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Ernst Neizvestny: The Artist as Philosopher
| Article
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10664 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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1 / 1986 |
2,359 Words |
| Author
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Albert L. Weeks
Albert Weeks is a professor of history at New York University,
a noted Kremlinologist, and a nationally published author. |
Sculptor, painter, engraver and philosopher, Ernst Neizvestny is regarded internationally as one of the finest artists to have left the Soviet Union in recent years. His works include the Lotus Flower monument-the tallest sculpture in the world--atop the Aswan dam in Egypt, a crucifix in the Vatican Museum, a bronze head of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as the headstone for the grave of former Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev.
In a recent interview for The World and I, Dr. Albert Weeks, a New York University professor, journalist, and scholar on Soviet affairs who speaks fluent Russian, conversed with Mr. Neizvestny at his Soho gallery in New York's Greenwich Village. While discussing his perspectives on art and society, the artist was asked about an experience with Nikita Khruschev that he was become famous for.
"You may be Premier," Soviet artist Ernst Neizvestny boldly remarked to Nikita Khrushchev in 1962, "but not here in front of my works of art [in the Manezh gallery near Moscow's Red Square]. "Here I am the premier, so we shall have a discussion on that equal basis."
"That really happened?" I inquired. "Ah, yes," Mr. Neizvestny answered, "all this happened at the Manezh twenty-five years ago. But frankly, Dr. Weeks, I'm sick and tired of this story. Khrushchev, after all, was a stupid, stolid Stalinite bureaucrat. As for Gorbachev? His Russian, and what he pronounces with it, are both abominable, too. But, of course, Gorbachev is loved in some western circles because…well, he looks a little different from the Brezhnevs and the Khrushchevs. But they're all the
... (1986 of 14802 Characters)
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