So What Now... A Sex Life or the Kingdom of God?

Grobman choice to show the Fucking collection in an alternative art space, the Lobby – Art Space, demonstrates his undermining and oppositional character, manifested also in his art and poetry

“Fucking” is the name Michail Grobman (1) gave this collection of works comprising 100 drawings and paintings of sexual intercourse, by contemporary artists, from which the works for this exhibition were selected. This collection, which is different from his other collections, began 20 years ago, when Grobman turned to his artists friends, many of them from the former Soviet Union, among them established artists active in Russia, Europe and the US, and asked them to produce works on the subject. So, for example, the conceptual artist Albert Yuri adeptly illustrates a sexual act in pencil along with the word “illustrator.” For the most part, the artists’ attitude to Grobman’s request was answered with intimacy and humor. The works exude lightness along with cultural references to painting, poetry and literature. One work is something of an insider joke: direct homage to Grobman himself. Alexander Shaburov’s work quotes images from Grobman’s own paintings – a figure based on a Grobman self-portrait; alongside abstract figures also lifted from his works. The text written inside the work reads, “Grobman on Fucking Background.” Grobman’s own work (Matings) depicts a sexual act by fantastic monsters, which recur in his works, painted on wallpaper; according to Grobman, “They also deserve sex.”

                              Michail Grobman. Photo by Lu.Ostrinski

The current evolution of the realism style in art, to which several of the artists return, is subjected to amusing twists in many works. Paintings by Natalya Kuznetzova describe the sexual act ironically as banal and routine, neither romantic nor erotic. The sexual act is performed before a watching pet, or among domestic objects such as a television, computer, book or beer can. The texts included in some works form a dialogue with the image and add an illustrative and comic dimension to the act. This resonates with the use of text in 20th century avant-garde works and its later manifestations, and the tradition of graphic posters and illustrations. In Arcady Greenman’s drawing, for example, a couple is seen during sexual intercourse. The viewer’s gaze is turned to the man, whereas the woman lies underneath him, almost out of sight. The man wears glasses and above his head runs the title “Very Important Man.” In Victoria Samoilova’s work the sexual scene appears beside the sentence: “Where did you put my porn magazine? I’ve spent half the day looking for it and can’t find it.”

The blunt, grotesque humor, frequently included within the work, can be linked to Grobman’s request, which was defined by the word “fucking.” This gives a certain connotation to the concept of sex (defiance, a curse of sorts, far from any notion of love or romance) and seemingly calls for boundless freedom of expression liberated from the dictates of political correctness. In that respect, the conceptual work by Svetlana Shuvaeva, a member of the Russian oppositional punk-rock group Pussy Riot, is unique. The work depicts three geometrical shapes in red and black. To each shape is added a penis, which penetrates the shape next to it, in something of an erotic puzzle, as the work is tilted. The geometric abstraction recalls the transcendental black cube by pioneer Russian avant-garde artist, Kazimir Malevich. Yet here the abstract penis puzzle suggests another sex, no less transcendental.

                Irina Vrubel-Golubkina. Photo by Lu.Ostrinski

Grobman choice to show the Fucking collection in an alternative art space, the Lobby – Art Space, demonstrates his undermining and oppositional character, manifested also in his art and poetry. He moves easily between poles and creates a unique connection between intellectual and mental worlds and routine, worldly matters, just as in a line from his poem, quoted in Natalya Kuznetzova’s work: “So Now What ... A Sex Life or the Kingdom of Heaven?”(2)

Participating Artists: Yury Albert, Valery Ayzenberg, Zoya Cherkassy Nnadi, Sergey Bunkov,  Ismail Galin, Sasha Galitzky, Miriam Gamburd, Arcady Greenman, Michail Grobman, Valery Kanevin, Jacques Katmor, Alexander Kosolapov, Vadim Kruglikov, Natalya Kuznetzova, Anna Lukashevsky, Vlacheslav Mizin, Pavel Pepperstein, Roee Rosen, Victoria Samoilova, Alexander Shaburov, Svetlana Shuvaeva, Sasha Sokolov, Tenno Sooster, Avdey Ter- Oganyan, Boris Yuhvetz, Lena Zaidel, Oded Zaidel, Evgeny Zhilinsky, Natalia Zourabova

                               The Lobby Art Space, Tel Aviv

                          Curators: Orit Mor and Hana Kofler

(1) Michail Grobman, a poet, collector, theoretician and active artists, whose works are exhibited in numerous exhibitions in Israel and abroad, is among the prominent figures of second wave Soviet avant-garde. In 1976, he founded the Leviathan art group in Jerusalem. Some of his collection works, and some of his own works, are currently on show in the exhibition Victory Over the Sun: Russian Avant-Garde and Beyond, at the Israel Museum.

(2) Michail Grobman, Freedom Comes Naked, trans from Russian, Lena and Oded Zaidel, Tel Aviv: Keshev Leshira, 2013.