Primakov Memorial

2019
Georgy Frangulyan with architect Andrey Frangulyan
Bronze
Primakov figure 4 m (13 ft.)
Smolenskaya-Sennaya Square, Moscow

Smolenskaya Square, a landmark near the center of Moscow at the intersection of Arbat Street and Smolenskaya Street, was one such expansive and commanding site. Smolenskaya Square itself has become a metonym for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which resides there. Stylistically, the architecture of the ministry is known by many names: Russian Baroque, Stalinist Gothic, Stalinist Empire, Soviet monumental classicism, and classist monumentalism. Neoclassicism may be the best name for the genre, “with its columns and capitals, cornices and pediments, [which] was to serve as a proclamatory style, the ideal means for the image projection of triumphant communism.”

Frangulyan’s monument to Yevgeny Primakov is a four-minute walk, directly opposite the ministry. It is a sculpture-architect ensemble devised by the artist that anchors the square. It is replete with biographical and political suggestion and symbolism. It becomes more significant politically knowing that Primakov is the only post-communist premier who has been memorialized publicly in Moscow.

Primakov’s figure is cast bronze and naturalistically depicts a somewhat disheveled version of the statesman. It stands atop a pedestal, nearly riven, which represents Primakov’s life in both the Soviet and post-Soviet eras.  His double chin rests on his shirt collar; his trousers drag on his shoes, and he is holding his heavy eyeglass frames. His face appears open, but it appears that he is squinting, if not even glowering in consternation. As one critic wrote, “The essence of the deceased must be preserved. In this monument, the facial features are delicately marked, almost sketched on the bronze.