|
Erik BulatovOur New Problems
published in catalogue "Contemporary Russian Artists" |
|
We have come to a watershed. After more than fifty years of social and cultural isolation, we have come to take our place on the scene of international culture. It would be foolish not to anticipate complex and significant problems. The most prominent, although to my mind it is not the most important among them, is the market. In the past, very few artists have been given the opportunity to show their work in official exhibitions, or to earn a living by painting. Most could only dream of it while plying some other trade for their bread. Nowadays, we are in vogue and people want to see our paintings, and to buy them. But is it good for our art? Well, firstly it is argued that artists are corrupted by the market, aud that friendships flounder in the wake of fierce competition for buyers. Secondly, that artists begin to paint for the market; and thirdly, the flood of information about the art world abroad has produced a massive crop of piagiarists. Some would have it that artists in the Soviet Union, who were ignorant of trends in the West, were free from all influence and entirely original in their work. Nostalgia is growing for those golden days when artists lived and worked together in harmony, before the bitch goddess money came to Soviet Art. I am opposed to any idealization of the past whatsoever. The idyllic picture of the life of unofficial artists which is being painted now, has absolutely nothing in common with past reality. There was competition then, too. There was rivalry between groups for customers. Then, it happened behind closed doors. Now it all happens in public. There were no fewer commercial artists then than there are now. Many artists tried to suit the tastes and demands of the diplomatic community which provided the only customers in those days. You only have to consider the exhibitions at Malaja Gruzinskaya. I'm inclined to believe that commercial artists are born, not made according to circumstance. The market itself was not always so prominent. Deals were made and everything was shrouded in secrecy and mystery. The creative inidependence of my generation is no more than a glorified myth. When I was young there were artists who copied one another, artists who studied hard, and the usual quota of plagiarists. Our generation was like any other, although the period of Stalinism might be said to have been exceptional because art almost died altogether. Art cannot use poor education and a lack of information as an excuse. The past was a bad time. I hope it doesn't happen again! Pretending that things are beautiful in a world that is so clouded in obscurity does not serve art. Art needs light and clarity everywhere. Our culture is like a sick, ugly child, which we should bring out into the light so that it doesn't die, diseased, pretending that it is healthy. The market is not the main problem. It may be a dangerous creature, but it is not beyond human will to resist its temptations. Our art and culture are ailing from having suffered from more than half a century of isolation. The Oppositional stance we took against the West was one of the worst symptoms of our illness. The age-old Russian problem of "Them and Us" was nourished by ignorance and disinformation in the Soviet period. In reality, there exists only the common cause of one world culture, to which the culture of each nation contributes some part. There is no place for us outside of this. There is a place for our particular qualities within it. There is no reason to fear for our cultural independence. Our dissimilarity, our individuality, are needed by the whole. When we begin to take part, we will begin to look like something normal, like artists among artists, rather than like some strange, exotic creature which is of purely ethnographic interest. In other words, only when we are really healthy we will be seen as healthy. There is, however, one other serious problem. Works are being taken out of the country, and nothing is being left at home. What should we do about it? This is certainly not a good thing, but I don't see how it can be avoided. There are neither collectors nor museums in the USSR. Moreover, there are no recognized criteria which could help us determine our position in our own art. This means that there are no cultural resources to nourish art. It is to be expected that works of art should depart for the more temperate climes of the west. Ad will continue emigrating until we have a normal social and cultural life of our own in the Soviet Union. | |
![[IndexPage]](../../cook/bottcoro.gif){kind=small}