Eduard Gorokhovsky, 1929-2004

Moscow conceptualism can be seen as the major driving force behind Russian contemporary art from the 1970s till the present day; Sots Art, of which the offered lot is a typical example, was an important offspring.

 

Komar and Melamid, two of Russia’s earliest conceptualists employed the title of “Sots Art” to a series of paintings they created for pioneer camp decorations in 1972.  They had created a gallery of portraits of imaginary relatives painted in a style imitating that reserved for official state portraiture.  The term was quickly taken up by art critics of the day to describe a new kind of art that satirised Soviet Realism.  Its relationship to Western pop art was close, but complex, weaving startling new meanings encapsulating the social mood of the Brezhnev era.  Many of its exponents emigrated to the USA such as Komar and Melamid, Leonid Sokov and Kosolapov.

 

Gorokhovsky’s diptych of Brezhnev and Stalin was painted in the post-glasnost period.  Nevertheless, its combination of traditional Soviet iconography, with the whimsical Warholesque colours and use of multiple image reminiscent of advertising print, are stylistic devices much employed by Sots Art.  Close inspection reveals the image of Stalin to be constructed from miniature Lenin heads; whereas the head of Brezhnev is made from heads of Stalin, emphasising the continuity of 20^th century Soviet political leadership.