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RUSSIAN HOMOEROTICISM

The memoirs, private correspondences, etc. of Russian artists are now in the hands of the Soviet state (which, no doubt, severely augments them), but their drawings, paintings and sculptures have been displayed and published before and after Stalin with surprisingly little censorship. The wholesale, indiscriminate exhibition of Russian art has permitted a relative historical flood of homoeroticism to surface in Eurasia's greatest works.

What distinguishes Russian art is not male nudity in itself but it is the highly suggestive, almost obscene poses which this nudity assumes. Even foreign artists were obliged to imbue their works with sensual "pizazz." An example of this is an Adamsesque relief in a chamber of the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo executed by Scottish artist and architect, Charles Cameron.

There seems to be an archetype exemplified by a figure in Cameron's raised mural. The, relief contains a man and a woman on opposite sides of a hearth, plus elaborate Hellenis-

ic decoration. The woman is ully clothed but the male is aked save for a wisp of cloth barely covering his groin. His hands are clasped behind his head and his hips are thrust forward. This configuration reoccurs regularly in the undertakings of Russian sculptors and painters.

While most Russian aesthetic homosexuality really begins with Peter the Great and the construction of westernized St. Petersburg, gay expression in Muscovite iconography cannot be ruled out as many paintings depicted saints in stiff but

intimate pairs (most notably, St. Cyril sizing-up St. Methodius and St. Boris tweaking St. Gleb.)

However, the late, but explosive, Russian Rennaisance introduced a multitude of unmistakeably homoerotic masterpieces of unparalleled intensity. Its art and architecture show pronounced French and Italian neoclassical influence. Indeed, several imperial artists were actually imported from Italy by Peter, (Although their work was revised by their patrons and local artisans to accommodate Russian tastes).

Classical figures serve as the subjects of the early Russian Renaissance artists, Among the first sculptors to distinguish himself as a genius of nude A.P. male sensuality was Losenko, who over the course of the mid-Eighteenth Century produced numerous fine pieces of sculpture. Losenko's images seem to struggle both against their artificial ground/base and against buckling or concealing the abdomen and genitals. Arms and legs are as active and free as possible. The members are usually arranged as rays or quadrants, directing attention to the center of the torso. This trait is peculiar to most Russian nudes.

DECEMBER 1976

portrays a fleeing youth being stripped by pursuing canines. 1778 realized Prokofyev's seductive bas-relief, "The Curse of Ham."

P.I. Sokolov rendered "Mercury and Argus (1776) in which painting two unclad men gazed intently and tenderly into each other's countenances. The following year Sokolov painted "Attaching the Wings of Icarus," wherein a young unclothed father binds a pair of wings on his mature, naked son.

Some early painters secretively sketched outright pornography as did V. Razvodnoi in 1785 and A. Mulansky in 1799 in drawings called simply, "Groups of Nudes." (The Russian word for "nude," "naturshchik," literally means "natural.") Their contemporary, K.P. Bryullov, was rather beautifully though notoriously sado-masochistic.

In 1784 I.P. Prokofyev produced his version of a wellknown Coppertone sun-tan lotion advertisement. His statue, "Aktheon Pursued by Dogs,"

1.A. Akimov oiled "Hercules and His Friend, Philoctet" in 1782 with Philoctet, in desperation, clutching Hercule's muscular arm and eyeing him lovingly, and "Apollo and Hyacinth" in 1790 with well-ventilated Apollo hugging well-ventilated Hyacinth. During this period, M.I. Kozlovsky punctuated the forests and steppes with a collection of superb bronze nude males including his famous representation of "Ajax Carrying the Body of Patrocles" (1796).

I.P. Martos humbly crafted a splendid tombstone in 1792 upon which two men passionately embraced, and in 1818, not so humbly wrought his huge "Monument to Minin and Pozharsky" atop which a pair of macho Slavic warriors grasp a single sword while subtly touching each other's leg. This dramatic display of man-to-man solidarity stands on Red Square immediately in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral.

While S.S. Pimenov was sculpturing a mutually amorous "Hercules and Antheus" between 1809 and 1811, V.I. DemutMalinovsky was carving a nude angel sprawled over a nude man into an elegant funeral monument.

In 1829, F.P. Tolstoi engraved a much-acclaimed medallion with "The Battle at Arsiz-SyurOb," featuring a scantillydressed stripling lying on top of his wounded comrad as he is clobbered by a third young man. He preceded this in 1816 with three embracing Greek heroes presenting their weapons to Athena in "The People's Offering."

1810 welcomed A.A. Ivanov's arousing "Flight of the Young Kievan," and 1812 a bolder "Triumph of Prince Mstislav Udalov," showing the lanky naked prince straddling a more powerful half nude bearded male. 1850 saw his slightly impressionistic and startlingly raw "Nude Youth." It took him a space of twenty years from 1837 1857 to complete his suggestive "Introduction of Christ to the People."

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Lesbian homoeroticism is not prominent in Russian art due to the repression of women in Russia and the rest of Europe. However, several late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century male painters dispatched tasteful, intimate woman-towoman interaction. Among these were such masters as Kuzman Petrov-Vodkin and V.F. Borisov-Musatov. BorisovMusatov's classic canvass, "By the Water," reveals a subdued but meaningful emotional exchange between two women-