Lena Hades

L. Hades, 2013.

Химера загадочной русской души

Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche

Eagle and snake. From Lena Hades’ cycle Thus spake Zarathustra. 1997, 137x177cm.

Lena Hades (Template:Lang-ru; official name Lena Alekseevna Hades or Heidiz, Template:Lang-ru) (born October 2, 1959) is a Russian artist, writer and art theorist of Jewish origin.

She has created more than 40 works, all oil paintings and watercolors dedicated to Nietzsche's book Also Sprach Zarathustra.

An edition of Also Sprach Zarathustra that included 20 Hades paintings from the cycle was published in 2004 in Russian and German by the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The works of the artist are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the National Center for Contemporary Arts, the State Pushkin Museum, and others. The oil painting and graphic cycle "Also Sprach Zarathustra" was exhibited at the First Moscow Biennale of contemporary art.

She currently lives and works in Moscow.

Famous works

Hades is best known not only for her Thus spoke Zarathustra oil painting and graphic cycle, but also for her two paintings so called russophobic due to the conflict between public and private spheres erupted in March 2008, when a group of Russian nationalists took an artist to court for these paintings they believe to be inciting “racial or national animosity". One, Welcome to Russia (1999), hangs in Igor Markin’s private museum the other, Chimera of the Mysterious Russian Soul (1996) was exhibited only once, at a solo exhibition in the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary art in 2005. The nationalists were offended by the artist’s depiction of the Russian soul as a cartoonish creature with clichéd attributes of Russian everyday life — a bottle of vodka, a model of Sputnik — and by the crudely painted text in Welcome that indicts the Russian character as simultaneously overaggressive and alarmingly God-fearing.

Political pressing

In June 2010, Hades was invited to give explanation for this work at a court in Moscow, it might come to a trial because she is accused of hate propaganda.

On July 6, 2012, Hades went on hunger strike in support of the Pussy Riot group. which continued 25 days and resulted in severe health problems. She shared details of her hunger strike on majority of her social media pages such as her official Twitter, including several photos of her torso in red underwear to demonstrate how rapidly she was losing weight.

Several sites mention the politic pressure on Hades.

Autobiographic series

A complete contrast to the above works is the autobiographical series "the girl with bows, the woman that mows. the dance" which are personal revelations of the artist herself. It is here that the bright image of the girl reveals a polysemantic world of the name hades, the English spelling of the name of Hades, the antique god (Aides, Αιδης) who is the master of the dead. But the hell of Hades is not associated either with the antique or the Christian world, it is sooner connected with that of Nietzsche’s one: "even god possesses his hell – which is his love to people". "The girl with bows, the woman that mows. the dance" becomes the culmination of the series. "The dance" around pagan bonfires - the right became owned to communicate equally with the beyond. The initiation with fire that transforms and tempers the spirit is completed. There is no more fright. The terror of death has been overcome and it gives an ability to possess the sacred theme that suggested trepidation in the past. Lena Hades assimilates with stalker where the boundaries of two worlds meet each other.

Books

• Nietzsche F. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Moscow, Institut of Philosophy of Russian Academy of Sciences, 2004. ISBN 5-9540-0019-0
• Giametta, Sossio (2006). Commento allo Zarathustra. Milan: Bruno Mondadori. ISBN 88-424-9804-1.
• Nietzsche F. Morgenröte. Gedanken über die moralischen Vorurteile / translated from German by Vadim Bakusev. — Мoscow: Akademicheskij Projekt, 2007. — ISBN 978-5-8291-0942-4
• 미래를 창조하는 나 - 차라투스트라는 이렇게 말했다 (고전읽기 (in Korean). Seoul: Mirae N Culture Group. 2009. ISBN 978-89-378-4498-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Hades, Lena (2010). Chimeras by Hades: incite. London: Alexander Kerensky Museum Publishing. ISBN 978-1-906408-07-7.

Press about Lena Hades

• Krainova, Natalya (22 June 2010). "Artist Investigated in Test of Extremism Law". The Moscow Times.
• "Artist Lena Hades Accused of Russophobia". Russia-InfoCentre. 22 June 2010.
• "Art and soul on trial". Moskovskiye Novosti. 1 July 2010.
• "Art and soul on trial". Moskovskiye Novosti. 28 June 2010.
• "Yyllands-Posten, 'Farlig Kunst?'". 11 July 2010.
• Griffin, Rose (6 Dec 2010). "The art of revolution". The Moscow News.
• Griffin, Rosemary (2 Dec 2010). "The Art of War". Russia Profile.
• "Facing five years in jail, the artist who fried eggs and hotdogs on flame of World War II monument". Daily Mail. 19 Apr 2011.
• "Anarchist Art Gang Angers Russian Authorities With Provocative Antistate Antics". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 6 Apr 2011.
• "Kiev: Emprisonnée pour avoir cuit un œuf sur la flamme éternelle". Eparsa (in French). 19 Apr 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-03-23. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Tortora, Francesco (19 Apr 2011). "Frigge le uova sul monumento ai caduti". Corriere Della Sera (in Italian).
• Lyalenkova, Tamara (7 May 2008). "Художник Елена Хейдиз и ее цикл "Химеры", возмутивший шовинистов". Radio Liberty (in Russian). {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Fanailova, Elena (7 June 2009). "Художники строем не ходят". Radio Liberty (in Russian). {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Lyalenkova, Tamara (20 August 2008). "Искусство и экстремизм". Radio Liberty (in Russian). {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)

External links

• Lena Hades' works
• Fotoarchive of the Russian contemporary art
• "Oil paintings of the cycle Thus spake Zarathustra". GeoCities. Archived from the original on 2009-10-27.
• Oil paintings of the cycle Chimaeras
• Lena Hades' blog in LiveJournal