The square of the patriarch

Patriarch Kirill expressed, not noticing this, two opposite theses - correct and wrong. He said: “Black Square” is that in the soul of Malevich, and “Black Square” is a metaphor for what happened to humanity. With the second thesis I agree, this is one of the possible and normal numerous interpretations of the meaning of the black square. But to think and speak in this sense: in order to feel the degradation of the world and humanity and express this, the artist himself must come into a state of collapse and degradation is wrong. And this, in fact, said Mr. Gundyaev.

It seems to me that what has been said reveals the misunderstanding of the Patriarch between artistic creativity, meaning of the work, on the one hand, and the origins and motives of creativity in the soul and brain, in the physical and spiritual state of the artist - on the other. According to my ideas, in order to create a "black square", the soul and condition of the artist must be enlightened or at least sensitive. Mr. Gundyaev thinks the other way around: to create a "black square", the artist had to be in a state of decay and degradation. In general, this is even psychologically understandable, but some kind of very childish, infantile idea of contemporary art and art in general.

The idea that the images and objects created by the artist correspond to who and what the artist himself is in life is far from harmless. It was this representation of the patriarch, as it has now become clear to me, played an important role and served as one of the motives and one of the intended struggle of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church for the recognition of the exhibitions "Caution, religion!" And "Forbidden Art - 2006" - and similar to them - unacceptable in our society.

It seems to me that Patriarch Kirill believed and believes: to see the world bad and create a “black square” as a visual metaphor for a bad, “fallen” state of the world, the artist must survive the state of degradation, licentiousness or fall into such a state. And then this state artists infect the world. Of course, something in this view of Patriarch Kirill about the people of art is corrected correctly (we know about the addictions of creative people and bohemia), but still this “correct” is, in my opinion, 10-20%percent, and the wrong 80-90%.

Yuri Samodurov-Russian human rights activist, organizer of the first initiative group "Memorial", in the 1990–2000s-Executive Director of the Foundation Andrei Sakharov and director of the museum and public center Andrei Sakharov