May 4: the birthday of Mikhail Shemyakin, the artist who was expelled from the USSR but not broken
Mikhail Shemyakin was born on May 4, 1943, in Moscow, to a military father and an actress. He became one of the key figures of the Russian avant-garde of the second half of the 20th century, despite psychiatric hospitals, house searches, exile, and the cage of the Soviet system. He is 83 years old today.
Childhood in Dresden and Leningrad
Shemyakin spent almost his entire childhood in Dresden, where his father served after the war. In 1957, the family moved to Leningrad and settled into a communal apartment—one of 38 rooms. That same year, Shemyakin was enrolled in the art school at the Institute of Painting. He didn't complete his studies: he was expelled after being denounced for "aesthetically corrupting his fellow students" by reading excerpts from banned books on Western art.
Hermitage, KGB, psychiatry
He took on any job he could: laborer, postman, security guard, and rigger at the Hermitage. At night, he copied old masters. After being denounced by his neighbors in the communal apartment, he was summoned to the KGB for a talk. A conversation about God and the devil ended with forced treatment in a psychiatric clinic. Six months of injections and pills nearly left him disabled.
I was never a dissident. We were dissidents, and dissent was a crime back then.
Underground and emigration
After the new exhibitions, he endured several searches: reproductions of religious paintings and banned books were confiscated, and he was threatened with expulsion for parasitism. In 1967, he founded the "Petersburg" art group and, together with the philosopher Vladimir Ivanov, began exploring new forms of icon painting based on the religious art of all eras and peoples. He spent two years as a novice in a monastery.
In 1971, the authorities wanted to arrest him for treason, but an investigator advised the leadership to simply let the artist leave the country. Shemyakin left with his wife and daughter.
When I was expelled from the USSR to France, my gallery owner gave me a small castle. But it came with a 10-year contract—what I could and couldn't paint. I said I wouldn't trade a simple cage for a golden one and returned the keys to her.
Paris, New York, the whole world
He lived in Paris, then New York. He painted, sculpted, and published the almanac "Apollo," introducing the Russian avant-garde to the West. He earned five doctorates and founded the Institute of Philosophy and Art.
Chemiakin's sculptures have been installed throughout the world. Since 1989, his exhibitions have also been held in the Soviet Union. In 2002, the Mikhail Chemiakin Center opened in St. Petersburg, where exhibitions and lectures continue to be held. His most famous work in Russia is the monument to Peter the Great on the grounds of the Peter and Paul Fortress. He also created a monument to the victims of political repression in St. Petersburg and a monument to the victims of the terrorist attack in Beslan. In 2001, he staged the ballet "The Nutcracker" for the Mariinsky Theatre.
Crimea, war, "psychic Ebola"
In 2014, he supported the annexation of Crimea, but expressed concern about anti-Western sentiments in Russian society and called Kremlin philosopher Alexander Dugin mentally ill.
Calls to break with Europe are becoming more and more common. Who should I break with? Who should Russians break with? With Émile Zola? With Maupassant? What nonsense is this? It has swept over Russia today like some kind of "psychic Ebola" epidemic in the brain of post-Soviet people, spreading with terrifying force.
Speaking about the "SVO," he expressed sadness over what was happening and cautiously criticized the actions leading to suffering. He condemned the destruction of monuments to Russian writers in Ukraine.
I don't feel any collective guilt within myself; I have enough other shames to feel about myself. I'm just sad that Russians will continue to be treated so poorly for a long time to come.
For the past 27 years, Mikhail Shemyakin has lived in France, in his own 18th-century castle near Paris.
