“Between a Book and a Painting” was created in 1993 by Nikolay Ovchinnikov, a Moscow-based painter, representative of postmodern and conceptual art.

Ovchinnikov used nine identical canvases to copy fragments of landscapes and images of ruins from paintings by the German artist Caspar David Friedrich. An open book is embedded in the center of each canvas — it is also covered with paint and features part of the painting.

Ovchinnikov understands the plane of an image as a restricted space, a stage framed with wings and a stage set, and he tries to immerse himself deeper into this space. He is fascinated by the play of the figures portrayed, the interaction with the people in the paintings and the scene itself, and he strives to engage the viewer into this play.
Ovchinnikov depicted various fragments of Friedrich’s paintings on canvases of the same size and simplified the paintings by reducing them to landscapes, taking away their intended meaning.

Caspar David Friedrich was one of the key figures of German romanticism and his art is still popular. His paintings are famous partly due to the numerous reproductions that are often depicted on postcards, posters and used as book illustrations.

Friedrich worked during the period when German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel stated that painting, poetry, and music are nothing but the means of creating an illusion foretelling the unavoidable death of art.

Ovchinnikov confirms that Hegel’s prophecy has already come true. In his work, the painter answers the question of,

He believes that it is art that “collapses” with its “genuine truth and life” according to Hegel.

Nikolay Ovchinnikov was born in Moscow in 1958. In 1974–1978, he studied at the Theatrical Scenery Department of the Moscow Art School in Memory of 1905. He studied theatrical scene painting under Tatyana Serebryakova, the daughter of Zinaida Serebryakova, and Alexandra Kogan, a student of Mikhail Sutin.

Between 1978 and the mid-1980s, Ovchinnikov worked as a set designer. In 1979, he met young representatives of the Moscow Conceptualism School and decided to become an artist. In 1987, he joined the Avant-Garde Club (KLAVA). In 1986–1988, he created a simulative music project titled “Central Russian Upland” but left as soon as it became a rock band.

Between 1989 and 1993, Ovchinnikov lived and worked in France and Germany. In 1993, he returned to Russia and joined the Moscow Artists’ Union. Nowadays, Nikolay Ovchinnikov lives and works in Moscow.