Exhibitions
Ukrainian Art 1956-1989 (Liberty, till 24 December)
Shifting focus
Giles Auty
In the past two years the focus of Western attention has shifted steadily to the East. Today the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland and Hungary are no longer countries studied closely only by military, diplomatic or economic special- ists. Non-specialists, too, have become relatively free now to wander amid those once beautiful and sophisticated Eastern- bloc cities where to be able to buy a bar of soap or a toothbrush today would be regarded as a miracle. To impose an ideological regime while simultaneously beggaring the economy is an odious combination of oppression and futility.
But do we have any right ourselves to
thoughtless complacency? Unblocking an ohtfireplace in my house three years ago, I was delighted to find an intact kitchen range together with kindling and a large box of newspapers dating from 1929. One of these wis the Daily Mirror which, to my great interest, found space for a long and well-written review of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. A rather sooty Daily Mail did likewise. Neither paper carries regular visual arts coverage today. In the meantime, the existence of the Sun and the fact that umpteen million Britons peruse it daily seriously diminishes one's national optimism and pride. In looking at the obvious ills of other nations we would be wrong to ignore our own descent into growing yobbism. This said, the lot of those who have tried to live cultured, intellectual existences under a variety of Stalinist regimes strains the depths of our imaginations. Simple concentration on sur- vival does nothing for artistic or intellec- tual growth. I am aware of the rage and pain which inform a great deal of the new Soviet painting but one must not see strong sentiments, on their own, as any guarantee of artistic significance. Herein lies the tragedy of so much recent Soviet art. Those who have retained ties with estab- lished Soviet institutions, such as their Union of Artists, are viewed with suspicion now by their more uncompromising fel- lows. The academies are looked on also as tainted. Yet Soviet students who reject such institutions outright forfeit their chance of formal training. To be a power- ful voice in art requires more than being simply sad or angry.
The present exhibition of contemporary painters from Leningrad at Gillian Jason (40 Inverness Street, NW1) represents the first foray of that enterprising gallery into Russian art. Much of the work is from `unofficial' artists, many of whom use their talents to make symbolic criticisms of Soviet life. No doubt such criticisms are justified even if the heavyhandedness of the symbolism seems somewhat less so. The more telling images are those in which the message is less relentless and more oblique: Natalia Mokina's 'Bus Stop' is a haunting idea, spoiled only by the slickly. modern quality of some of the paint. If her paint had any of the quality found in pre-Revolutionary Russian artists such as Repin this would be a far more telling work. The same criticism applies also to the work of Mokina's husband Pakhomkin and some of the other artists in the show. Like so many other contemporary Russian painters they seem to have latched on only to the more unattractive aspects of West- ern practice.
In view of this it was a particular surprise and pleasure to see the work of the printmaker Romanishin showing in a selec- tion of recent Ukrainian art at Liberty's art gallery in Regent Street. Romanishin draws on various sources, including icons, to create an art of real beauty as well as subversive meaning. Gordiets's 'Reflec- tion', wherein a river reflects a church which is absent, however, from the unre- flected landscape, is likewise a far more effective statement for its subtlety and absence of over-emphasis.
Russian Paintings from the Imperial Age at M. Ekstein & I.J. Mazure (90 Jermyn Street, SW1) provides a rare and welcome reminder of pre-Revolutionary Russian art. Kordvin's 'Country Dacha', painted in 1913, shows a peaceful rural scene made all the more poignant by the events which were to follow shortly.
In conclusion, any who find themselves near Glasgow before 2 December should try to take in New Beginnings, that city's symposium of the Soviet arts which have emerged since perestroika. Meanwhile in London a massive forthcoming programme of Soviet art includes Rodchenko at the Serpentine Gallery from 12 December, Russian Impressionists at Century Gallery (100 Fulham Road, SW3) from 5 Decem- ber, a big auction of 20th-century Russian art at Phillips (101 New Bond Street, W1) on 27 November, a show of Soviet works on paper at Merz Contemporary Art (62 Kenway Road, SW5) and Roy Miles's most extensive collection yet – over 200 oil paintings — at his palatial new headquar- ters at 29 Bruton Street, W1 from 6 December. I have seen a number of the new works Mr Miles has brought back from his sojourns in the Soviet Union already. Many are remarkable.
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