The Russian-born artist and activist Slava Mogutin left his home country in the mid-1990s due to homophobic persecution and was granted political asylum in the USA. From 1998/99 he worked with Rainer Fetting and became, along with Desmond Cadogan, Raoul Dumas and Ole Möller, one of the artist's recurring models, in his portraits of men in the expressive painting style of the "Neue Wilde" from the 1970s onwards. To date, numerous portraits of Slava Mogutin have been produced, including them a work from the well-known "New York Cops" series from the early 2000s. In a 2019 interview, he talks about working with Rainer Fetting: "It's always very inspiring to work with Rainer. [..] The fact that he was the pioneer of gender and of queer discourse in contemporary queer and contemporary German art [..] that's something that very few people can say about their work." (Slava Mogutin on Rainer Fetting, 2019, www.robertgrunenberg.com/rainer-fetting-voices)
In "Slava with ocher leather jacket" the ocher of the leather jacket dominates the color palette. Only the head and hands stand out in color, giving the body support in the earthy color space. As is so typical for the artist, the depiction and the image detail concentrate entirely on the sitter, the surrounding space remains undefined. With a small red dot, Rainer Fetting hints at a cigarette in the corner of his mouth, thereby emphasizing the casual posture of Slava Mogutin, who attracts attention with his penetrating yet impenetrable gaze. With flowing brushstrokes and impasto paint, a graceful portrait of strong physicality emerges, which does not claim to be a photo-realistic account, but rather, as Slava Mogutin describes it, unfolds the effect of a "metaphysical portrait zone." [AR]