ERNST NEIZVESTNY
261
EN:
Subjectively, Khrushchev helped to ease restrictions. But, accord–
ing to the social laws of the USSR, my meeting with him was the
moment of recognition of the existence of nonconformist art. Then
nonconformist art became a social fact and thus acquired real
features. Since I was the person who could argue with Khrushchev,
they talked to me.
RS:
To whom do you owe a scul ptural debt?
EN:
I'm ashamed to answer this question because my development
occurred when I was studying at the Surikov Institute. We didn't
even know about Picasso. The last sculptor whom we knew was
Rodin. I studied from 1946-1954, but at the same time I studied
various forms of esoteric and modern philosophy. In principle, I'm
very fond of classical art, the art of the Greeks and Romans. I was
surprised to discover that much of what I assumed to be original in
the arts had already been done. When John Berger wrote that article
about me and compared my work to Brancusi, Zadkine, Epstein, and
Henry Moore, I didn't know their work.
RS:
When did you become acquainted with the sculptors you've
mentioned?
EN:
Approximately eight years ago [1968]. Before that I saw some
pictures, of course, but not many and not often.
RS:
Has the work of other artists in other media-poetry, fiction,
film-had an influence on your work?
EN:
I've already mentioned that I was under the powerful influence of
the metaphysical and philosophical Russian schools as well as the
Russian avant-garde. And possibly, indirectly, I've been under the
influence of Social Realism. I do not reject it because my conception
of art is universal. I believe that great art can contain an element of
banality because banality is life.
RS:
Russia takes art seriously enough
to
threaten or jail those whose
work it finds sufficiently threatening or offensive. Will your work
have the same force in the West as it had in Russia? Does the
possibility of a lessening of intensity worry you?
EN:
In reality, that tension, which existed in Russia and which possibly
stimulated my work, right now has been removed. But the KG.B.
was never my muse. My muse was my internal state. It continues.
Will this have an effect on the Western viewer? I don't know.
If
the
Western viewer perceives art only as a hedonistic object, then the
West will be inimical to me. But I'm not going to change. I know
that here this isn't heaven, not paradise, and that the general human
problem which concerns me is not limited to geographical areas,
