Visit to the Museum of the Revolution from the Nostalgic Socialist Realist Series
Artist
Komar & Melamid
Artist
Vitaly Komar
(Russian, b. 1943)
Artist
Alexander Melamid
(American, b. 1945)
CultureRussian
Date1981-1982
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 72 x 54 in. (182.9 x 137.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 78 x 60 in. (198.1 x 152.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 78 x 60 in. (198.1 x 152.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of the family of Joel B. Cooper, in memory of Mary and Dudley Cooper
Object number2004.12.3
Not on view
DescriptionThis painting depicts a Soviet citizen looking away from what appears to be a human form - possibly a fetus - in a glass jar topped by a crown. This decorative detail signals that the exhibit pertains to the Imperial regime deposed by the Bolshevik Revolution.Label TextKomar and Melamid Vitaly Komar (Russian, b. 1943) and Alexander Melamid (Russian, b. 1945) Visit to the Museum of the Revolution (from the Nostalgic Socialist Realism series), 1981-82 Oil on canvas In memory of Mary and Dudley Cooper from the family of Joel B. Cooper 2004.12.3 ~ From 1980 to 1984 Russian émigrés Komar and Melamid (a two-man collective) created a series of Nostalgic Social Realism paintings that satirized both 19th-century academic painting and post-Revolutionary Soviet propaganda art. (The present painting is part of that series.) Deeply ironic, the works present political portraits of Stalin and Lenin, among others, as well as icons of the Russian monarchy. Why would two Russians arrive in America only to paint the darkest history of their own country? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that America's political freedom includes the freedom of artistic self-expression. In his recent monograph on the artists, Carter Radcliffe notes that "Visit to the Museum of the Revolution shows a Soviet citizen looking away from what appears to be a human form - possibly a fetus - in a glass jar topped by a crown. This decorative detail signals that the exhibit pertains to the Imperial regime deposed by the Bolshevik Revolution. The jar and its contents may be a symbol not only of an aborted monarch but also of the culture that revolutionary triumph brought to an end." Exhibition History"Reallegory," Chrysler Museum, April 1 - May 22, 1983. “The Revolution is Dead – Long Live the Revolution: Socialist Realism and Its Legacy," Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland, April 13 – July 9, 2017.
