The Archive

The archive collection of Ivan Sotnikov includes documents, ephemera, photographs, a selection of press cuttings, and publications covering several decades of art events in St. Petersburg starting from the 1980s. The materials relate to the unofficial art of Leningrad, the Cooperative for Experimental Visual Art (TEII), the groups New Artists and Mitki, and the creative career of Sotnikov himself.

Most of the material is focused on Sotnikov and includes his mail art, handmade postcards, manuscripts and typewritten texts (including autobiographical), dated lists of works, drawings, prose and poetry, diaries and notebooks, work correspondence, and legal documents regarding participation in exhibitions and the transfer of works. Part of the archive relates to the first and second versions of Zero Object: typewritten texts describing this project by Ivan Sotnikov and Timur Novikov and correspondence with other artists about Zero Object.

The collection of ephemera includes handmade and limited edition invitations to TEII exhibitions and events at the NCh/VCh squat, booklets and invitations for group and solo exhibitions from the early 1990s to the 2000s, and a selection of rare handprinted posters from the 1980s and 1990s, including for exhibitions of NCh/VCh artists, Mitki, and New Artists, and screen prints by Olga and Alexander Florensky for the project Mobile Bestiary.

The selection of photographs documents exhibitions from the 1980s and 1990s-including solo exhibition by Ivan Sotnikov, the display of the second Zero Object, various apartment exhibitions, and the first exhibition of New Artists at the Textile Industry House of Culture-and also includes portraits of Ivan Sotnikov and other artists and musicians.

The archive also includes materials on the life and work of set designer Gennady Sotnikov, Ivan Sotnikov’s uncle.

About the author

Ivan Sotnikov (von Stackelberg, 1961–2015) was a St. Petersburg artist, one of the founders of the group New Artists. From 1971 to 1976 he studied at Children’s Art School No 1 and in 1982 at the Photography Department of Aleksandrovsky Professional School (both in Leningrad). In 1996, he became a priest and from 2002 to 2006 studied at the Orthodox St. Tikhon Institute of Theology in Moscow. In various years he collaborated with the Cooperative for Experimental Visual Art (TEII) and Mitki. In 2004, he co-founded the Society of Painting and Drawing Enthusiasts with Alexander Florensky.

Photo by Viktor Nemtinov, early 1980s.

The Return of the Mir Iskusstva. Artist connections between Finland and St. Petersburg 1991–2003