“Any intelligent man will tell you about the photograph’s
shortcomings in comparison to the painted portrait’ everyone will tell you
about the character of the Mona Lisa, and everyone forgets that portraits were
painted when there was no photography and that they were painted not of all the
intelligent people but of the rich and powerful. Even men of science were not
painted.
You need not wait around, intelligentsia; even now AKhRR
artists will not paint you. True- they cant even depict the sum total, let
alone .001 of a moment.
Now compare eternity in science and technology. In olden
times a savant would discover a truth, and this truth would remain law for
about twenty years. And this was learned and learned as something indisputable and
immutable.
Encyclopedias were compiled that supplied whole generations
with their eternal truths.
Does anything of the kind exist now?... No.
Now people do not live by encyclopedias but by newspapers, magazines,
card catalogues, prospectuses, and directionaries.
Modern science and technology are not searching for truths,
but are opening up new areas of work and with every day change what has been
attained.”
“It should be stated firmly that with the appearance of
photographs, there can be no question of a single, immutable portrait. Moreover,
a man is not just one sum total; he is many, and sometimes they are quite opposed.”
“Art has no place in modern life. it will continue to exist
as long as there is a mania for the romantic and as long as there are people who
love lies and deception.
Every modern cultured man must wage war against art, as
against opium.
Photograph and be photographed!”
Not sure if I agree with that last part but…
“Crystallize man not by a single ‘synthetic’ portrait, but
by a whole lot of snapshots taken at different times and in different
conditions.” (Nowadays, one may say selfies :))
“Paint the truth.”
“Value all that is real and contemporary.
And we will be real people, not actors.”
--
Publishing Information:
Russian Art of the Avant Garde Theory and Criticism Revised and Enlarged Edition edited by John E. Bowlt
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