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SERGEI CHEPIK

"Chepik at the Moulin-Rouge" Gallery

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Version Francaise Exhibition at the Catto Gallery in Cork Street (Mayfair) September 26th-October 6th 2001
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The Warming-up Before the Cancan The Girls

Vlada

Self-portrait at the Moulin-Rouge The Round Dance Solo Hip-Hop
French Cancan

One, Two, Three

Bal Moulin Rouge 2000

(c) Sergei Chepik

THE MOULIN ROUGE SERIES (2000-2001) OR BEHIND THE SCENES

By Marie-Aude Albert

Moulin-Rouge

It would be tempting to formulate a rule with regards to Chepik's work-that of alternation. Indeed, tragedy and comedy, austerity and levity, reflection and distraction alternate with great regularity. Thus, leaving the crowd in front of the martyred body of Christ, the artist descends from Golgotha and immediately sets up his palette in front of the glorious flesh of the Black Venus. Abandoning the monstrous megalopolis in which the Prophet cries out in vain, he rushes into the arenas of Arles and sunflower fields. He escapes from the nightmare of Russian Roulette by boarding his cherished Ship of Happiness and flees the disturbing sarabande of Diavolada to join in the joyful round dance of the Venice Carnival.

It is thus not in the least surprising to see Chepik, after a year's work on Russia Crucified, going into the wings of the Moulin Rouge. "Indeed, in September 1999, after six months of extreme tension, of both intense excitement and suffering, and of strenuous work on Russia Crucified, I felt the need to move onto something that was, let's say, a little more lightweight. When I finished this immense work, into which I had put so much thought, emotion and often painful questioning, I felt a huge void inside me, which I sought to fill straight away by reworking lithographs with pastels. It was something that was more a technical experiment than a matter of pure creation, but which nevertheless enthralled me. During this work, I had the intuition that I needed to find a theme that was diametrically opposed to that which had absorbed me body and soul during so many months".

Fortunately, either chance or Chepik's lucky star were watching over him… Today, there are numerous Russian performers deploying their talents in Parisian revues and cabarets, and it is thanks to a Russian dancer at the Paradis Latin that in October 1999 Chepik was ushered into… the Moulin Rouge. "Volodya gave my book to the director, Jean-Jacques Clérico, and I was invited to meet him and visit the establishment. I explained to him that I wanted to make sketches from life of the show both on and off stage. He was in agreement and on the spur of the moment even asked me to draw a proposition for a poster for the revue, which I immediately did. This proposition, however, remained in my portfolio… But, that is of little importance. For, the main thing for me was to obtain a pass allowing me to frequent the establishment at my convenience for several weeks".

Thus, from October to December 1999, Chepik became a regular visitor of the famous Moulin on boulevard de Clichy, where he came across a great number of his compatriots amongst the dancers-something which greatly facilitated his work. Moreover, he had the exceptional luck that the Moulin Rouge opened its doors to him at the very moment that the new revue "Féerie" was being created. He was thus privy to all the preparatory work of the choreographer and dancers. He could follow the dance classes and rehearsals, the warm-up sessions and costume fittings, the moments of enthusiasm and discouragement. "I not only went backstage. I also entered into the 'laboratory' of the Moulin Rouge. I saw the revue taking shape from one day to the next. The production really was created from scratch, without either costumes or sets at the beginning-which is much more interesting and exciting than the finished show that tourists from around the world can henceforth see every evening". Most of the canvases in the series bear witness to the successive stages of this extraordinary show, which Chepik is proud to have been the only person to have seen. Thus, there is Bill, the American choreographer, leading the troop of dancers in leotards and tracksuits onto a stage which, although empty, is already harshly lit by spotlights (Hip-Hop). Then, there is the rehearsal scene depicted in a monochrome of grey, whose wonderful composition is based on a simple opposition of horizontal and vertical lines (One, Two, Three). There is also the stunning panoramic view of the theatre in which dancing girls wearing feathers are moving about in front of a audience of both attentive and indifferent dancers, who are busy warming up, taking a break or having a chat while waiting for their turn (Red and Gold).

Of course, the 25 or so canvases which make up the Moulin Rouge series were not painted in the famous Parisian music hall. They are works created and executed in the artist's studio from the 1500 or so ink and pencil sketches which Chepik amassed in his pads during his six months of observation… "For greater convenience, I made photocopies of all my drawings and then grouped them by theme on large boards. There was the theme of the choreographer, the theme of the warm-up, the theme of the wings, the theme of the French cancan, etc…" All of these paintings are the reflection of things that were actually seen, but for all that they are not documentary accounts. Rather, they are re-creations and reconstructions in which the general harmony of lines and colours matters much more than the fact that every detail be faithful to reality. "Indeed, I searched for different formulas one after the other: the formula for the wings, the formula for the warm-up, the formula for the cancan, etc… I often made up the costumes and even invented certain realistic details, which conflict with the actual truth. For example, the cigarettes which the dancers and technicians are smoking in the wings, which is strictly prohibited by the regulations, but which I needed in order to fully convey the mundane atmosphere behind the scenes". And the numerous faces which succeed each other both in the wings and on stage are not strictly portraits, even though one can make out the stocky silhouette of Bill the choreographer, the graceful face of Vlada the lead dancer, and the bony features of Igor, who each night dances the role of Valentin the Rubber Man. "Naturally, the dancers posed for me, but I used them first and foremost as prototypes to serve the different formulas I was after". Thus came about the square canvas composed around two intersecting diagonals, in which four gorgeous, willowy, blonde and brunette girls in tights, trousers and T-shirts, form a perfect circle around the ballet master, who is marking the beat by clicking his fingers (The Round Dance).

One could have expected an explosion of colour in the realm of feathers, strass and sequins. Yet, in actual fact, Chepik's palette remains surprisingly sober. Indeed, many of the paintings are restricted to a monochrome of grey offset by touches of black and white. The intensification of the colours seems to follow the very progression of the show. They are almost absent in the dance classes and the opening rehearsal scenes, in which Chepik has quite obviously given greater importance to the actual drawing (Dance Class; One, Two, Three; Hip-Hop; The Curtain). They are still tenuous in the first dress rehearsals, in which sometimes a predominance of red (Vlada), sometimes a predominance of yellow (Red and Gold) burst forth here and there against a grey-blue background. They soon become vivid in the paintings devoted to the finished show (The Girls, French Cancan), or in the strange, quasi-Fauvist composition in which girls, with their faces plastered in white and long, red gloves on their hands, are stretching their long legs, sheathed in black, on a bright orange floor (Before the Cancan).

Which artist could paint a scene depicting the cancan of the Moulin Rouge today without immediately arousing in the onlooker the memory of La Goulue and Toulouse-Lautrec? Chepik naturally made sure he paid homage to the artist of genius, who preceded him a century ago in this mythical Parisian spot. But, the dancers of today, whom Chepik has painted with both affection and humour in front of the famous poster of La Goulue, have little in common with the artists of the Belle Epoque, whom Lautrec immortalised. Even though the sails of the Moulin and the posters of Lautrec still greet visitors, the disreputable atmosphere of the Bal du Moulin Rouge and its scandalous dancers have long since disappeared and given way to a very internationalised, smooth and perfectly executed show, in which there is no leeway whatsoever for improvisation: "In Lautrec's time, the Bal du Moulin Rouge was a dance hall, in which professionals came to show off their multiple and diverse talents… The cancan of La Goulue and of the girls of the Butte was really scandalous and erotic, with their slit knickers, for which the audiences had their eyes peeled. Whereas the girls of today wear three pairs of tights! As for the naked dancers, their perfect bodies and fantastic breasts are so made-up and powdered that they rather give the impression of being wonderful, untouchable statues. This said, the Cancan is still for me the best part of the current show, quite simply because it is the least Americanised". Even though Lautrec is evoked in the painting Le Bal du Moulin Rouge 2000, Chepik claims that he had absolutely no influence on his choice of colours, his style of drawing or the way he treated either the subject or movement. "Lautrec had another style, another aesthetic, another vision of the world, another technique… The only thing which you could say we have in common is that we both drew in situ and that he used to live on rue Caulaincourt, which is where I now reside and work. However, we are fundamentally two very different painters. What is, however, funny is that when the people at the Moulin Rouge talk about me, they fondly call me 'Our Toulouse-Lautrec'. It's no doubt quite flattering, but in no way does it correspond to the reality".

The series of paintings and drawings of the Moulin Rouge may be startling in terms of the diversity of the points of view adopted and the styles and techniques employed. However, it nevertheless culminates in Moulin Rouge (painted 2001), a vast, synthetic work, in which one can with one glance recognise the Chepik style, which has already illustrated Nostalgia, A Summer Night's Dream and Red Square. It is a rigorous, skilful composition in which an original vision-at once realistic and phantasmagorical-is inscribed. It is curiously the same composition and vision as in the proposition for the poster of the Moulin Rouge, which Chepik created before becoming acquainted with the establishment.

From Red Square, Golgotha or Russia Crucified to Moulin Rouge, the distance covered may seem to be immensurable and the path trodden incomprehensible. But, isn't it more fitting to talk about continuity rather than scission? And can't one henceforth imagine that as soon as the show lights have been turned off, Chepik will once more plunge into familiar or brand new shadows?

(c) Marie-Aude ALBERT 2001