Pulled by the tongue

“Thinking Realism” at the Tretyakov Gallery

The main result of the special project of the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art “Thinking Realism”, invented by the curator and art theorist Ekaterina Degot, was not an exhibition, but an album - a special issue of the WAM (World art museum) magazine. The album contains the theoretical platform of the “Thinking Realism” program, and a wittily selected illustrative series: paintings by Russian artists of the 19th century (from Ivanov to Vereshchagin) in dialogue with the works of masters of modern Russian art. And the most valuable thing is that the magazine contains conversations between Ekaterina Degot and artists (Ilya Kabakov, Dmitry Gutov, Pavel Pepperstein, Olga Chernysheva), in which the masters talentedly and wittily explain their attachment to the now unfashionable realistic painting of the mid-second half of the century before last.

I've highlighted a few key ideas. The first was formulated by the curator of the exhibition. This is the idea that Peredvizhniki realism was the first strategy of modernism in Russia. The realistic picture became an honest mirror of the problems of social life, bravely defended people, and did not shy away from eternal questions. I think we can speak out even more radically. Precisely because most of the paintings of the Wanderers are painted anyhow, the main value in their interpretation, as in the case of “contemporary” art, is intellectual adventure. Like works of contemporary art, the creations of the Peredvizhniki belong to the world of words more than to the world of plastic values.

Another idea comes from an interview with Ilya Kabakov. He perfectly formulated the difference between idiotic realism and deep realism. The point is not an illusion, but a reverse reflection of the picture that turns its gaze on us. That is, an interesting picture is one in which space is not drawn, but installed, and has its own intention of seeing us in depth. The correct example is the painting of Pavel Fedotov, with his rooms through which the artist “traveled inside.”

Another good idea was expressed by Dmitry Gutov. Referring to the proletarian art critic Igor Ilyin, he speaks of torture by Russian culture, of a masochistic attraction to everything disharmonious and flawed. I would sum it up this way: our humanism is a drunken tear under the swollen homeless eye.

In the album you will find other observations captured by artistic intuition. And the victory of the project is that, it turns out, nothing has gone anywhere. The most unfashionable period of Russian art is capable of captivating and stimulating thought. He is loved and desired. Even despite the curator’s attempts, unconvincing from my point of view, to find an enemy in the image of modernist art of the early 20th century, which supposedly disdained the social and humanistic pathos of critical realism and simplified forms to a designer commodity constitution. This thesis leaves no chance for an autonomous territory of artistic creativity. After all, art is not a servant of society, and its language is free. And the logic of the development of this particular free language led to a change in paradigms and styles. Another thing is that later modernism was also appropriated by the market. But peredvizhniki realism is also at a premium today.

By the way, the logocentric (quite authentic Peredvizhniki) references of the curator Ekaterina Degot (the idea is more interesting than how it is ultimately articulated) influenced the specifically intimate, cozy and completely unambitious image of the exhibition, which is nestled in the old halls of the Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky, nearby from Polenov and Levitan. Small plastic “clauses” on the theme of textbook paintings were proposed by Pavel Pepperstein. In a blizzard, his little blots shrink - the heroes of Surikov or Vasnetsov. Dmitry Gutov reproduced Savrasov’s “Rooks” against a pop-art orange background. A drawing by Ilya Kabakov looks like a rare postcard for the opening day, where gray, dusty people are “treated” by contemplating a picture of their native Levitan-Repinsky-Shishkin expanses. In addition to this postcard, there is another one in the window - a souvenir from Ivan Aivazovsky, where in the photo he is at an easel, and a living seascape is pasted into the easel. This is also a kind of autograph present as a keepsake. The old ladies of the Wanderers sleep serenely in the metro in the photo of Vladimir Kupriyanov. Projects for the conceptual replacement of paintings by classics with inscriptions with their names were proposed by D.A. Prigov. Olga Chernyshova admires the highlights and reflections of museum visitors superimposed on compositions of Russian painting in her video. The modern procession of the Cross in conjunction with the paintings of Perov and Repin was photographed by Sergei Bratkov. Golden letters - the contours of the Russian landscape - were imprinted into the Savrasov landscape of the Chakhal Mountains. And the impression from everything is very pleasant. Only the harsh ideological message has dissipated somewhere, the pathos has disappeared. And in general, in the plastic version, the dialogue of Russian realism with artists actually practicing today, with a single exception (the same Gor Chahal, Erik Bulatov) turned out to be a charming curiosity for refined aesthetes who value far-reaching rapprochements.

Sergei KHACHATUROV