summ( )n

When in St.Petersburg I managed to go to the Russian Museum where (in its so called Marble Palace building, on the Neva River bank) was a very interesting exposition on display, of the Russian artist group called New Painters (Новые Художники). The group emerged in St.Petersburg in the beginning of 1980s, and back then was completely outside of any official art life (and I guess social life in general). It was not overly anti-Soviet or dissident, but somewhat a-Soviet, and existed in a kind of parallel world to the existing reality. The artist composing the group (a very fuzzy agglomeration at any given moment anyway) were living and doing their creative work in such a way that it was not even comprehendible by the most at that time – the degree of human individuality and independence, freedom to express yourself and not subordinate to the dominant rules and roles. All these things are more or less taken for granted now (even in Russia), so in some sense their works (and lives) represented a portal into the future, a through-the-looking-glass device that allowed them to sneak preview the coming things.

A really interesting phenomena, that works for any true art, I guess (and may also work as a back valuation criteria of ‘how true’ this art was at the moment of its creation.