Allan Appel Photo
Reiniger with an untitled Zlatnikov portrait in the new show.
A painting by an unknown artist showed up at the office of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Though clearly by a naive and self-taught hand, the picture moved Matt Reiniger — and sparked an unusual encounter with an idiosyncratic Russian immigrant artists whose works are now on display for all of New Haven to see.
The artist is getting his due, a bit too late to enjoy it.
The artist, Josif Zlatnikov, dropped off the picture last summer at the Arts Council, where Reiniger then worked as communications manager.
Then in August he called to say he was eager to make a connection with the Arts Council.
Reiniger went to Zlatnikov’s apartment. It was full of detritus, and the signs of a man in trouble. But it was also full of more paintings with the same kinds of faces — wide-eyed emotional presences in the physiognomies of both humans and animals. More intrigued than ever, Reiniger wanted to give Zlatnikov some kind of exhibition, perhaps even a solo show, at the Council’s gallery on Audubon Street.
In October, however, another call came: Zlatnikov had died. His family wanted only one picture. All the rest — approximately two dozen, which Reiniger collected in large black garbage bags for transport — the Arts Council could have.
That’s how Family Reunion: Psyche, Spirit, and Humanness, with Josif Zlatnikov’s portraits at its heart, came into being.
Zlatnikov in his apartment.
The exhibition, which also features works by Joey Loos, Fethi Meghelli, Annie Sailer, Shaunda Holloway, and the kids of a Hamden Hall fourth-grade class, runs at the Council’s Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery through April 29.
Reiniger said that when he and the Arts Council’s long-time program director Debbie Hess initially visited Zlatnikov, he was instantly aware that the work likely derived from magazine images, that Zlatnikov appeared not to have much formal training, and that he was also eager for the Arts Council to acknowledge him as an artist.
Nevertheless, Reiniger said he was taken by the quiet charm of the cache of works, by the hauntingness of human faces on Zlatnikov’s many animals, and by the emotional honesty of the feelings emanating from the work.
And there was something else: “The pictures all looked related, as in a family,” said Reiniger.
Thus “Family Reunion” was born, the group show and the animating theme.
Mid-career artist Annie Sailer and young fourth grade artist Erin Chan at the kids’ family tree display.
Reiniger and Hesse proceeded to assemble a handful of other artists whose images of faces have the same feeling as Zlatnikov’s. Reiniger said that his own work is somehow of a piece with this same aesthetic, which he termed the power of “emotional bodies over physical bodies.”
The contribution of kids in art teacher Sue Bennett’s Hamden Hall fourth grade was the last element to be included in the show.
Through an Arts Council staffer, Reiniger and Hesse learned that the kids, as part of their study of immigration, were doing small self-portraits of their families, with the proviso that no photographic or other direct imaging was allowed. The kids would have to create a portrait of themselves, parents, and grandparents using visual symbols and other means.
A Zlatnikov, untitled.
The result is a colorful wall, 24 individual portraits strong, decorating the areas around the entryway to the Arts Council Gallery.
Bennett said that the no-photo rule of what she called “visual family trees” also “relieves the pressure for likeness.”
And the kids could introduce themselves, excitedly, as “artists” to other grown-up artists in the show, such as artist/dancer Annie Sailer.
Molly Reiniger, Meghelli,Holloway, and Matt Reiniger celebrate at the opening.
As the kids realized their work was hanging in a real gallery, and the work of an unknown self-taught artist was receiving its first attention, and the long corridor percolated with happy chatter about art, Hesse said it was all so alive with spirit, so “fresh.”
“Even the animals [in Zlatnikov’s images] have human faces. It’s really about the human spirit embodied in different forms,” Reiniger added.
“Family Reunion: Psyche, Spirit, and Humanness” runs at the Summer McKnight Crosby, Jr. Gallery in the Arts Council offices at 70 Audubon St., second floor. Admission is free.