‘I’m Tired Of Him. There’s No Repin To Deal With Him’

• 14.09.2017, 16:20

Listen to the people talking.

Listen to the people talking if you want to understand the society’s moods and expectations, civil activist Liudmila Mirzayanava wrote for the website ucpb.org.

Out of the overheard by chance.

— I’m tired of him. He can’t be pulled out even with pincers.

— Tell me about it! 23 years with no break! There’s no Repin to deal with him.

— What Repin?

— The artist! Do you know the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga”?

— Sure!

— He is the author of this painting. His contemporaries used to say that whenever Repin drew somebody’s portrait, the model would die at once.

— Unbelievable! (Both laugh.)

— Still, it’s a fact. He drew composer Musorgskiy and he died soon. He then made up his mind to draw a portrait of poet Tiutchev. And he also died. He hardly managed to finish the work on the portrait on Prime Minister Stolypin, when he was shot dead in Kyiv.

— He’s some prophet, not artist.