mentalblog.com comments:
Dear Tzemach,
I agree that the choice of imagery and style is very significant.
On the other hand, it may just be that the artist who painted this picture had his mind damaged reproducing similar socialist realist works, and when asked to produce a picture, this was the only sort of thing he could come up with.
Equally tragic, really.
All the best,
Gandalin, this goes beyond artist imitating the style. Chabad finds this type of symbolism very appealing. It fits their theology perfectly and it is the cult of personality that was practiced during Rebbe lifetime and with extra zest after his passing.
Small people who run like sheep to meet the fate of Ikarus. And the mountain like leader who guides them.
I am sure the mural is a clever post-modern pastiche. Or maybe a tongue-in-cheek parody ala Komar & Melamid. ;)
Satire would be the only redeeming theory. This one is pretty cool:
http://www.fjc.ru/Media/Images/7.../
wwKm749272.jpg
inspired by this:
http://www.interkino.ru/i/closee...kind/
cetk08.jpg
If I were running a Chabad school in Russia (a big "if") and wanted to decorate it with murals of any kind (an even bigger "if"), the only fun choice would be to go for broke and hire the best socialist-realist muralist my oligarch-supplied money could buy. :)
[just btw, the murals in Dneprodzerzhinsk are not even close to the best examples of this funny art]
Komar and Melamid aside
http://www.komarandmelamid.org/
what is "the best socialist-realist muralist"?
There is a Russian artist by the name of Elena Flerova who is well known for her ability to depict light remarkably lichtig in her paintings. I am not sure about her personal status, but she painted Jewish themes quite well.
Nehsma, I looked at Flerova paintings
http://www.flerova.com/
Remarkable garbage, no garbage is a compliment for the ugly junk she produces.
First of all, Komar & Melamid - אין שני להם
http://www.komarandmelamid.org/c..._1983/
index.htm
However, there are many unknown, drunk and unwashed virtuoso social-realist painters starving all over the vast lands of the long-suffering Mother-Russia. Any of them would do an admirable job as well.
To add a little spice, one could even hire the very venerated and equally anti-Semitic white-Russian master Mikhail Savitsky (he made international news for his late '70s mural-style painting series about the Nazi atrocities, where the ONLY image of a Jew was a beautifully painted kapo!) I am sure he would be for hire today and gladly paint murals in a Jewish school.
Berl, we are not talking about this great tradition:
http://www.artrussia.ru/artists/...hp?id=353&
foa=f
Yes these realists are top of the world! The murals do not represent them. And yes if you order murals from these painters it is tops!
Look are this:
http://www.artrussia.ru/artists/...44&foa=f&
page=1
more here:
http://www.artrussia.ru/artists/...s/
artists_s.php
i will take this mural anytime:
http://www.artrussia.ru/artists/...=f&sort=&
page=2
dont see what the problem is, as long as whatever happens in russia stays in russia.
problerm is when it comes to these shores...
Why do you think flerova's work is garbage. She has a certain style that many like. BTW do you know she is not jewish.
Ok, I forced myself to look at Flerova’s hideous site. If you can get past that offensive ugliness and actually look at some of her paintings, you will see that in terms of sheer craft, she is on par with your links (better than some, not quite as good as others). We are not talking about Art here though.
1) Flevora's artwork: Her's is an older style. I have many lacquer boxes from the Soviet Union, purchased in the 70's that have a similar style. Her style used to be quite popular, but more in the 18th and 19th century.
2) The murals. Okay, so the mural you depicted has some of the same stylistic shorthand that artists used during the communist period. But you don't mention much of the other, nice murals there. For instance the depiction of the third temple descending, or the harvesting of a grape.
izzy, read my comments
these are all copies of pictures that an artist names Norman Nodel (I think he's passed away since) created for Tzivos Hashem, when they published a book about Moshiach for children -- the theme on both these picture were definitly culled from there.
named* picutres/murals sorry.
TA,
Is Moscow the city depicted in the watercolor? The large boat in the upper left looks like the Goodtime II tourist boat which plys Cleveland's Cuyahoga River every summer. The quai where the Young Pioneers are gathered reminds me of Quebec City's quai above the St Lawrence except for the light. I haven't walked there at high noon, only in the evening and early morning.
Where is this watercolor located? Do you know?
I am sure it is Quebec City, Mary :lol:
I'm glad you mentioned personality cult, R' Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and the Ikarus story in the same sentence. They've also been on my mind.
what do you mean Mary?
TA,
I mean that you had the courage to come out and say that the Rebbe has a personality cult. I have been thinking the same thing. I have also been thinking that this personality cult is turning the memory of the late Rebbe into a mental image. It isn't hard for me to imagine people hanging photographs of the Rebbe on the walls of their homes, thus turning his picture into an iconic image. To my mind this is getting dangerously close to turning the
collective memory of the Rebbe into an idol. To me it appears that most of Chabad are metaphorically flying terribly close to the sun, that is they are fast approaching the point where they will no longer be Jews or, at least, Judaism will no longer be their religion. I hope this makes sense to you.
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