Art, religion and ideology by Vas Paris

Growing up in Russia I was very sensitive to the restrictions that were imposed by the government ideologist on art and every other form of public expression. There was an official policy on form of expression (socialist realism), not portraying negative sides of existence (temporary and self correcting errors which seemed to last forever) etc. The church was viewed only as an alternative to the freedom of expression as an official policy was to exclude it from public life. After living in the USA for many years I can see that including religious organization into public life and giving them subsidies in form of the tax breaks can lead to other forms of ideological restrictions.


To my great disappointment public life in the USA turned out to be carbon copy of Communism. The names and terms change but the limits remain. Sure that artist is not restricted to the freedom of expression. And church is included in the public life. And faith became so dominant that no other force can be an alternative to its power. The artist ability to be seen is not restricted by the government but by public disinterest.

In modern Russia friendship of government and church turned into a different form of harassment. Before fall of the communism one could make fun of religion in any form. Now, one can NOT do it in any form without a fear.

In the USA the forms of restrictions are more sophisticated. The religious organizations for example exercise a great control over public mind to what is good or what is permissible. They exercise a great control over member’s free time. They direct and orchestrate freedom of thinking and other norms. When a person spend over 10 hours per week on church activities and preparation there is little time left on anything else.

Even if one would exclude vulgar forms of expression from this observation it is not difficult to see that poetry, visual arts and theaters are hardly available and neatly absent from public life in the USA. With exception of few large cities an American public is presented only with an elementary choice of church activities, sports and music. The fact that one has 100 or 300 channels makes little difference. Freedom of choice is replaced by the freedom of multiple choices. And so is a freedom of opinion.  It is replaced by the opinion of the last night TV talk show host (Liberal or Conservative).  Hype and fera are two main tools of opinion making in the USA.

Why it is important for the artist? First of all this situation explains an American love of Antiques and folk art. Secondly, it gives one an idea of what can be used as a decoration in the household of self-censored, politically correct and church going folks (I call it an American living room test). Thirdly, it explains why at the time of social revolutions art grows in forms and expands in ideas.  At that time politically correctness, obedience to social norms  and self imposed censorship loose ground.

That is why Chinese art is very interesting today. That is why American art was interesting in 1960th. That is why the center of contemporary art moved to Britain now.