“Holiday” (1962–1965) by Alexey Glebovich Smirnov (von Rauch) reimagines Christian iconography through the experimental lens of the Soviet second avant-garde. Painted during the Khrushchev Thaw—a brief window of cultural openness—it reflects the tension between private belief and state-imposed atheism. Religious imagery is stripped of its original meaning and forced into a new, modernist language.
The composition splits into two halves. On the left, three figures present a fish and a golden chalice—symbols drawn from Christian ritual. Their flattened forms and rigid, frontal poses echo Byzantine and Orthodox traditions, but the stylised limbs and mask-like faces bear the mark of German Expressionism. Familiar symbols are pushed into new shapes—still recognisable, but drained of serenity.
On the right, two women cradle a child in a reference to the Madonna and Child. But here too, the scene is unsettled. The bodies are heavy and distorted, their faces stretched, their crowns twisting into thorny branches tipped with white blossoms.
Smirnov’s palette intensifies this dissonance. Iconic reds, purples, and blues are laid down in flat planes bordered by bold outlines. Space collapses into angular, shallow zones. The composition feels rigid, but the brushwork pulses with rhythm.
The painting reflects how anything outside the state’s ideological framework—faith, creativity, private thought—was forced to adapt or distort to survive. Officially suppressed but never fully erased, these impulses resurfaced in coded, fractured forms. Smirnov’s figures preserve the shell of tradition, but drained of certainty. What remains is neither affirmation nor rejection—it’s what’s left when expression is pushed to the edges.
Alexey Glebovich Smirnov (1937–2009) studied at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute and developed a style grounded in classical training but shaped by modernist experimentation. He exhibited in both official and underground shows, with appearances in Moscow, Florence, Zurich, and Barcelona. His works are held in the Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Pushkin Museum, and the Ludwig Museum in Cologne.
