CULTURE

Making waves

A Russian exhibition in Paris has been described as a disgrace by the Russian culture minister.

By Jorg von Uthmann

Bloomberg

For The St. Petersburg Times “The Era of Mercy” by the Blue Noses (a.ka. Slava Mizin and Alexander Shaburov)

NEW YORK — An exhibition of contemporary Russian art in France is causing a stir. The 160 exhibits on show are drawing less attention than the two dozen that Alexander Sokolov, the Russian culture minister, prevented from traveling to Paris: He calls them a disgrace for Russia.

One of the embargoed items is “The Era of Mercy,” showing two policemen kissing and caressing each other. The censorship produced the opposite effect to that desired — the photo by the Blue Noses (a.k.a. Slava Mizin and Alexander Shaburov), was published by newspapers all over the world.

Not content with the travel ban, some superpatriots and pious zealots have brought charges of un-Russian activities and blasphemy against Andrei Yerofeyev, who is curating the “Sots Art” (Socialist Art) show at the Maison Rouge.

Valentin Rodionov, the director of the state-run Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, where the show originated, hit back by suing the culture minister for defamation.

The row proves that even in Russia, with its deep-rooted authoritarianism, censorship is the ideal breeding ground for the counterculture it tries to suppress. This is the point of the exhibition.

“Sots Art” was invented in 1972 by another tandem, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, as a parody of the officially sanctioned Socialist Realism. Instead of consumerism and popular culture that inspired western Pop Art, they mock the heroic and sentimental imagery of Soviet and post-Soviet propaganda.

An apartment at the entrance of the show reminds the visitor of the difficulties the artists faced: Before perestroika made life easier, they could exhibit their works only within their own four walls.

Some artists were sent to labor camps, others to mental institutions. Komar and Melamid emigrated first to Israel, then to New York.

It would be futile to pretend that each of the 60 participants is a great artist. It seems that, for the curator, the political message mattered more than the talent of the messenger. Quite a few works betray a juvenile, rather coarse sense of humor.

Some of the jokes — such as Alexander Kossolapov’s “St. Sebastian,” a half-naked, bound youngster under hammer and sickle — are hard to decipher. Vagrich Bakhchanyan’s design for a cover of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” showing Lenin lifting a young girl, is wittier.

One of the funniest works in the show is Vladimir Dubosarsky’s huge canvas “Yeltsin and Lebed,” depicting the two politicians in a fairy-tale landscape, surrounded by deer, rabbits and children: It’s a perfect parody of Arkadi Plastov, one of the grand masters of Soviet kitsch.

Dmitry Vrubel’s no less gigantic painting “God, help me survive this fatal love!” is based on a photograph of Leonid Brezhnev kissing Erich Honecker, East Germany’s last leader. It first appeared on the Berlin Wall.

La Maison Rouge is at 10 Boulevard de la Bastille. “Sots Art — Art Politique en Russie de 1972 a Aujourd’hui” runs through Jan.20, 2008.

More stories by this section:

Putting faces to names | Chernov’s choice | A new ice age | Art shopaholics | The winds of change | In the spotlight | Meat is murder | Gangsters’ paradise

Or take part in the discussion below.