Dr. Sergey Zagraevsky
Art or “jingoistic patriotism”?
(notes on Ilya Glazunov’s Christmas show in Manezh)
Published in Russian: Сергей Заграевский. искусство или «квасной патриотизм»? (Заметки о новогодней выставке Ильи Глазунова в Манеже). «Арт-газета», № 2 (33), 10–16 янв. 2000 г.
Attention!
The following text was translated from the Russian original by the computer program
and has not yet been edited.
So it can be used only for general introduction.
Glazunov - more than the artist. Or less - whom
she likes. In any case, has to say about it
as a global phenomenon in the scale and the late-and early capitalist Russia.
Let's
start with the Soviet era. Paradoxically, while the artists
were in some sense simpler. I found the courage to stand up
in opposition to the regime - all in popularity is assured. It also could
"negotiate" with the government, made a couple curtseys like paint
the portrait of Brezhnev, - everything is ready "promotion" at all
levels. And
Glazunov - example.
However, the Russian idea - not
a toy, and patriotism - even more so. You can be patriotic, to love Russia, but not necessarily scream about it at all angles and represent on their canvases
mournfully humble velikomuchenicheskie faces. And if the artist still got on
that track, he should know that playing with the national ideas - is like a
powder keg. Sooner or later there comes a
time when no ideas are subject to creativity, and vice versa.
And His Majesty Art oh how does
not like anything to submit, even if it is a national idea or Christianity! And here the work stops, starts
or politics, or ideology, or anything else, the arts are relevant only insofar
as it is written with oil on canvas. In this trap, even in the
seventies and got Ilya Glazunov. And his magnificent exhibition
at the big play on New Year 2000 - just a sign that nothing in twenty years,
our government does not understand (although not in the construction of
flyovers, and art).
When Glazunov "for
both" given the state rooms - the Arena, which rent for a month worth
several hundred thousand (!) Dollars, is truly sorry for the state. Do you, gentlemen powers that be
think that painting by Ilya Sergeyevich is so important that for the sake of
the state budget could be short of millions of rubles?
And for what? The vast majority of Russian
people have already developed an immunity against the "leaven" of
patriotism. And not in
vain. Let's see: the West without
completely costs, but must be the same: "their" athletes in the
performance of the national anthem cry! Are the bulls calamity, and
tears rolling down his cheeks. Somehow I have this
"our" not yet observed, despite all Glazunov speeches and
exhibitions.
Is it time to realize that
patriotism - the feeling immeasurably more profound than fondly contemplation
on the faces of the saints? And nothing undermines people's
sense of psychological unity with the national idea of the country as a frank
speculation patriotism. We must do things, actually improve
people's lives!
"Comrade government",
do you not taught anything to the collapse of Soviet power? Only just started to go from
cheap slogans to business - and here again! Yes damn old woman with a
semi-starvation miserable pension for all Riding together! And let's calculate how much
benefit the children and the elderly could pay for the huge money that would be
ordinary businessmen paid for the provision Manege at the most gold, Christmas,
Christmas time? And how many roads could be
repaired?
If, Ilya Glazunov considers
himself a great artist (this is his personal right), then let them earn selling
works and rents for their money even though the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. What! For gosschet he not only
exhibited in the Manege, but also creates its own personal museum at Volkhonka,
opposite the Pushkin.
Just do not be a next generation
look at the Glazunov painting with the same contempt as we look at the tacky
"pseudo" architectural style of the early twentieth century? And not because he Glazunov or
working on his art could not this painting "correctly apply. For example, the current
exhibition at the Manege organized exclusively literacy: worked as a guide,
beautifully made hanging, and even sold T-shirts with the words "I love
Glazunov. Case
in the works.
You look at the work of Ilya
Glazunov early sixties and understand: it was bad! And then something happened,
what we have already said: the displacement of creativity
gigantomania-speculative and political themes. The artist began to work "on
the idea" and openly propagate their "patriotic," faces a tragic
thoughtful eyes. And when a huge canvas at the
viewer look hundreds of such persons is truly terrifying, as if pressing on you
all the imperial power of the Soviet Union - Russia, together with all its
problems.
For all that song in the works
of Glazunov's student-built, or standard, or simply illiterate - in many,
especially in large scenes missing semantic dominant, they are
"smeared". And in the nude is nothing new -
a standard academic style. In short, nothing but the
undoubted professionalism in a careful tracing of individuals and, of course,
unimaginable proportions, from which both smell and style of the Stalin years.
Want to put an experiment? Do not be lazy, look at the
exhibition Glazunov self-portrait of 1986, a Christmas tree and mentally remove him from the bust of the ancient Greek thinker, designed to symbolize the
genius of the author! What a strong and truly tragic
character of the artist is brought before us! And from the tracks immediately
leave illiterate symmetry. A pririsovalsya speculative bust
- and all climbed cheap. In this whole Ilya.
Speculators Russian national
idea lived, are alive and will live, and eventually the entire civilized world
sees us as something dense and nowhere. What are the first thoughts of
Europeans with the word "Russia"? Mafia,
dolls and the Arena. Short - "MMM".
When our people stop cheating?
Moscow, 2000.
© Sergey Zagraevsky