Censorship banned Yanke Kupala portrait

• 29.11.2007, 8:43

A portrait of Belarusian poet Yanka Kupala painted by Minsk artist Andrei Smalyak was excluded from the exhibition dedicated to the 125th anniversary of Kupala and Kolas which opened in Minsk Palace of Arts on November 26.

- It’s simply ridiculous! They say order of Lenin at Kupala’s chest is painted not distinctly, some symbols behind his back (there is a huge state emblem there, which in fact is pressing Kupala), which is a hint to the authoritarian system… They say that he does not look like Kupala. But who knows how Kupala looked like in his last hours before the death? The work is called “June heat of 1942” and is dedicated to the last year in the poet’s life. I think that heads in the Union of Artists are simply afraid that somebody may find such Kupala objectionable. What for? It’s an exhibition for the 125th anniversary. And there is election time in the Union of Artists right now,” Smalyak told in an interview to “KP in Belarus”.

But the most hurtful fact for the artist is that the painting has been made with all of his heart, despite of the fact that Smalyak is considered to be the most commercially successful painter, and this work has been made not for money.

- I saw Kupala in a dream. It was a strange dream: he himself asked me to paint him, as there haven’t been any veracious portraits so far. I started work by the easel in the morning and in the evening a sketch was ready. The idea of the portrait was ready. In a few months it was a finished painting, psychologically true and tragic one.