Russia Scuttles Export Of Art Images of Putin

[David Powelstock]

FYI, from today's NY Times. You can view an image of one of the works at Reuters: http://tinyurl.com/2een85.

Arts, Briefly 
Compiled by LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
May 23, 2007



Russian Customs has barred the export of six works of art — including two that mock President Vladimir P. Putin — for an exhibition at a gallery in Dresden, Germany, where he served as a K.G.B. officer in the 1980s, Reuters reported. The Städtische Galerie in Dresden said a letter from the shipping company ExpART explained that the ban had been issued because the art was considered to have the potential to cause international discord. The works were intended for “Learning From Moscow,” a show of about 40 works by contemporary Moscow artists that is to open tomorrow. One, by Konstantin Latyshev, superimposes Putin’s face on an image of the poet Alexander Pushkin, a Russian national hero. Below it appears a nickname used derisively by some of Mr. Putin’s critics. Another work, “The Candle of Our Life,” by the Blue Noses Group and executed in a style reminiscent of Russian religious icons, shows Jesus with a bared chest and a beer belly; Pushkin, in a red T-shirt, lights Jesus’ candle from one side, while Mr. Putin leans in from the other. Other banned art depicts Osama bin Laden <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/osama_bin_laden/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , Hitler <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/adolf_hitler/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , the Pope and Muslim minarets and women’s veils.



David Powelstock 
Asst. Prof. of Russian & East European Literatures 
Chair, Program in Russian & East European Studies 
Brandeis University 
GRALL, MS 024 
Waltham, MA  02454-9110 
781.736.3347 (Office) 



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