ロシア人愛国画家が描くウクライナ侵攻　モスクワで絵画展

【モスクワＡＦＰ＝時事】２０２３年のウクライナ。廃虚と化した街を背に、カラシニコフ銃を持つロシア兵。先頭でロシア国旗を掲げる女性の防弾ベストには、ロシア軍がウクライナ侵攻のシンボルとする「Ｚ」の文字が見える。ロシア・モスクワ中心部で開幕した「われらはロシア人、神はわれらと共に」と題する絵画展の出品作の一つだ。（写真はロシアの首都モスクワで愛国画家ワシリー・ネステレンコ氏の展覧会を訪れた士官学校生）
　帝政ロシア時代や旧ソ連時代の伝統的なリアリズムを思わせる作風だが、絵柄はウクライナ侵攻での戦意高揚を狙っている。そばでは口ひげを生やした男性が、制服姿の士官学校の生徒たちに「われわれの最終的勝利を描いた絵の近くへ」と声を掛けている。
　その傍らで写真撮影に応じていたのが、作者のワシリー・ネステレンコ氏（５６）だ。１９６７年、当時ソ連の構成国だったウクライナに生まれた同氏は愛国的なロシア人画家として知られ、ウラジーミル・プーチン大統領から数々の賞も贈られている。「軍人であることは、芸術家と同じように一生涯のことだ」と話す。
　宗教画で頭角を現したネステレンコ氏は２００４年以降、旧ソ連時代から続く称号である「人民芸術家」として、国の文化事業において主要な役割を担ってきた。
　「大砲が話し始めたら、黙らせることはできない」とＡＦＰに語った同氏は、ウクライナやシリアに出動したロシア軍のもとを訪れてきた。写実性を追求するためだという。
　廃虚や民間人の犠牲者を描くこともあるが、中心的なテーマは兵士同士の戦友意識だ。「史実に基づく私の戦争画は楽観的で、ゴヤの作品のような暗部は描かない」と語る。
　「あらゆる戦争に対して祖国は一致団結し、対処してきた。わが国には常に戦争があった。モンゴル、ポーランド、スウェーデン、フランスと、そしてドイツとは数回戦った」というネステレンコ氏。
　ロシア史を必然的な軍事的冒険の成功としてつづる今回の展覧会も、大統領府の見解に沿ったものとなっている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/06/16-17:19）

Ukraine, 2023. Russian soldiers pose with their Kalashnikovs faced with a ruined city.
In front of them, a young woman can be seen carrying Russia's flag and a bullet proof vest with the Z sign used by Russian troops in the offensive.
The scene is from a grand painting in a new exhibition in central Moscow called We are Russians, God is with us by patriotic artist Vasily Nesterenko.
The style of the paintings harks back to the realist tradition from Tsarist and Soviet times and the images are intended to promote support for Russia's campaign in Ukraine.
Stand there, near that painting which shows our victory will be final, a moustachioed man told students from a military academy, dressed in black uniforms, visiting on a school trip.
The 56-year-old artist Nesterenko, who has received numerous awards from Russian President Vladimir Putin, is standing nearby posing for photos.
Being in the military is for life, like being an artist, notes the painter.
The Manege exhibition hall near Moscow's Red Square is hosting the exhibition that includes paintings depicting Russia's military through the centuries.
With the difficulties in its Ukraine campaign mounting, the Kremlin is encouraging artwork that emphasises Russia's fighting spirit and the message that Moscow is fighting a defensive conflict against Kyiv and its allies.
At the same time, artists critical of Russia's actions face repression.
Several officials in leading state cultural institutions who have chosen to remain silent over Ukraine have lost their jobs in recent months.
The state now needs Russian artists to show loyalty, as Nesterenko has done.
- 'Always had war' -
Born in Ukraine in 1967, he first became well-known for his religious paintings.
He decorated part of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow and, more recently, a church dedicated to the Russian army inaugurated in 2020.
Since 2004, Nesterenko has enjoyed the title of people's artist -- a legacy of the Soviet era -- and has several important duties in the official cultural sphere.
When the cannons start to talk, you cannot keep quiet, Nesterenko told AFP, putting his own political engagement in the context of that of European painters during the 19th century.
For more realism, he has visited Russian forces in Ukraine and Syria.
Some of his works show ruins and civilian victims, while others are more focused on the camaraderie between soldiers.
The painting Letter to Russia's enemies shows soldiers in a jolly mood writing a letter -- a work very similar to historic Russian painter Ilya Repin's painting of Cossacks writing to the Ottoman Sultan.
My historical military paintings are well-meaning, optimistic, they do not show the blackness of the darkness like the works of Goya, Nesterenko said.
All wars have pushed our homeland to unite, focus and respond.... We have always had war. Whether it was against the Mongols, the Poles, the Swedes, the French and, several times, the Germans.
The show presents Russian history as a necessary succession of glorious military ventures -- in line with Kremlin thinking.
Nesterenko is a defender of classical European painting which he says is under threat -- an argument frequently made by Russian officials, who often talk about the decadence of Western culture.
I think there will soon be a time when it is only here that we will love your culture, your art and your religion, said Nesterenko, who continues to travel to museums in Europe on a regular basis.