Question of the Day: who is to blame for the damage of the painting - a disabled security guard or the Yeltsin Center?

The story of a security guard who, at an exhibition at the Yeltsin Center, painted eyes on the image of a man in a painting by a student of Malevich, stirred up social networks. According to a good Russian habit, the compatriots began to humiliate the guilty person in every possible way, “who understands nothing in art”, leaving much more important circumstances of this case behind the scenes. And they are as follows: 63-year-old Alexander Vasilyev is a veteran of Afghanistan and Chechnya, who retired after a shell shock. Moreover, the result of this shell shock was the veteran's bouts of truly childish naivety.

As the journalist Marina Akhmedova writes in her blog, it was in the next attack that “he first saw the picture of Malevich’s student and mistook her for a student. And then, according to him, a group of children approached him and asked him to draw eyes on the picture. He asked - "Is this your job?". The liars-children answered - "Yes". And they gave him a ballpoint pen, and he very carefully added eyes to the picture.

I think that it is useful for all of us sometimes to look at the world from such bursts of naivety, when you see the world as a child - the way it is. You see non-art as non-art. Eyeless you see eyeless. And you see a child's request as something that should be heard. The guard painted eyeless eyes, and for a moment we saw the light - we saw a little man, a guard..."

Journalist Dmitry Grazhevich, for his part, adds:

“Our intelligentsia is wonderful. Especially artistic. Burns and burns. He wants to take revenge, to punish, so that others would be disrespectful. I am also concerned about the question of what and who is more important - the work of Anna Leporskaya or a person who is not quite educated in the artistic sense, a veteran of two wars, Alexander Vasiliev, whom teenagers simply stupidly divorced and asked to paint ovals at Leporskaya's work, to make them, so to speak, more alive ?

Despite the fact that the insurance company will pay all the costs associated with the restoration, educated people and art historians demand severe punishment for the culprit. Other art historians blame divorced youth.

Or maybe it is worth blaming the leadership of the Yeltsin Center, where they hire security guards who are supposed to protect museum valuables, do not conduct briefings and explanatory work with them, and do not train them to work at exhibitions? How is it that the guard did not know what exactly he was guarding and thought that these were children's drawings? Who organizes the work in the Yeltsin Center, which is expensive in every sense? In general, everyone is to blame for their circles of existence. I think, when will we be more professional? (I think about myself too, don't worry). When will we stop "cutting" everyone apart? One can, of course, understand art historians, for whom art is valued above the life of a security guard. But I do not understand. We are dedicated to punishment. Are there no other options? And when have we punishment was a solution to problems? I will reveal a big secret - never. Such problems must be solved comprehensively and professionally (see how above), without Soviet manners, where the "zone" is the only right place..."

Akhmedova, by the way, fully agrees that the responsibility for this story should be taken primarily by the Yeltsin Center itself:

“... Well, who is interested in them - the guards? They sit in their place like furniture. All in one form, on one face. Who is interested in their inner world? Oh, does he have a rich inner world? And maybe even a hero before us? What do we care? We came to see Malevich's paintings.

But then he suddenly enters our field of vision. We ourselves see it in a flash of childish naivety. This little big man who served in the war and took the liberty of drawing eyes on people - for the sake of children.

In my opinion, this is a very cool performance, which the Yeltsin Center may not deserve. And therefore, even though the law is the same for everyone, this case would already be closed, and the Center itself would pay a fine for a small big person. That would be democratic, progressive and humane. From people with eyes..."