Realism in the Raw

Under the doctrinaire rules of Soviet social realism, a painter with a hankering for nudes had to hie himself to the nearest gym, coyly disguise his subject as a bather or a physical-culture enthusiast. Last week a young Soviet art student named Ilya Glazunov finally dared break the rule, showed a nude girl (modeled by his wife) lolling in bed while her lover gazes out of the window over the city of Leningrad. The result sent the whole Soviet art world into a tizzy and crowds swarming to the Moscow gallery to see his work. At the gallery Glazunov has already collected three volumes of scribbled comment (ranging from "Lecher!" to "Hurrah for Glazunov!"). Trend to date: two-to-one in favor of Glazunov.

Taking note of the hubbub, Moscow's Literary Gazette also came out boldly in favor of nudes, preferably female. "Hypocrites and doctrinaires and art administrators have tried with enviable success to drive this undying motif, which inspired so many great realists, from the sphere of painting in Socialist realism as 'immoral.' Glazunov cannot but be praised for the boldness with which he broke this stupid taboo and brought back to art an earthy delight and poetry of feeling." As a followup, Moscow Radio's English broadcast quoted Critic Anatoly Chlemov deploring the view that "just about the only subject [is] the portrayal and glorification of Stalin," and hailing the fact that "the beauty of the nude body, especially the feminine, that eternal theme of realistic art, has again found its place in the painting of social realism."

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