​Art with Vodka. Famous "Mitki" and their original paintings

It is no secret that many people in Russia drink, including some artists. However, unlike ordinary citizens, they try to bring this action into the creative process, i.e. they either paint pictures while heavily intoxicated, or the heroes of their paintings are drunks. And it is not always presented exclusively in a tragic and negative sense, as in the paintings of the Peredvizhniks or in Picasso's famous “Absinthe Lover”.

Pablo Picasso. Absinthe lover

On the other hand, vodka and drunkenness are perceived as an integral part of existence, or even become a kind of muse. At first glance, this is exactly what the art project “Mitki” seems to be. It would seem that everything is simple: drinking artists gathered together, engaged in their favorite pastime, and after getting drunk they started painting, hoping in such a state to reveal some hidden meanings and proper depth. Well, let the hands disobey, but the soul sings, and for modern painting an interesting idea and an unusual approach are much more important than a well-honed technique.

Alexander Florensky. Illustration for Vladimir Shinkarev's book “Mitki”

Well, seriously, the Mitki is a notable avant-garde project created by very clever and talented artists who simply wanted to be closer to the people and chose the most popular hypostasis - vodka. One of the founders of this movement is Vladimir Shinkaryov, who in 1984 wrote a manifesto, where the concepts of proper behavior and way of thinking of artists were given, and at the same time listed all their slang words and expressions. The prototype of the exemplary Mit'ka was the artist Dmitry Shagin, who at the time worked together with Shinkaryov in an ordinary stoker's shop.

Dmitry Shagin. Mityok and Gogol

The Mitki usually wear an ushanka, a vatnik, and a calf in summer; they are good-natured and absolutely unkind to everyone; they even prefer to speak with diminutive prefixes, e.g., they address each other as brother and sister. They have also developed a certain utopian ideal of pastime: endless intimate feasting with “brothers” and “sisters”, when vodka never runs out, and if it does, it can always be bought at the nearest store, which is a five-minute walk away.

Vasily Golubev. Mitki bring their ears to Van Gogh

The Mitki prefer to talk by means of quotations from Soviet movies of the 70-80s, which they know a lot. They never get hangovers, and if they do, they always have something to hangover with. And sometimes in this kind of soulful communication new meanings and new ideas are born, which are just waiting to be realized on canvas.

Oleg Kotelnikov. It's great

Of course, it was a conscious protest against the soft drink campaign that had begun. The paintings of the Mytniks and the movement itself became very popular among the people. Soviet publications, such as the Yunost magazine and the Smena newspaper, often wrote about them, and so the whole country became aware of the small group of avant-garde artists from St. Petersburg. At exhibitions, spectators always gathered around their works, and numerous groups of people from different professions were organized, declaring that they professed the principles of the Mitki.

All this was because the Mitki identified with an idealized idea of the Russian people: always helpful, open, good-natured and hospitable. They were apolitical, or rather, their whole policy was reduced to the famous slogan: “The Mitki don't want to defeat anyone”, invented back in 1984.

Dmitry Shagin. Day of the calf

In their work, the Mitki tried to depict ordinary life through the prism of their ideology. Sometimes they depicted phenomena familiar to the USSR, such as monstrous beer queues, and sometimes they were not afraid of quite harsh political caricature, as in the painting “The Mitki Sending Brezhnev to Afghanistan”.

Vasily Golubev. Mitki sends Brezhnev to Afghanistan

Many of their paintings are connected with the sea or give references to the sea theme. It is no coincidence that many of their paintings are exclusively in a navy jacket, which is an extremely important attribute, practically a kind of autograph and a sign of belonging to the Mitki.

Dmitry Shagin. “What should we do with drunken sailors?”

Many of their pictures were painted in the direction of primitivism, which was surprisingly accurate to their ideology. And indeed, you will not drunkenly write out small details, think about perspective, composition and light shading. And primitivism is a graphic and visual embodiment of thoughts and ideas, such paintings are easy and quick to draw, the more so that none of the Mitki and did not think at that time they would ever profitably realize them, that is, they created exclusively for themselves and for the soul.

Victor Tikhomirov. Conversation

The paintings of the Mitki are often very personal, the artists depicted what was close to them and their movement. Therefore, they often depicted a feast, sometimes with nonexistent characters, who could only be seen during a white fever. It was not by chance that the slogan “let's hit the red terror with white fever.

And how hard it is for a true Mitka to get home drunk, especially when his legs don't go at all, and his head is full of fog.

Victor Tikhomirov. Victory of Russian sailors in the Indian Ocean

But sometimes the Mitki combined surrealism with primitivism, as in the painting by Viktor Tikhomirov. They depicted some historical characters in company with the Mitki. However, the Mitki are kind, even bringing Ivan the Terrible a new son to replace the murdered one.

Mitki. Mitki brings Ivan the Terrible a new son.

There were also nudes, and it is not for nothing that many conversations in men's company revolve around women. And, of course, the women in the Mitki paintings are of those who can be seen in everyday life, without academic impersonality and idealization, although very attractive. However, they are all like that when drunk.

Vladimir Yashke. Zina and the Bird

In any case, the Mitki left a noticeable mark on the perestroika avant-garde. True, starting in 1993, its main ideologists Shagin and Shinkarev practically stopped drinking for health reasons, and its other participants gradually began to lead a more sober lifestyle. Drunkenness could no longer surprise anyone; it had turned from a protest into everyday life. However, even when tipsy, the Mitki managed to create memorable works of art. The main thing is that the Mitki's paintings were sincere and written from the heart, and this is often much more important than polished technique and painstaking work.

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