Translated material
Election propaganda
Cultural porcelain of China in the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia
The Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia presented an unexpected bonus to the Year of China in Russia, which recently ended successfully with a concert in the Moscow Kremlin and the opening of two exhibitions in the Historical Museum and the Hermitage.The most curious exhibition of the year of eternal friendship - “China. Porcelain. "Cultural Revolution".
The elegant classic hall contains such wonders that at first you want to pinch yourself: is this a dream? Dozens of porcelain figurines and painted panels are the norm for an exhibition from China. However, the characters depicted, from nameless workers to specific historical figures, are striking with their angular poses and difficult proportions. The compositions are built, however, not without an idea of what composition is; primitive modeling is complemented by rough coloring. Also “good” are the panels hung on the walls of the hall and the paintings that decorated the staircase...
But the plots and characters are painfully familiar even to those who have never been to China - neither now, nor forty years ago, when the “cultural revolution” unfolded there. Yes, we have seen portraits of Mao more than once (mostly on TV), but we have also seen someone else: do we need to name names? And we had revolutionary plastic and propaganda porcelain (by the way, invented not in Russia in the 1920s, but earlier, in France in the 1790s, also during the revolution). Without a doubt, Russian analogues are thinner, more elegant, and not so aggressive. But how similar are the themes, ideas, even the uniforms the characters wear. Of course, the slogans are written in hieroglyphs, but also on red calico, and the main character, the beloved leader with his right hand raised victoriously - Chairman Mao - wears a French jacket...
It’s clear that the museum on Tverskaya doesn’t want to forget: some 15 years ago it was called the Museum of the Revolution. Which, by the way, has an anniversary this year... It’s a shame to lose the accumulated experience, and the keepers of revolutionary history switched from domestic artifacts to foreign ones. In the mid-twentieth century in China, ancient works were beaten, destroyed, and banned - an attribute of the exploiting class. And the exquisite vases and figurines were replaced by new, proven ones, with the right theme: heroic struggle, unity of progressive forces, valiant work. At the same time, there are trials and executions (their curators allowed minimal entry into the hall, but you will still notice a sign on the chest of a man kneeling under the guard of girls with machine guns). On the panel “We welcome the entry of the world revolution into the era of the Great Mao Zedong” there are five profiles; guess whose? That's right, three classics of Marxism-Leninism plus Comrade Stalin and his Chinese colleague. Made, by the way, in 1968!
True, it is no longer surprising that the life of the dear leader, who lived not in a hut, but in a palace, was decorated according to the old canons. Here are the originals - a set and a writing instrument from Mao's residence. Modest, but tasteful, and most importantly, without scenes with the participation of proletarians and Red Guards. No innovation - just fish and flower garlands. The same, but simpler, items were produced for gifts to foreign comrades.
All these miracles from China belong to one Russian family, where back in the 1980s they became interested in examples of “artistic propaganda.” They say that today they are highly valued, so the owner of the guest at the Tver collection, State Duma deputy Margarita Barzhanova, can sleep peacefully, even if she does not get into the new parliament. In order to contrast the “treasures of world culture” with the revolutionary artifacts, the curators added “unprincipled” objects to the exhibition, created a long time ago, the lower chronology is the 17th century. The antique vases come from the same private collection. It’s a pity that the museum workers were either lazy or embarrassed to take out from their funds a collection of Chinese porcelain, consisting of gifts to leaders that are fashionable today: the Chinese presented a hundred items to our “father of nations” for the anniversaries of 1939 and 1949. Probably, it would have turned out too edifying, and it would have distracted attention from the main propaganda plots...
Well, in order for the exhibition to be successful and for everyone involved to have good luck, at the vernissage at the entrance they put cheap today's dishes, also Chinese, for good luck. And just to be safe, we walked on it with our feet - just like during the years of the revolution.