Komar & Melamid

[Jonathan]

Victor's posts on humor in art made me think of dissident collaborators Komar and Melamid. I've always enjoyed their work, including much their performance art, such as conjuring up fictional artists Nikolai Buchumov and Apelles Ziablov, collaborating with the population of the world when creating their Most Wanted paintings, and even their establishing Elephant Art Academies. I love their senses of humor and satire.

This is my favorite painting of theirs:

Painted in the style of Socialist Realism, a Muse is tracing Stalin's silhouette onto a wall -- she's creating art which conforms to the dark shadow that he casts as he holds her in place. I think it very cleverly mocks The Origin of Socialist Realism (which is the title of the piece). Satire in painting at its finest.

J

[Victor Pross]

Jonathan,

Great! Thanks for sharing this painting. I really like it, too. Please furnish us with anything else you may come along in the “fine art” humor and satire debt. As for my own caricature paintings, [the paintings] I have made it a point to master the fine art techniques of the masters to utilize the zany offshoots of my imagination. Like the painting you posted here, I like to add “visual commentary” to my caricatures with drops of acidic wit. Not all the time, but a great deal of the time.

Hey, I have never heard of "Socialist Realism". Is this a popular coined term in art history? I seemed to have missed it all these years. Blame it on a bad education.

Victor