[Евгений]

Vagrich Bahchanyan (1938-2009) was born May 23, 1938 in Kharkov (Ukraine).
In mid-1960 he moved to Moscow. His first solo exhibition was held in 1968 in a Moscow cafe "Blue Bird". In 1967 - 1974 worked in the department of humor "Literary Gazette" Club 12 chairs. " Collages Bahchanyana also been published in magazines "Knowledge is power" and "Youth".
In 1974 he emigrated to the United States, where New York went on an artistic activity, to associate it with sots-art.
In 1977 Bahchanyan was an exhibitor "La nouva arte sovetica - una prospettiva non ufficiale" in the so-called "dissidents Biennale in Venice. In 1979 his works were shown at the exhibition "Artist's Book", held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Pompidou Center in Paris. In 1981 he participated in the 16 th Biennial in Sao Paolo. Work Vagricha Bahchanyana are in the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, USA, in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg and other collections.
Bahchanyan published several books, including: "Autobiography of the author's forty" (1981); "Visual diary: 1/1/80 - 12/31/80" (1981); (co-authored with Sergey and Nahum Dovlatov Sagalovskim) "demarche enthusiasts "(1985);" Signac eye: puantel Aviv poem "(1986);" Not a day without a line (annual report) "(1986)," Poems of various years (1986), "a lot of the Flies: making art" ( 2003), "Cherry Hell" and other plays "(2005).
Sam Vagrich Bahchanyan, - schedule, writer, artist books, installations and performances by - defines itself as "the artist's words." Using this language stamp purely ironic, he always played a favorite trick turning inspirational nonsense in elegant language formulas. In other words, easily operated methods of the discipline, which in the slang of contemporary art theory called deconstruction or critique of language. Explain any bahchanyanovskih tricks - meant to kill his essence, to keep the miracle of art to the technical banality. Instead of sleight of hand that the artist used his inexhaustible wit, which, as it should be witty, based on the spectacular savings. The quiet replacement pair of letters in a word, change of context, "confrontation" text with image, the return of metaphor to a literal meaning - need to receive the artist was always ready. "What do I do?" - He answered the question about his profession. - Tampering doing. I thought, concepts, sometimes one letter. "

An admirer of Russian Futurist poets Velimir Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchenykh Bahchanyan was the predecessor, the initiator of many literature-centric tendencies in the Russian unofficial art. At the core of his creativity is the gift of wit and fine sense of the word. This characteristic bahchanyanovsky humor is not self-sufficient. His countless puns - the result of experimentation with linguistic formulas, in particular with the acoustic nature of language. Visual works Bahchanyana built similarly - on a system of creating new meanings of substitution, similes and establishing links between random shapes.
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Selected solo exhibitions

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1968
Vagrich Bahchanyan. Cafe "Blue Bird". Moscow
1973
Vagrich Bakhchanyan. Galerie Charley Chevalier. Paris
1974
Vagrich Bakhchanyan. Galerie Gras, Vienna
Vagrich Bakhchanyan. Galerie Sazenhofen, Salzburg, Austria
1977
Vagrich Bakhchanyan. Galerie Gras, Vienna
Save Time. New York, USA
1979
Agitpunkt (performance). Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
1982
Vagrich Bakhchanyan. Galerie Micro Hall Center, Edewecht, Germany
2003
Not a day without a line. National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
2007
Works and Days. Foundation Era ", Moscow
2008
Picasso - the USSR. Gallery «pop /off /art», Moscow
Group exhibitions
1965
Informal artists and poets. Kharkiv, Ukraine
1974
Progressive Strömungen in Moskau 1957-70. Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany
1976
La peinture russe contemporaine. Palais des Congres, Paris
1977
New Art from the Soviet Union. Arts Club of Washington, Washington
Exhibition in Favor of the Children of the Soviet Political Prisoners. Parkway Focus Gallery, London

Nonkonformisten aus Moskau. Galerie Stantschev, Dusseldorf, Germany

La nuova arte sovietica: una prospettiva non ufficiale. La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
1978

Aspetti e documentazione degli artisti non conformisti dell `Union Sovietica. Museo Civico di Lodi, Lodi, Italy

Rassegna sul dissenso culturale nell `Est europio. Scuola Art e Mestiert, Aula Magna Scuola cantonale di Commercio, Aula Magna Municipio, Sala Patriziale, Bellinzona, Switzerland

New Art from the Soviet Union. Pratt Institute Gallery, Colombia; Montgomery Hall, St'Mary College, Maryland, USA

La nuova arte sovietica. Palazzo Reale, Turin, Italy

L'art russe non officiel. Musee des Beaux-Arts de Chartres. Chartres, France

1979

Artists Books. Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

20 Jahre unabhongige Kunst aus der Sowjetunion. Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany

1980

Premiere Biennale des painters russes. Vesinet, Center des arts et loisses, Montgeron, France

Nonconformists. Contemporary Commentary from the Soviet Union. Art Gallery, University of Maryland, Maryland, USA

1981

Russian New Wave. Contemporary Russian Art Center, New York, USA

Nouvelles Tendences de l'Art Russe Non-Officiel. 1970-1980. Centre Culturel de la Villedieu, Elankur, France

16 Bienal de Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo, Brazil

1982 - 1984

Russian Samizdat Art. Franklin Furnace Gallery, New York; Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester; Chappaqua Gallery, Westchester; Washington Project for the Arts, Washington; Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York; Anderson Gallery, Commonwelth University, Richmond; Hewlett Gallery, Carnegy-Mellon University , Pittsburgh; LACE Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

1984

Les Russes au present. Le centre culturel de la Villedieu, Elankur, France

1990-91

Other Art. Moscow 1956-1976. The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, State Russian Museum, Leningrad

1995

Kunst im verborgenen. Nonkonformisten Russland 1957-1995. Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein; documenta-Halle, Kassel; Staatliches Lindenau-Museum, Altenburg, Germany, Central Exhibition Hall "Manege", Moscow

1996

Nonconformists. Second Russian avant-garde. 1955-1988. The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

1997

History in the faces. 1956-1996. Central Exhibition Hall, Nizhny Novgorod; Regional Art Museum, Samara, Perm Municipal Art Gallery, Perm, Novosibirsk Regional Picture Gallery, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, Ekaterinburg

1998-2001

Praprintium. Staatsbibliothek, Berlin; Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen; Museum fuer literatur am Oberrhein, Karlsruhe, Germany; Oesterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Vienna; Minoritenkloster, Graz, Austria

2000
Non-conformisti dalla Collezione Bar-Gera. Palazzo Forti, Verona, Italy

Cold War /Hot Culture. M. Barrick Museum, Las Vegas, USA

2003

Multiples. Kingsborough College of CUNY, New York, USA

Ortstermin Moskau - 1970 und die Zeit danach. Galerie Sandmann, Berlin

2005
Avantgarde im Untergrund. Russische Nonkonformisten aus der Sammlung Bar-Gera. Kunstmuseum, Bern
New Items. National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
Moscow Grafika: Artists' Prints 1961-2005. International Print Center New York. New York, USA
Author's book - 2. National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
2006
Artists Against The State: Perestroika Revisited. Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, USA
Russian Art of the 20th century: Then and Now. Ober Gallery, Kent, USA
2007
Sots Art. The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; La Maison Rouge, Paris
Forbidden Art 2006. Museum and Public Center. A. Sakharov, Moscow
Word and image. National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
Adventures of the Black Square. The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Sztuka Buntu. Muzeum Historii Miasta Łodzi, Łódź; Muzeum Regionalne, Radomski, Poland
The fate of the country - the fate of the artist. Seashore State Art Gallery. Vladivostok
Russian America. Seashore State Art Gallery. Vladivostok
2008 +7 (495) ... National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
Moscow - New York=Parallel Play. Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA
Collections
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kiev
Paul Getty Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers Universiry, New Brunswick, USA

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Interview. (2008)
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Author aphorism "We were born to make Kafka come true", the man who invented the writer Eduard Savenko (now known as Eduard Limonov) "citrus" nickname, a member of the legendary 16-second page of the Literary Gazette - Vagrich Bahchanyan was marked everywhere: he and the party underground gatherings in the studio of Ilya Kabakov, and the figure of the third wave of emigration. As an artist Bahchanyan became famous for his collages, which became one of the most striking phenomena of Sots Art. From the artist met VALENTIN Diaconu.

Q: Your childhood was spent in the occupied Kharkov. Do you remember anything?

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A: In the courtyard stood wedgies. In our house lived Germans. Once one of them took me to ride with him in the Wedge-heeled. He stopped on the street Uritskogo near rivers. He sat me down on the roof and asked not to leave. I'm sitting on the tank, a black car drove up. Issued German officer. He said something to his driver, he pulled out from the rear of the circle of sausage. The officer put it on me like a necklace. The driver took a picture. It's amazing: I was not an Aryan appearance. They left. Anti-Semitism I have tried to steal the sausage. And a quirky guy asked me to change - the sausage on the pencils, which I gladly did. Then, of course, got a scolding from the mother.

Q: A post-war era, remember?

A: I remember the salute in honor of the Victory. And a terrible picture. My father took me to Dzerzhinsky Square. A huge area, according to encyclopedias, the largest in Europe. Remember this, the Kharkov Provincial complex, they are very proud of this area. After the war, her spoiled, broken in the center of the garden, put a statue of Lenin, which shows on a public toilet. Well, at that time the square was crowded with all the gallows. Little I realized what was happening, and then read at Ehrenburg, it seems that on the day they hung policemen and traitors. Corpses I have seen before. Even in the occupied Kharkov once hung partisan, I think. Right on the balcony of the house, and shoot it was impossible.

Q: You had a street childhood?

A: Yes. Parents were divorced after the war. The younger sister stayed with her mother and I with my father. The whole day sitting indoors. Then my father got married, I had half-brothers, and all was not up to me. And I began by something as Gavroche. I became acquainted with the thieves of the world.

Q: Your ability to draw a matter of respect for the criminal element?

A: I drew a lot when sitting at home under lock and key. When I began to wander the streets, drawing pushed aside. In general, when such talents are not highly respected in the thug world. You know, I traveled to different subcultures. After school, for example, worked as an assistant mechanic. Quite a different story. Then he served in the army for three years. There was a lot of interesting, the company had gathered from all over the Union: the Balts, Georgians, Armenians, that my "own" did not recognize.

Q: How did you come to, to become an artist? It would seem that there were no signs ...

A: When our house went for demolition because of disrepair, we have moved closer to DC Metalist Kharkiv at the big plant. There were studio. We went with a friend in the art. For me it replaced shoblu from the previous place of residence. And I began to go there before the army and after, too. There was a wonderful teacher Alexei Mikhailovich Shevelev, God rest his soul. He was all neortodoksalen and gave full freedom. Forced to do at home songs, up to the abstract. Then he began to invite people who in 1920 were the pride of Ukrainian avant-garde. So I and other studio members met with the pupil of Malevich Basil Yermilov. He produced a deep impression. One said: "As my friend Tolia Petritsky (a Petritsky also known Ukrainian avant-garde), this sifilik Vrubel!" We were shocked, of course, for us Vrubel was a god. After the army I became better acquainted with Yermilov. He once invited me to her. And there I saw him stuff the 1920's, which, of course, never exhibited, the work "boychukistov" ...

Q: Who are "boychukisty"?

A: There was a group of Ukrainian artists, they were engaged in monumental paintings. Their leader was shot as if for nationalism. Ermilov, incidentally, was lucky with Russian surnames. And so many artists in the Ukraine shot. "Boychukisty" were for the Soviets, not enemies, as Ermilov. He himself has equipped studio in an abandoned attic. I Ermilova I saw things that never were. I then became interested in Khlebnikov, asked about it at Yermilov. "Yes, - said Ermilov - Vitya I knew very well." And lack poem "Ladomir" with his own illustrations. Ermilov showed me the house where Khlebnikov rented a room. He came to Kharkov eat off. When the first years of revolution, Moscow has been starved, Kharkov behaved. Khlebnikov loved the city, walked through the bazaars, wrote down some words. In Kharkov, a lot of his words, which are nowhere to be found. He even has a verse where a footnote to the word "Wipers" - at Kharkov dialect means "thief, bum. Even once we walked with Yermilov, and he shows me a small house: "And here lived Vova. I say: "What Vova?" - "Well, Vova, Tatlin.

Q: What, Tatlin also eat off in Kharkov come?

A: No, he has lived there father. And childhood Tatlin lived in Kharkov, before he became a cabin boy. Last year, before we left for Moscow, Ermilov said to me: "Vagrich, you have a spouse, it seems, is studying English? You can ask her something to translate? "We come, Ermilov gets a folded sheet of paper, unfolds. And there is something обалденное drawn and written in different colors, markers, crayons in Russian, Ukrainian and English. I ask what it is. "This Dodia sent", - says Ermilov. Well, that is, David Burliuk. He was born near Kharkov. I Yermilov told how Burliuk lost an eye. When he lived in his Gilee, drilled a hole in the women's bath and peeping. The women learned about this, and when Burliuk again came, he stuck needles in his eyes.

In: Ermilov you not afraid to show and tell such things?

A: In the same house where he lived Ermilov, a studio of another avant-garde - Boris Kosarev. Also remarkable figure, however, it was reconstructed in the Stalin era, worked as a theatrical artist, even received the Stalin Prize. Kosarev was a very reserved man. He was in his studio would not allow even his own daughter. Well for Ermilova man I was tested. Already occupied drippingom, and Pollock things not seen, and read about it in the newspaper. And in his spare time, worked as a designer when the local club, took a jar of paint and sprayed onto the canvas. However, Ermilov dripping not approved. His favorite artist was Picasso.

Q: In what year did you first abstract work?

A: I was discharged in 1960, then such work came in 1961 somewhere. Another collage I did.

Q: How did you hear about the technique of collage? Also in the newspapers?

A: No, it helped me a lot journal "Poland", which came out in Russian. Actually imagine: at the newsstand next to the whole Soviet greyness, is a beautiful Polish magazine with an abstraction on the cover. So it was, I'm not kidding. And the left - Ogonyok. Contrast impress. About Collage I learned from there.

Q: Who are you showing his abstract work?

About: Friends. Limonov. We were sold on the art of French-language newspaper, whose editor was a friend of the Soviet Union, Louis Aragon. On the last page was a list of Parisian galleries. I asked a friend who knew the French language, write a sample letter asking for information. And they come to my address directories. One of the galleries sent me a letter - please, they say, their belongings. I collected some dozen works on paper. There were things on the grounds of folk embroidery and a few abstractions. I went to Kharkov Glavtelegraf, and gallery they received. They sent me a letter that they want to show them to some international youth exhibition. They added that if I send more work, they will do an exhibition. I again went to Glavtelegraf and collected another parcel. For a long time there was no answer, and then it occurred to me my package back. It is clearly digging. The reason for the return - if a bad wrap. I tried to pass things through the familiar Frenchman who studied in Kharkov. But then joined the KGB. I was hauled in for questioning. It all ended relatively well - fellow court in the workplace. I then designed the workers' club at the same factory. In the hall hung up my things. Invited professor of the Kharkiv Art Institute. He brought slides of Western art. I remember there was a pop-art already: Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg, Liechtenstein. He graduated from the professor's conclusion that this art is deeply hostile to us, and therefore Bahchanyan on the wrong path. We worked at the factory in the main village. They cackle, showed the pictures and slides his fingers and cried: "Oh, Petka, but it's you!" As a result, I was sentenced to rescheduling. Instead of an artist I have caster. A few days later appeared in a local newspaper article about me. I had to leave on their own.

Q: What are some of the early works survived?

A: No, I gave back in Kharkov. I went to work in tusovka with daddy, laid out right in the park on the street. Who liked, he took it.

Q: You came to Moscow in 1967 and began working in the Literary Gazette. You prevented your Kharkov past?

A: Artists of Kharkov Union is constantly writing to Moscow cavil at me. They say that you give the work is not our man. For them, reproduction print of "Soviet culture" was an event, banquets were held. And then some Bahchanyan weekly published in central newspapers.

Q: How did you get into "Literary"?

A: My countryman Anatoly Brusilovsky had connections. He advised me to go to the newspaper and show their collages. They liked me, and I began to work. The atmosphere in the newspaper was good. There was no cronyism, people came from the street. The newspaper published some interesting things: critical articles on the figures of Western art. I remember there was an article about the Dali with excerpts from the diary of Hitchcock. And for the staff arranged a small retrospective of Hitchcock's films in the auditorium, to know what to write about.

Q: underground artists you communicate?

A: Yes, I've been in workshop Kabakov. Once sat and discussed how to exhibit. I asked each to take on one job, go to the Kremlin and get up to that wall, which looks at a river. "Take pictures - I say - that is, and will show". But all refused: provocation, Mol. And then the case of "bulldozer", but I was already in Vienna. So the copyright on the idea of the exhibition under the open sky belongs to me.

Q: Since 1974, the second you live in the United States. Some bright events were in your life in America?

A: In 1979 I decided to do an exhibition on the centenary of the birth of Stalin. Suggested this idea familiar artists. There have been Alexander Kosolapov, Henry Khudyakov. In Moscow, to celebrate this date is not, and we decided to make the exposure. But we were little. Here comes Vitaly Komar, Melamid no more. I invited him to participate. He told me: "My soul, who is interested in America today, Stalin?" Then, Komar and Melamid ArtForum commissioned article on the journal "AZ", just published the first issue with my work. Komar asked me to bring my things. Among them were collages with Lenin and the girl type covers for "Lolita" by Nabokov. Another collage with Stalin. Komar told me that in the magazine they produced a sensation. And then came Melamid, looked at my stuff and said Komar: "Acne, here's what to do!" And the fate of Sots Art was solved. And in general, as soon as I came to the United States, immediately felt ill. And so far I was not very good.

Q: Since you are so heavily in America, do not want to emigrate again?

A: Where? From New York's nowhere to go, just to the moon.

Q: Did you watch the modern Russian art? What do you like?

A: "AES + F, to me they seem interesting. Generally I do not know very well Russian artists.

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Many forum members (interested in creativity V. Bahchanyana) I think it will be interesting pochitat.Mne personally liked it. (EA)
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SINYAVSKY rightly considered Bahchanyana latest futurist. Vagrich - a living fossil. It is possible to study the spirit of the revolutionary era, love that it is not weaned, even America. I think that Bahchanyanu still want the world was fair, but people - honest. He likes Mayakovsky, unpleasant bourgeois, and he recalls the heroes of Platonov. Vagrich, of course, is not recognized, but I think he would have liked to take it all and divide. As often happens, the Soviet authorities did not recognize him as his - it seemed to her that he was above it mocks.

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However, it all started not with the communists and the fascists. When the Germans entered the Kharkov, Vagrichu was four. The officer helped the swarthy boy at the tank. On his neck hung round with smoked sausage. A priceless gift to the hungry Kharkov Vagrich changed to colored pencils. Father Vagricha less fortunate. In his crippled by the Gestapo, and he died after the war, before the age of fifty. Vagrich went to work at the plant, not even finishing the eighth grade. We wanted to buy him at the Brighton Beach matriculation, but Vagrich said that he decided to die half-educated - as Brodsky.

I do not know what Vagrich done in Kharkov, but, knowing his 20 years in New York, I guess, that anything good. Suffice it to say that Limonov, who invented Vagrich nickname Bahchanyan considered mama's boy. Fan Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh, laureate of international competitions cartoonists, a connoisseur of western avant-garde designer red corner of the factory "Piston" - only in our past, all this did not interfere with each other. Or rather - hindered, but not Bahchanyanu. Once Vagrich became visible in the figure, wrote a satirical article about him and fired from work.

Read more:http://samizdat.zaraz.org/thick/muh_...khchanian.html