How much do Zurab Tsereteli's gifts cost to those who accept them: Scandalous glory of the master's monuments

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It is difficult to find a person in Russia who has not heard the name of the world famous artist, sculptor, graphic artist and designer, owner of many of the most prestigious awards and titles, president of the Russian Academy of Arts since 1997 - Zurab Tsereteli. However, despite such a flattering list of merits, Zurab Konstantinovich many times fell into the epicenters of various scandals directly related to his work.

The master of Russian monumental art has shown himself to a large extent in almost all areas of contemporary art - he owns paintings, frescoes, mosaics, bas-reliefs, sculptures, monuments and other works. The entire heritage is a total of about 5,000 works of art, each of which is original, distinctive and unrepeatable.

Scandals around Tsereteli's work

But the artist's special passion is monumental monuments, into which he invested all his talent, emotions and soul. However, in recent years, the sculptor has often encountered misunderstandings and mixed reactions from the general public and critics. Therefore, more than once he found himself in the epicenter of global scandals.

The gigantomania of Zurab Tsereteli has long become legendary, and the master himself often finds himself in anecdotal situations because of it. But, despite the harsh criticism, the master still believes that "size matters." It is this rule that the artist is often guided by when creating not only sculptures, but also paintings. So, over the past decades, a number of the most famous monuments created by Tsereteli have caused a storm of indignation among critics and customers, and among citizens - and not only in Russia.

Monument to Peter I

This monument is officially called "Monument dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Russian fleet." A loud scandal erupted around the monument to Peter I - even before its installation in 1996 on the Moscow River. Residents of the capital staged pickets and rallies, made requests to the President of the country. But they could not achieve their goal - the most grandiose monument was erected at the appointed time and in the established place.

For some time, passions were still boiling, protests were held, and the very history of the creation of this monument was overgrown with new rumors and rumors. It was rumored that initially, according to the project, instead of the Russian tsar, Columbus was supposed to stand on the deck. And since Tsereteli did not manage to push his creation either to Spain or to the countries of Latin America, the sculptor, having changed the image of the protagonist, safely identified his brainchild in Moscow.

A decade later, the long-suffering scandalous statue was included in the rating of the ugliest buildings. Ardent opponents sarcastically nicknamed the monument “Peter in a Skirt”. Later, a 98-meter sculpture weighing two thousand tons was unsuccessfully tried to donate to St. Petersburg. They even tried to blow up the huge structure, but the terrorist attack was prevented by a call from the anonymous author, and since then free access to Peter has been closed. And when the sum of the dismantling and relocation to another location was announced at one billion rubles, the ardent opponents quieted down altogether. By the way, this monument ranks eighth in the ranking of the tallest statues in the world.

Monument to the Gendarme

In Moscow, near the Cosmos Hotel, another "refusenik" was erected - the 10-meter monument "Monument to the Gendarme" ("Louis"). This statue was created in honor of the leader of the French Resistance Charles de Gaulle and was prepared as a presentation for the people of France, but the French authorities flatly refused the gift, after which the monument was erected in Russia.

After its opening, the French and Russian media smashed this creation to smithereens. So, the press wrote that. Many believed that the image of Charles de Gaulle was very much like Louis de Funes, a famous French comedian who played the main role in a series of films about gendarmes. Journalists even argued about whether the monument would cause an international scandal or be reduced to a diplomatic incident.

Tear of Sorrow

A bronze sculpture with a titanium drop in the middle - "Tear of Sorrow" was presented to the American people in 2006 in memory of the victims who died in the tragedy of September 11, 2001. However, the master's creation was not understood the way he thought. As conceived by the author, he symbolically depicted the dilapidated twin towers, between which a tear hung. But the Americans saw a completely different meaning in the monument. One American publication commented on the work of the Russian sculptor as follows:.

It was assumed that the composition of memory and grief would be installed at the scene of the tragedy, but after criticism in the press, the authorities decided not to provoke a scandal, and erected a monument in New Jersey on an abandoned pier of a former military base at the mouth of the Hudson River.

Tragedy of Nations

A multi-figured composition of 8-meter victims of the fascist genocide is resurrected from the graves and headed to Kutuzovsky Prospect - this is how a terrifying monument dedicated to the victims of Beslan looks like. The symbolic monument "Tragedy of Nations" at one time caused a considerable resonance among the public, although art critics positively assessed the statue, calling it the best work of Zurab Tsereteli. Muscovites, protesting and picketing the buildings of the mayor's office, were categorically against its erection. They called the marching "zombies" "coffins" and demanded to transfer this "horror" to hell. This time, the city authorities heard the voice of the people - the monument was dismantled and moved into the depths of the park on Poklonnaya Gora.

Monument to Pope John Paul II

This time, the cause of general indignation was the monument to Pope John Paul II, which they wanted to mount first in Paris and then in the small French town of Ploermel. Local residents held protests and even filed a lawsuit against the local administration, arguing that the opening of the monument does not comply with the law on the separation of church from state, according to which it is forbidden to install religious buildings in a public place and that such a step by the authorities contradicts freedom of conscience and freedom of religion

The monument was nevertheless opened, and the mayor of the city Paul Anselen during the ceremony called John Paul II "a historical giant of the 20th century" who made a huge contribution to the fall of the "Iron Curtain". By the way, the square where the monument to the pontiff was erected now bears the name of Tsereteli. However, opponents of the erection of the monument, promised to achieve the dismantling of the statue through the courts, and in case of failure to get rid of the "giant of the XX century" on their own. And more recently, they still achieved the transfer of the monument.

The sculptural statue of the Pope, made in bronze, with a total height of 7.5 meters (the height of the figure is 3.2 meters) was dismantled last summer and moved to a new place 30 meters from the previous site. It would seem that the difficult engineering operation to move the sculptural composition consisting of an arch with a cross and a figure of a pontiff with a total weight of 13 tons cost the Vannes diocese in the amount of 100 thousand euros. Whatever you say, the gifts of Zurab Tsereteli are really expensive.

Friends forever

This monument was erected to mark the 200th anniversary of Georgia's annexation to Russia. The monument, popularly nicknamed "shashlik", is a composition made up of Russian and Georgian letters that form the words "Peace", "Labor", "Unity", "Brotherhood". But after the conflict with Georgia in August 2008, the attitude towards the monument became completely ambiguous. By the way, this monument was paired. The second part of the "Ties of Friendship" was established in Tbilisi, but in 1991 the monument was blown up.

Monument to the participants of the Yalta conference in 1945

The composition is dedicated to the participants of the Yalta Conference of 1945 - Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, and was created for the 60th anniversary of the Victory. Tsereteli originally planned to install it in Yalta. However, the authorities, then still the Ukrainian Crimea, did not want to see a statue of Stalin on their land, even in the company of the presidents of America and England. A decade later, the bronze composition came to the court of the Russian authorities of Yalta. The chairman of the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, even came to the opening of the monument.

… And this is not the whole list of scandalous stories around the world-famous sculptor and his creations. So, between several cities and villages of Russia, a fierce struggle was waged for several years for the right not to place a monument on its territory, which in its dimensions would surpass the tallest monuments in the world. But more on that next time …

No less scandalous person in the modern history of fine arts is Ilya Sergeevich Glazunov, who became famous for his grandiose paintings. READ: Two sides of the same coin: little-known pages of the life and work of Ilya Glazunov.