Socialist realism
“Yes, I remember that at the exhibition in Moscow, around the end of August 1957, I visited all the Soviet Socialist Republics pavilions. I was interviewed, live, and I was asked my opinion about that exhibition. It was a huge exhibition and I visited it for several days. At that time I had a very bad impression. More in particular, I found that the socialist issues were not sufficiently expressed to create the Socialist Realism language. I found that they were mostly theses, claims, and that contents had not taken over images. I found a panorama that was not rich enough to me. I could express and say all these thoughts live, during the interview, since I could speak directly in Italian, so that they realized it only later when they had it translated. The Director-General of all the pavilions of the Republics asked me my impression. And I simply expressed a negative opinion. That is to say, I'm your host, I said, but this is my impression: there is no richness here, I cannot find that spark, that revolutionary character that can instead be found in the excitement of renewal of socialism. I cannot find it in the superstructure of language and then of image. I think he was taken aback by this statement of mine and he told me that other illustrious men of Italy, who had preceded me, had instead claimed that there was art, great figurative culture. Then he added, isn’t there anything that you like here? I said, yes there is one picture. He said, take me in front of this painting. And so we walked before a lone painting that was placed under a large monumental staircase. It was hidden. This is the picture I like. Why do you like it? he asked. I replied, because, you see, the icon of the Russian tradition has two dimensions, height and width of the picture. Whereas depth is an abstract illusion. In this picture you can find the icon language and you can also realize some cubist influence in it as well. Hence, there is no rhetoric, since this is a still life. And according to my opinion, this picture is an important and valuable one.”
( From Interview With Aldo Borgonzoni - RADIO BARBAGIA - NUORO, late ‘70s of the twentieth century, Courtesy Archives and Research Centre Aldo Borgonzoni )