremia’s photos, be understood as one of the fundamental positions of their “blow theory.” Pavlov’s Violin series, shot in 1972, was its manifestation, organically embodying the ideas of the nonconformism of those years. It is also perceived in the context of the Soviet hippie movement and the triumphant march of the music culture of the Beatles in the late 1960s–early 1970s. The main innovation of the work, significant for the general cultural space of unaffiliated art in the USSR, was the massive shot of the naked male model, which was done as an artistic project. This work with the group of “hippie” youths became the prototype of happenings and events shot as film stills.
Even dignified by the instrument, this transgression of the erotic subject was perceived as an attempt on the moral foundations of Soviet society. But thanks to the violin’s presence, the performance “with musical instruments” invoked high art, bringing to mind connotations with classics of visual art.
(source: https://www.artibooks.com/yevgeniy-pavlov/yevgeniy-pavlov-violin
About the Series
PHOTOGRAPHIE CONTEMPORAINE D’UKRAINE is a project that will take place in Centre Culturel d’Ukraine en France. It is organized by RODOVID Publishing in collaboration with mediaplatform POLE ZORU, with support of Strategic Communications Centre StratCom Ukraine. The event on the occasion of Paris Photo 2017 and photobooks fair Polycopies.
These series were published in last two years in photobooks by RODOVID Press, created in collaboration with UPHA association, gallery Dallas Contemporary and in editions by Art Huss.
(source: https://rodovid.net/en/parisphoto2017.html)
About the Artist
Ukrainian photographer Yevgeniy Pavlov was born in Kharkiv in 1949. The story of his life and photography is tightly bound to the city itself. Heavily damaged after the WWII, having survived long periods of German occupation, the city turned out to be incredibly tenacious, soon becoming the third “industrial capital” of the Soviet Union and the cultural capital of Ukraine. However, the showpiece city had a reverse side, the forbidden world, in spite of, and possibly as a result of, those events.
(source: https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/from-ukraine-the-time-of-yevgeniy-pavlov-bb/)
About the Publisher
RODOVID has been producing high-quality editions about Ukrainian culture and art for over 25 years. Apart from publishing, we have also worked on exhibitions and multidisciplinary projects, including grants supported. Some of those projects: “NARBUT XXI (film-series of interviews, posters competition and books about Heorhii Narbut)”, “Ukrainian avant-garde: non-fashion guide” (Paris), “Kateryna Bilokur 115”, exhibition of naїve art in Mystetsky Arsenal, exhibition “Staging of Ukrainian avantgarde” (New-York), series of art souvenirs linia.art.
rodovid.net
(source: https://uaculture.org/organisations/rodovid-press/)
