My country started the WAR!
I try to control myself and stay calm with a cool head, but this war has touched me directly. Thank God none of the relatives or friends there died physically, but many died morally in Russia, including my father. After the war started, during our last phone call, he offered to buy me food and hide in the cellar as he was about to bomb the Western world. He wanted to bomb me. And he was sane. … My sister and mother turned their backs on me. All live in Moscow.
After a long depression, I began to return to reality and wonder why all this?
In search of answers, I read books, and listened to many lectures in all possible languages, in order to get a diverse opinion. In May 2022 while visiting “Art for no one 1933-1945” exhibition in Frankfurt I learned about Werner Heldt and his work "Various Observations on the Masses” (Einige Beobachtungen über die Masse). In this essay, the artist tried to answer, first of all, to himself, why do people support Hitler? And his analysis goes in the direction of the Mass of people - the concept of the crowd. Where personal responsibility is erased behind the facelessness of the crowd.
Werner Heldt, 1933-1935, Charcoal on Guarro laid paper SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT, Frankfurt am Main [Drawing] (Exhibition visit on 18.05.2022)
“In the early 1930s, Heldt explored in his works the phenomenon of the masses and the threat they pose. In Meeting (Parade of the Zeros), the homogeneous mass of people is only interspersed with a few flags and banners. It is first upon closer examination that what can be recognized instead of faces are merely homogeneous zeros, The march is viewed from an interior space that is not further defined. By means of the clear distancing between the masses and the observer's perspective, Heldt lends emphasis to the feeling of isolation. The accumulation of zeros - a number without value - expresses his unease regarding about how easily the masses can be mobilized and steered.” (Annotation for the exhibition “Art for no one 1933 – 1945”, SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT, Frankfurt am Main 18.05.2022)
The artist depicted his ideology through the window. Thus, he, as an individual, is hidden inside and watches what is happening to the crowd.
For artists whose medium is a palette, coal or clay, figurative images about the war are obtained.
For example, Goya with his direct indication of the aversion to war.
GOYA Y LUCIENTES, FRANCISCO DE, This is what you were born for, 1810 - 1814. Wash, Etching, Burin, Drypoint on wove paper. [on line] At: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/this-is-what-you-were-born-for/59150713-31f5-4a94-9be2-d9ec71eec924 (Accessed 22.06.2022)
“The series’ meaning transcends a visual presentation of a specific conflict and can be considered the first critique of war in general.” [on line] At: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/this-is-what-you-were-born-for/59150713-31f5-4a94-9be2-d9ec71eec924 (Accessed 22.06.2022)
One more example, I especially remember Jos Pirkner with his figurative sculpture that cannot be forgotten.
2015 JOS PIRKNER - FIGUR UND RAUM, JOS PIRKNER, Figur und Raum 22.05.-26.10.2015 SCHLOSS BRUCK, Museum der Stadt Lienz, Austria [Sculpture] (Exhibition visit on 05.08.2015)
And now I continue to search for my language to portray the current situation. But this composition does not fit into what I consider wrong in my country. Pirkner signed the sculpture – “Sie starben damit wir leben“-"They die so we can live." But in the situation with Russia, people are dying because of political stupidity and the desire for power of only one person. If the second world war was against Nazism, then today's war is to maintain the power of a corrupt monarch. Here I want to correct what I just said. For art, I don't have to answer with words and give my opinion, so all previous phrases should be deleted and I will just ask a question - And what are they dying for in 2022?
Another interesting example of the reaction to the war and its horrors is the work of Gerhard Richter. His medium is painting, but it changed a lot from figurative to abstract.
Uncle Rudi, 1965 87 cm x 50 cm Catalogue Raisonné: 85, Oil on canvas [on line] At: https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art/paintings/photo-paintings/death-9/uncle-rudi-5595/?p=1 (Accessed 23.06.2022)
One of his most critical works is Uncle Rudi. To portray a Nazi in uniform is unthinkable by moral standards. Therefore, more often critics and viewers doubt the correctness of the existence of such a painting. But there are also those that help to look at it from the other side, to find a different approach in the analysis.
“Richter, it turns out, was experimenting with ways of keeping his distance from representations. Many of his critics were not. They failed to see what was before them. Their insistence on the political and moral facts of the case blinded them.” (Rabinow, 2017 p.113) Here I can explain what Rabinow meant by using the words of directors explaining what a good film is. Our life is multifaceted and there are no only good or only bad. Each of us has both. When there is a hero and he does only good deeds and thinks right - this is not real life, this is a bad movie or kitsch. So Richter also creates art - he does not hide the mistakes of a person, but he demonstrates it and trying to understand calling him "uncle". At the same time, there is no colour, no clarity - these are all doubts, the distance to another reality. The artist gives us a chance to rethink and not to repeat.
War, Gerhard Richter 1981. 200 cm x 320 cm Catalogue Raisonné: 484 Oil on canvas [on line] At: https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art/paintings/abstracts/abstracts-19801984-29/war-6336?&categoryid=29&referer=search-art&title=war&p=1&sp=32&tab=exhibitions-tabs (Accessed 23.06.2022)
In contrast to figurative, the abstract
works of the artist and in particular Krieg are interesting. Most likely, the work was created as a reflection on the events happening in the world, this is the war in Iran that started in 1980. In my opinion, war cannot be yellow. This is my first reaction. It can be either red or black, grey, maybe even dark green but not yellow. Not from an associative, not from a senaesthetic point of view, I did not see such a colour in the last two months of the war. Therefore, this work surprised me so much when I saw it in Cologne in the Ludwig Museum this April. The approach to this painting starts on an emotional level, and not when reading painted silhouettes of people or recognizable objects. Due to the dynamics and sharp lines, an image is formed. What does this composition tell us? War is a burning, tearing mass? This is how you also can read this work.
Radically different ways of creating an image are examples of the work of Marina Abramović.
In the performance Balkan Baroque 1997 the artist washes the bones of cows with a brush for 4 days and 6 hours at the Venice Biennale in 1997. Behind her are three video projectors, with a recording of her parents and herself. “According to the artist, "you cannot wash your hands of blood, just as you cannot wash away the shame of the war.” The horrors of war: 9 masterpieces of world art that cannot be forgotten. THE ART NEWSPAPER RUSSIA 25.02.2022 [on line] At: https://www.theartnewspaper.ru/posts/20220225-jlax/ (Accessed 23.06.2022)
Balkan Baroque, Marina Abramovic, 1997 [on line] At: https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/marina-abramovic/artworks/balkan-baroque-i?image_id=882 (Accessed 22.06.2022)
The purpose of the performance is an emotional experience - it's like in the theatre but better. These are not fictional stories, but living in the moment. Artists say that this is the value of performance, that you do not know the final result, as an experiment goes in the present tense. Here the medium of the artist is the experience of the viewer. Abramović was creating an image in the present. The stench that stood in the room from the bones, it seems to me, was comparable to the stench of death. This is exactly the effect that Marina sought to explain what the war brought to her country.
But something different is happening to my nation. With all these examples of art above, as if everyone is against the war BUT they find the reasons for the attack on Ukraine.
Citizens of Russia think that NATO is attacking them, Europe is trying to poison them with a virus, they think that Russian culture is being cancelled in the western world, and the brutality and theft committed by Russians in Ukraine are all fakes - "Russians can't do that." And in general, Europe will soon be bent, and holy Russia will survive.
Den Namenlosen 1914, Tempera auf Leinwand, 245 × 476 cm. Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Wien [on line] At: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den_Namenlosen_1914#/media/Datei:HGM_Albin_Egger-Lienz,_Den_Namenlosen_(1916),_Heeresgeschichtliches_Museum,_Wien_0594-Bearbeitet.jpg (Accessed 22.06.2022)
Can art help answer this question – why do some Russians support Putin and his war? What happened with people?
Here it is impossible only to directly depict the consequences of the horror of war. I think there are needed the analytics of the previous events. Like in the film of Ella Bergmann-Michel where she depicted normal people who were voting for the Hitler party. Video has become a medium for the artist. Its duration and silence conveyed the hopeless mood of the grey mass (black and white video).
LETZTE WAHL (WAHLKAMPF 1932) FINAL VOTE (ELECTION CAMPAIGN 1932) Ella Bergmann-Michel, 1932/33, 16mm film, 13:00 min, DFF-Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT, Frankfurt am Main [Painting] (Exhibition visit on 18.05.2022)
It turns out that in order to move something off the ground in the understanding of Russians, it is not enough to show the horrors of war.
Bibliography and references
1. The Art World, March 21, 2022 Issue, Art in a Time of War By Peter Schjeldahl At: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/21/art-in-a-time-of-war (Accessed 22.06.2020)
2. Paul Rabinow, Unconsolable Contemporary. Observing Gerhard Richter (2017) Duke University Press Durham and London
3. The cleaner, Marina Abramovic, 2017 Hatje Cantz Verlag GmbH, Berlin
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