It is known that Russian Christian themes have always been the most important and popular in art in the Russian and European history. The centuries passed and the attitude to these themes changed. Earlier it had been a taboo to discuss it, later Christianity became a central topic in official discussions, but then again the Christian topic became forbidden. The languages and styles varied and Ecclesiastical art became rather different from Secular art, especially in Russia.

“The Earth and Heaven” is the first Erarta museum exhibition of contemporary secular art related to the Christian and Biblical themes. The exhibition included both paintings that refer to the Christian topics directly, and works that are not directly related to these themes, but had a Christian worldview. The artists of this exhibition do not have much in common. They had different jobs as well as orders. However, all of them got interested in the Christian themes by their inner voice. Some of them believe that faith is a constant practice, a kind of prayer and a chosen path. The others found God suddenly. There are both deeply religious and churched artists, even clerics, and just talented, thoughtful people that are interested in the Bible and its characters.

The project brought together famous artists from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kostroma, Petrozavodsk, Izhevsk and Stavropol. There are such artists as Irina Starzhenetskaya, Irina Zatulovskaya, Oleg Lang, Natalya Glebova, Anatoly Komelin, Vyacheslav Mikhailov, Felix Volosenkov, Alexander Zagoskin, Gennady Zubkov, Dmitry Shagin, Evgeny Orlov, Sergei Kovalsky, Valery Valran, Svetlana Tsvirkunova, Andrey Pozdeev, Pyotr Gorban, Ivan Sotnikov, Vladimir Fateev, Victor Sachivko, Ilya Gaponov and the others.
There are about thirty artists that are participating in the exhibition. They are so different but they have one thing in common that units them. They believe that contemporary art is not necessarily Disneyland, an amusement park that leaves aside the human nature. They know that the eternal questions about art are still actual and require innovative solutions.

Evgeny Orlov, an artist and deacon, says: “The exhibition is an attempt to show the works of the artists that don’t separate their self-improvement from solving real problems in their creative career. They were born to be spiritual people”.

The exposition is addressed to a wider audience who are already familiar with the culture of art of the twentieth century and our days. These people keep (sometimes unconsciously) the values of the Christian worldview.

Vladimir Nazansky