Moscow Sculptures Smashed By Orthodox Activists As ’Blasphemous’
▻http://www.rferl.org/content/moscow-sculptures-smashed-orthodox-activists-blasphemous/27190081.html
Sculptures by a renowned Soviet artist on show in central Moscow were smashed after being denounced by Orthodox activists as “blasphemous.”
“Delusional people came to the exhibition who broke several works belonging to the Manege collection, by #Vadim_Sidur,” said Yelena Karneyeva, a spokeswoman for the Manege art center, by the Kremlin walls.
“Several sculptures are completely smashed,” she said on August 14, adding that police had come and led away the activists. The works were made of plaster and linoleum.
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The exhibition — called Sculptures That We Don’t See — showed works by Soviet sculptors that did not see the light of day during the Soviet period because they were nonconformist.
The show, which opened to the public on August 14, included some works with religious themes, including a crucifixion bas-relief.
Sidur was an avant-garde artist unable to show his nonconformist works publicly in the Soviet era. He died in 1986. A museum in Moscow is now dedicated to his work, and his art has been sold at international auction houses such as Sotheby’s.