Collection
BIRTH OF RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE
A kinetic art sculpture. At a single pull on the string, the Jack of diamonds-style bear will break into a solo on his Picasso guitar.
Painter: LEONID SOKOV
LENIN WITH LETATLIN`S WINGS
Lenin with Letatlin`s wings
The art object was exhibited at the «Unforgettable meetings» to Leonid Sokov at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow
2010. Ready-made, metal, bronze patina, brass. 104 x 50,8 x 20 cm.
Painter: LEONID SOKOV
WHAT? WHERE? WHEN?
“What? Where? When?”, created in 1994, is one of Sokov’s most significant pieces. It can be seen as a witty artistic interpretation of the formal and ideological subject of the “painting as an object”, introduced by the representatives of early American pop art. However, Sokov, having experienced life in Soviet society, ironically contrasts the icons of the Western mass culture and materialistic consumerism with the symbols of the local cultural mass market.
Painter: LEONID SOKOV
THE PORTER
From the very beginning of his artistic career, the artist was interested in the subject of combining the common with the majestic; he was attracted to the image of a holy fool. The Porter in this sense is a very characteristic piece: a figure that is both crumbling and sturdy. The main formal technique here is the combination of a single “solid” body and small, scattered, breaking off limbs. It seems that it is all about to collapse. It also seems that the protagonist could only maintain this fragile balance by possessing willpower and life energy.
Painter: IVAN GORSHKOV
FROM THE ALDER KING SERIES (DER ERLKÖNIG)
Goethe's Der Erlkönig, the Alder King is the basis of the plot for the series. Here the artist concentrates on the borderline states: object-subject, abstract-concrete, just like the boy who has visions in the state between life and death. The artist is interested in the moment when a tree stump “transforms” into the Alder King, the moment of the mirage appearing. These are sculptures-mirages, where the artist is trying to create an ephemeral spectacle. As to the technique, one can highlight a close union of the most unexpected materials: thoroughly welded iron and rotten tree trunks, filler, fabric, sticky tape, aerosol… All of these layer on top of each other, at times creating an illusion of a natural organic, catastrophic original. A cluster-like sculpture resembling some self-formed “Elemental” of the material world.
Painter: IVAN GORSHKOV
TATLIN AND BANDURA
During the 80s we were friends with Aleksei Georgievich Sotnikov, a wonderful sculptor and Tatlin's student. Aleksei Georgievich always spoke very fondly of his teacher, and claimed that Tatlin had a better voice than Chaliapin, but unfortunately no recordings remain. When he was young, Tatlin made his own bandura and sang in Paris, impersonating a blind bandura player. My portrait of Tatlin is drawn on an old kitchen board, reminding us of Tatlin’s wooden bandura, which was not preserved…
Painter: IRINA ZATULOVSKAYA
