Artists Chapmans: “Never set foot in Russia again”

British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman made a mocking apology for their exhibition in the Hermitage to those who complained about it to the prosecutor's office.

The provocative artists told the BBC's Russian service : "We are extremely sorry that some visitors to the 'End of Fun' exhibition in the Hermitage were extremely upset. It is extremely sad to receive accusations of extremism - especially from religious groups. We hope that the state prosecutor appointed to investigate the allegations in extremism, will accept our extreme apologies." And then they added: “Never set foot in Russia again.”

Anyone who knows even a little about the history of art understands that a scandal is like manna from heaven for an artist. The exhibition, which took place without a scandal, can be said to have failed. But the scandal over the insult of public morality smacks of past centuries.

Photo: Nikolay Ilyin

Edouard Manet got it for Olympia and Luncheon on the Grass, Matisse got it for nudity in general. Klimt's wall paintings for the University of Vienna were considered pornographic. A little earlier, Goya was summoned to the Inquisition for both attacks. Even earlier, Cardinal Caraffa thoroughly ruined Michelangelo’s life for exposing his genitals in religious frescoes. The list can be endless; recently PublicPost even published an entire article about this, “ Classics of debauchery and blasphemy .”

Writers, by the way, did not lag behind artists: Flaubert, along with the publishers, was tried for “Madame Bovary”; the circulation of Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was banned in Great Britain, confiscated and destroyed. Of course, Boccaccio, De Sade and Nabokov, and even Gorky were accused of insulting morality.

Despite the fact that scandals have become thoroughly boring, and this is the 21st century, for modern creators the path to celebrity remains the same - through scandal. But making a scandal in tolerant Europe is becoming more and more difficult. Either it’s a blessed Russia: either the Cossacks, or the Center “E”, or the Ministry of Culture.

The mocking notes in the response of the Chapman brothers are quite understandable, but their remark, that they will never set foot in Russia again, is clearly unnecessary. The indignant Russian public should not have been threatened with disfavor, but thanked it with an open letter - it would have been more honest and, again, more scandalous.