VITALY KOMAR AND ALEXANDER MELAMID | Study for 'Plateosaurus' from the 'Ancestral Portraits' Series

signed in Latin and dated '1980' l.r.; further signed, titled and dated on the reversepastel and mixed media on paperThe ‘Ancestral Portraits’ series of 1980 saw Komar and Melamid sending up the stiff and hackneyed poses adopted by Soviet leaders for official portraits by replacing the figures with dinosaurs, a dry commentary on the obsolescence of Communist ideals. ‘Few artists have rewritten the past in a mood of such desperate hilarity’ comments Carter Ratcliff in his monograph on the duo. The fossilized academic style of Socialist Realism of the pre-Khrushchev era was ripe for parody and few artists targeted the subject of the cult of the leader with a more biting sense of satire. The ‘Ancestral Portraits’ series was followed by their important ‘Socialist Realist’ canvases of 1980-1984, a continuation of their commentary on the myths of Stalinism. Komar and Melamid emigrated to America in 1978.

Sloane Gallery, Denver
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2006

In overall good condition. Mounted behind plexiglass in a simple wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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