Leonid Lamm, b. 1928

Acquired directly from the artist

Los Angeles, Richard/Bennett Galery, Leonid Lamm: Seventh Heaven, 10 October- 10 November 1986, Cat. nos. 4 and 5
Baltimore, Evergreen House Museum at the Johns Hopkins University, Four Russian Messages: Carnival or Drama? Nikolai Filatov, Leonid Lamm, Vladimir Nemukhin, Natalya Nesterova, 15 January - 1 March 1994 

Ex.Cat., Leonid Lamm: Seventh Heaven, 1986, illustrated pp.14-15
B.Taylor, 'Lamm's Way' in Leonid Lamm: From Utopia to Virtuality, St. Petersburg: State Russian Museum forthcoming March 2008

Original canvas. There are very minor flecks of paint los in places. APart from some light surface dirt, the pictures are ready to hang. Both nailed onto matching white painted slip frames.
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Based on images the artist created during his years of imprisonment from 1973-6, the Seventh Heaven series was inspired by Lamm's anticipation of a new life in the West, and its title refers to the metaphorical utopia to which the artist's contemporaries aspired. The series contains strong autobiographical references to Lamm's personal experiences, touching on the problems of everyday life from politics, religion, six, birth and death.

Lamm began the series with the images of Adam and Eve, which appear with their faces covered by a cross hair. These exiles from heaven perfectly embody the artist's mocking treatment of the concept of original sin. As the artist's wife Innesa Levkova-Lamm explains, "life on Cloud Nine is actually a miserable desert".

 

Canvases from the Seventh Heaven series can be found in the Norton Dodge collection, New Jersey.