Komar and Melamid

In Footsteps on the Stairs, the artists fuse academic realism and Abstract Expressionism. The first of the two panels shows a young girl, while the second panel features a gestural splash of almost monochrome color. In the former, the girl's head is turned slightly toward the viewer, whom she fixes with an alert gaze. The panel demonstrates to great effect Komar and Melamid's technical virtuosity; the young subject's facial expression has been captured with extraordinary skill, and the deliberately plain background further emphasizes her face. The artists convincingly rendered the tension through the girl's pose, while her frightened glance conveys a sense of danger. A real hammer attached to the panel symbolizes a phallus, alluding to the source of the little girl's distress: the footsteps of a stranger on the stairs. The gestural forms of the second panel resonate with organic fluidity and exuberance, and suggest either violence or ecstatic emotions. For a long time, Footsteps on the Stairs was displayed in the official residence of the American ambassador in Moscow.