Vitalij Komar Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Vitalij Komar Art Value Price Guide

Dec. 01, 2024
VITALY KOMAR / ALEXANDER MELANID and CATHERINE BRADBURY - The People's Choice, Dunlop Art Gallery Exhibition Poster
Est: $20 - $25
VITALY KOMAR / ALEXANDER MELANID (Russian/American, 1943/1945) and CATHERINE BRADBURY (Canadian) "The People's Choice, Dunlop Art Gallery Exhibition Poster" 1999 - Poster designed by Catherine Bradbury. Silkscreen on paper. Unsigned. 17 x 11 inches. Excellent condition. From the collection of Regina artist David Thauberger.
Saskatchewan Network for Art Collecting
Feb. 14, 2024
Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, Bergen Point Brass Fountry
Est: $700 - $900
Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid Bergen Point Brass Fountry 1989 lithograph and woodcut in colors with copper leaf and embossed leather 24.25 h x 88.625 w in (62 x 225 cm) Signed and numbered to lower edge '7/40 Vitaly Melamid'. This work is number 7 from the edition of 40. Provenance: New van Straaten Gallery, Chicago | Acquired from the previous in 1991 by the present owner, Private Collection This work will ship from Lambertville, New Jersey.
Rago Arts and Auction Center
Oct. 12, 2023
Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, Bergen Point Brass Fountry
Est: $1,500 - $2,000
Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid Bergen Point Brass Fountry 1989 lithograph and woodcut in colors with copper leaf and embossed leather 24 h x 88.5 w in (61 x 225 cm) Signed and numbered to lower edge '7/40 Vitaly Melamid'. This work is number 7 from the edition of 40. Provenance: New van Straaten Gallery, Chicago | Acquired from the previous in 1991 by the present owner, Private Collection This work will ship from Lambertville, New Jersey.
Rago Arts and Auction Center
Mar. 19, 2023
VITALY KOMAR / ALEXANDER MELANID and CATHERINE BRADBURY - The Peopleâs Choice, Dunlop Art Gallery Exhibition Poster
Est: $30 - $40
VITALY KOMAR / ALEXANDER MELANID (Russian/American, 1943/1945) and CATHERINE BRADBURY (Canadian) "The People's Choice, Dunlop Art Gallery Exhibition Poster" 1999 - Poster designed by Catherine Bradbury. Silkscreen on paper. Unsigned. 17 x 11 inches. Excellent condition. From the collection of Regina artist David Thauberger.
Saskatchewan Network for Art Collecting
Jun. 02, 2022
Vitaly Komar (b. 1943) and Alexander Melamid (b. 1945): Head of Worker, Bergen Point Brass Foundry
Est: $700 - $900
The set of four mixed media panels on paper and leather, 1989, from the edition of 40. 24 x 84 in. (overall), unframed. Property from the Estate of Martina Batan
STAIR
Jan. 22, 2022
RUSSIAN COLOR SCREENPRINT BY KOMAR AND MELAMID
Est: $100 - $150
Vitaly Komar (Russian, American, born 1943) and Alexander Melamid (Russian, American, born 1945) political color screenprint on paper, The Wings Will Grow, 1999. Signed and dated in pencil lower right. Numbered 7 of 46 in pencil lower left. Framed. Provenance: Philips Auction, July 23, 2007, lot #182. Please refer to the original paper labels on the back. Komar and Melamid is a Soviet art group founded by artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid in 1972. The founders of such a trend as Sots Art (as opposed to the American pop art trend). The art group ceased to exist in 2003. Sots Art is one of the directions of postmodern art that developed in the USSR in the 1970s within the framework of the so-called alternative culture, opposed to the state ideology of that period. Graphic art prints and collectibles.
Antique Arena Inc
Jun. 10, 2021
*§KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B. 1943 and B. 1945) - Bergen Point Brass Foundry
Est: £25,000 - £35,000
*§KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B. 1943 and B. 1945) Bergen Point Brass Foundry, signed and dated 1988. Oil on canvas, laid on panel, 63 by 168.5 cm. Provenance: Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York. Private collection, USA. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by V. Komar. Exhibited: Komar & Melamid, Bergen Point Brass Foundry, Bayonne, Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, 31 March–29 April, 1989. Related literature: For similar works, see Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, (Non)conform: Russian and Soviet Artists. The Ludwig Collection. 1962–1992, Berlin, Prestel, 2007, pp. 85, 100 and 270–272. N. Dodge and A. Rosenfeld (eds.), From Gulag to Glasnost: Non-Conformist Art from the Soviet Union. The Norton Dodge Collection, New York, Thames and Hudson (in association with the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum), 1995, pp. 15, 56, 89–93 and 323–330. C. Ratcliff, Komar and Melamid, New York, Abbeville Press, 1988, p. 188, No. 55, illustrated. Starting Bid: 25000
MacDougall's
Oct. 26, 2019
VITALY KOMAR & ALEXANDER MELAMID RUSSIAN B.1943 &
Est: $400 - $600
Thank you Comrade Stalin for our Happy Childhood, 1983, colored silkscreen, on Somerset paper, with full margins, I. 9 ¾ x 25 in. (24.8 x 65.1 cm) S. 14 x 30 in. (35.6 x 76.2 cm). Signed and numbered 60/80,in pencil, published by Strother-Elwood Arts, Brooklyn (with their stamp on the reverse),
Trinity International Auctions & Appraisals, LLC
Jul. 18, 2019
Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, Scenes from the Future: MoMA and Scenes from the Future: Guggenheim (two works)
Est: $1,500 - $2,000
Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid Scenes from the Future: MoMA and Scenes from the Future: Guggenheim (two works) Russia, 1990 etching and drypoint on paper 30 h × 22 w in (76 × 56 cm) Signed, dated and numbered to lower edge of each work '11/35 Komar Melamid 1990'. Each work is number 11 from the edition of 35 printed by Pat Branstead, New York and published by Sean Elwood Editions (SEEDITIONS), Seattle. Provenance: Private Collection condition: Each print is in excellent condition. No issues noted. Floating under Plexiglas in black frames.
Wright
May. 22, 2019
Vitaly Komar & Alexander Melamid, (Russian, b. 1943 and b. 1945), DEATH (11 works)
Est: $2,000 - $4,000
Vitaly Komar & Alexander Melamid (Russian, b. 1943 and b. 1945) DEATH (11 works) screenprints 10 of 11 prints numbered 30/250 in pencil Each: 12 x 10 inches.
Hindman
Jan. 31, 2019
Komar & Melamid
Est: -
"From the Series „Diaries“ and "Vespers"" Wood, paper 34.5 x 159 x 15 cm Vitaly Anatolyevich Komar was born 1943 in Moscow, Alexander Melamid was born 1945 in Moscow. Komar & Melamid are one of the most prominent artist among Russian contemporary art. They generated a new form of artistic critic, the so-called „Soz Art“. It‘s basically the western Pop Art but used on the motives of Russian Socialistic Realism. The piece here shown fits in this style, which can futhermore be described as a mix of Dadaism and Socialistic Realism.
Amadeus Auction
Dec. 04, 2018
Vitaly Komar, Russian b.1943- 'Quotation', c.1971; <
Est: £6,000 - £8,000
Vitaly Komar, Russian b.1943- 'Quotation', c.1971; oil on canvas mounted on board, 90x70cm (unframed) (VAT charged on hammer price) Provenance: Private collection, London; Sotheby's London, December 1, 2009, Lot 468 Note: the artist has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this piece. Please refer to department for condition report
Roseberys
Nov. 24, 2018
From the Series „Diaries“ and "Vespers" | Aus den Serien „Diaries“ und "Vespers"
Est: €40,000 - €50,000
Komar & Melamid Wood, paper 34.5 x 159 x 15 cm Vitaly Anatolyevich Komar was born 1943 in Moscow, Alexander Melamid was born 1945 in Moscow. Komar & Melamid are one of the most prominent artist among Russian contemporary art. They generated a new form of artistic critic, the so-called „Soz Art“. It‘s basically the western Pop Art but used on the motives of Russian Socialistic Realism. The piece here shown fits in this style, which can futhermore be described as a mix of Dadaism and Socialistic Realism. | Komar & Melamid Acryl, Tempera, Foto, Buch, Metall, Öl/Holz, Papier 34,5 x 159 x 15 cm Vitaly Anatolyevich Komar ist 1943 in Moskau geboren und studierte dort an der Technischen Universität. Alex Melamid ist 1945 in Moskau geboren. Er studierte an der Kunstakademie Moskau (1958–1960) und am Stroganow-Institut für Kunst und Design (1962–1967). Komar & Melamid zählen mit ihrem unvergleichlichem Werk zu den bedeutendsten russischen Künstlern der Moderne. Auf sie geht die Erfindung der Soz Art zurück, die sogenannte russische PopArt, die sich kritisch mit dem propagandistischen Realismus ihrer Zeit befasst. Auch dieses Werk spiegelt ihren Stil wieder, ein Mix aus Dadismus und Sozialistischem Realismus. Es besteht aus fünf aufeinanderfolgenden Rechtecken, wobei jedes der Rechtecke ein anderes Motiv beinhaltet. Von links beginnend: mit Kreide bemaltes Holz, Stalin Büste, ein von einer Schraube durchlöchertes Buch von Niklai Virta, realistisches Bild mit Frau und Stalin und die Stalin Büste als Fotographie.
Amadeus Auction
Oct. 05, 2018
VITALY KOMAR AND ALEXANDER MELAMID | Study for 'Knock at the Door' from 'The Nostalgic Socialist Realism' series
Est: $6,000 - $8,000
signed in Latin and dated ' 1987' l.r. pastel on card The Nostalgic Socialist Realism series is perhaps the best-known of Komar and Melamid's work: dark, sinister and yet also quite funny, these provocative and playful images lampoon the clichéd visual vocabulary of the authoritarian regime the duo had left behind when they emigrated to the United States in 1978. But as much as the image relates to the specific horrors of the KGB practice of visiting late at night to abduct their targets, the artists were nonetheless wary of absolving non-Soviet systems. 'Fear governs the Soviet Union in the same way it does the United States', they argued: 'The KGB and Stalin are only symbols personifying an ageless social phobia...'
Sotheby's
Oct. 05, 2018
VITALY KOMAR AND ALEXANDER MELAMID | Study for 'Plateosaurus' from the 'Ancestral Portraits' Series
Est: $6,000 - $8,000
signed in Latin and dated ' 1980' l.r.; further signed, titled and dated on the reverse pastel and mixed media on paper The ‘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.
Sotheby's
Jun. 06, 2018
KOMAR, VITALY (B. 1943) - Slava Trudu!
Est: £10,000 - £15,000
KOMAR, VITALY Slava Trudu! dated 1971 on the reverse. Oil on canvas, 99 by 87 cm. Provenance: Collection of Petr Degtiarev (1969-2007), the artist’s son. Important private collection, USA. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the artist.
MacDougall's
Jun. 06, 2018
KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B. 1943 and B. 1945) - The Lemon, from the series "Anarchic Synthesis", four-part work
Est: £40,000 - £60,000
KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER The Lemon, from the series "Anarchic Synthesis", four-part work one part signed on the side, further three numbered "2", "3" and "4" respectively on the reverse. Each part oil and acrylic on board, three measuring 203 by 91 cm and the other 203 by 86.5 cm. Executed in 1985-1986. Provenance: With Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York (labels on the reverse of each part). Acquired at the above by Sylvester Stallone. Collection of S. Stallone. Collection of the Bass Museum of Art, USA. Bass Museum Deaccession & Tycoon’s Estate, Hill Auction Gallery, Sunrise, 18 October 2017, lot 330. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by Vitaly Komar. Exhibited: Anarchic Synthesis, Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, 1986.
MacDougall's
Mar. 07, 2018
VITALY KOMAR (RUSSIAN B.1943)
Est: $14,000 - $16,000
VITALY KOMAR (RUSSIAN B.1943) Caution is not Cowardice, 1972 oil on canvas laid on board 75 x 50 cm (29 1/2 x 19 5/8 in.) signed, titled and dated on verso PROVENANCE Acquired by the present owner directly from the artist Painted in the year when Vitaly Komar along with his fellow artist Alexander Melamid founded a movement that they called Sots Art, a unique version of Soviet Pop and Conceptual Art, the present image is a haunting depiction of the oppressive atmosphere of the Soviet era. The grotesque figure is depicted with a single all-seeing eye in the center of its forehead and with the right hand placed toward its mouth with one finger over the lips in a gesture of silence. To Komar, this image is an allegory that conjures up stories and meanings from the restrictive Soviet surrounding where he grew up.
Shapiro Auctions LLC
Nov. 28, 2017
VITALY KOMAR | Niche Surrounding a Drunken Man
Est: £25,000 - £35,000
oil on canvas laid on board
Sotheby's
Jun. 07, 2017
*KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B. 1943 and B. 1945) Yalta Conference, from the series "Nostalgic Socialist Realism"
Est: £80,000 - £120,000
*KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B. 1943 and B. 1945) Yalta Conference, from the series "Nostalgic Socialist Realism", signed, inscribed "sketch/proposal" for the Mural/for UN building, NYC" and dated 1982 on the reverse. Tempera and oil on canvas, 101.5 by 75.5 cm. Provenance: Acquired directly from V. Komar by the present owner in 2007. Private collection, USA. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by V. Komar. Exhibited: Glasnost. Soviet Non-Conformist Art from the 1980s, Haunch of Venison, London, 16 April--26 June 2010. Literature: Exhibition catalogue, J. Backstein, et al, Glasnost. Soviet Non-Conformist Art from the 1980, Manchester, Cornerhouse Publications, 2010, pp. 140-141, illustrated and listed with the wrong size. Related Literature: For another version of the present lot, see exhibition catalogue, Komar and Melamid, Oxford, Museum of Modern Art, 1985, p. 13, illustrated. C. Ratcliff, Komar & Melamid, New York, Abbeville Press, 1988, p. 134, pl. 125, illustrated. B. Groys, The Total Art of Stalinism, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1992, illustrated on the cover. A. Weinstein, Vitaly Komar. Three-Day Weekend, New York, The Humanities Gallery, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, 2005, p. 21, illustrated. The idea of creating a composition based on the 1945 Yalta Conference occurred to Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, the founding fathers of Sots Art, in the early 1980s. Komar was later to recall: "I think I first saw a photograph from the Yalta Conference in the late 1970s. That photo cast a spell over me. It was banned during the Cold War years. Stalin could not have been sitting next to our enemies. We had defeated Germany without them and in spite of them. Yet here they were, sitting in such a relaxed manner, like relatives - Roosevelt, the democratic president, Stalin, the bloody dictator, and Churchill, the lackey of a monarchy. They were sitting together and deciding how we would organise the future world for the next few years." Before long, the artists' first joint paintings appeared, titled The Yalta Conference (1981-1982), one of which is offered for sale. They depicted Roosevelt, sitting next to Stalin and looking like Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - a naïve visitor from another planet who had been moulded by a different political system. Subsequently, the Yalta series appeared in numerous variations and continuations and was even meant to become part of a mural for the UN building in New York. The subject proved to be so fruitful that it not only gave rise to a celebrated, ambitious installation (1987) and a polyptych (1985-1986), executed by the creative duo, but, after they had parted company, it also inspired Komar to produce the Three-Day Weekend cycle of works (2004-2005), still based on the same photograph of the leaders attending the Yalta Conference. The picture offered at the auction is unique in that, together with a later canvas that is larger and similar in composition, it has come to be one of the most significant and recognisable works of both Sots Art and of Nonconformist art as a whole. The work is a distillation of the whole of the later project stemming from the 1945 conference. In his well-known book Gesamtkunstwerk Stalin, the philosopher Boris Groys has every reason to say precisely of the project's idea as the expression of the creative concept of the Komar-Melamid partnership: "In their work The Yalta Conference [sic], Komar and Melamid create a kind of icon of the new
MacDougall's
Sep. 17, 2016
VITALY KOMAR & ALEXANDER MELAMID (RUSSIAN B. 1943; B. 1945)
Est: $50,000 - $70,000
VITALY KOMAR & ALEXANDER MELAMID (RUSSIAN B. 1943; B. 1945) What is Your Favorite Color? (USA) from the "People`s Choice" Series, 1994 acrylic on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm (48 x 60 in.) signed lower right; signed, titled, and dated on verso ILLUSTRATED Back cover image of JoAnn Wypijewski ed., Painting by Numbers: Komar and Melamid`s Scientific Guide to Art, ( New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997) Luc Sante, "They Know What We Like", New York Times, January 4, 1998 LOT NOTES In the winter of 1993, fifteen years after Komar and Melamid emigrated to the United States, and just as the Soviet Union was was dissolving, the duo set out to find out what it is that people really wanted to see depicted in paintings in a project called The People`s Choice. Masters of irony, the artists used used one of the main tools of a capitalist society, the market research survey, to give voice to a statistically significant portion of the now ex-Soviet Union`s silent majority. The marketing team hired by Komar and Melamid thus interviewed over 1,000 people in the US, Russia, Ukraine, France, China, and each of the nine other counties forming the survey (plus several thousand more representing an international audience on the World Wide Web). Each participant was asked over one hundred questions in order to puzzle out the details of the country`s Most Wanted and Most Unwanted paintings. The artists found significant cross-border similarities indicating that most of the population prefers the color blue (44% in the US, 33% in Russia) and an overwhelming majority of those surveyed prefers horizontal landscapes, showing a distaste for abstract compositions. When confronted with the results, the philosopher and scientist Noam Chomsky "was not surprised at all by the way people answered Komar and Melamid`s polls. Landscapes, he mused, seem a natural point of return once humanity has reached the end of its creative capacity with paint and brush." The resulting Most Wanted paintings created using the survey answers, while containing the elements that elicited the most positive responses, were anything but synergetic. Together with the charts showcasing the outcome of the polls, Komar and Melamid`s The People`s Choice, is an eloquent argument describing why popular appeal is not necessary for the creation of great art.
Shapiro Auctions LLC
Sep. 11, 2016
VITALY KOMAR (RUSSIAN 1943-) AND ALEKSANDAR MELAMID (RUSSIAN 1945-), PAPIER MACHE AND GOUACHE, "STALIN". 14 X 10"; FRAMED 18 X 15" PROVENANCE: THE JEWISH MUSEUM, NY, NY (INFORMATION VERSO)
Est: $500 - $800
VITALY KOMAR (RUSSIAN 1943-) AND ALEKSANDAR MELAMID (RUSSIAN 1945-), PAPIER MACHE AND GOUACHE, "STALIN". 14 X 10"; FRAMED 18 X 15" PROVENANCE: THE JEWISH MUSEUM, NY, NY (INFORMATION VERSO)
William J Jenack Auctioneers
Jun. 08, 2016
*§ KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945), Head of a Worker, Bergen Point Brass Foundry, four works, one signed, another numbered "15/40", and one plate signed and dated 1989, each also further numbered "472 A", "472 B", "472 C"
Est: £2,000 - £3,000
*§ KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945), Head of a Worker, Bergen Point Brass Foundry, four works, one signed, another numbered "15/40", and one plate signed and dated 1989, each also further numbered "472 A", "472 B", "472 C" and "472 D" and dated on the reverse, Two lithograph on paper, one with collage, another woodcut on brass foil, and one brass stamping on leather, two measuring 61 by 61.5 cm, and the other two 61 by 51 cm. Number 15 from an edition of 40. Provenance: Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York. Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1989. Private collection, USA.
MacDougall's
Jun. 08, 2016
*§ KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B.1945), Karl Marx and Cornucopia, diptych, each part signed twice, bears a commemorative inscription, titled in Cyrillic and dated 1982 (Karl Marx) and 1982-83 (Cornucopia).
Est: £100,000 - £150,000
*§ KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B.1945), Karl Marx and Cornucopia, diptych, each part signed twice, bears a commemorative inscription, titled in Cyrillic and dated 1982 (Karl Marx) and 1982-83 (Cornucopia), Each oil and tempera on cardboard, 300 by 150 cm (overall size). Provenance: Acquired directly from the artists by the present owner. Important private collection, Europe. Authenticity certificate from the artists. Exhibited: Sots Art. Political Art in Russia and China , The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, 3 March-1 April 2007. Sots Art - Political Art in Russia from 1972 to Today , La Maison Rouge, Paris, 21 October 2007- 20 January 2008. Karl Marx and Cornucopia by Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, offered here for auction, is one of the most important Russian Nonconformist works. Created specifically as a work of Sots Art, a recent artistic movement launched by Komar and Melamid in protest against the reactionary official policy towards art and culture in the USSR, the work is significant not only because of its unique style and ironic symbolism, but also as an embodiment of the critical rethinking of the history of the country. Komar thus described the Sots Art movement: “If pop-art was born from the overproduction of things and their advertising, then Sots Art was born from the overproduction of ideology and its propaganda, including visual propaganda... After the end of the Soviet Union, Socialist Realism was put into historical quotation marks and became Sots Art.”   Karl Marx and Cornucopia was created as a new version of the work destroyed at the infamous Bulldozer Exhibition of 1974. It was ruthlessly swept off its makeshift stall in a park in Belyaevo, a Moscow suburb, together with works by Vladimir Nemukhin, Oscar Rabin and Vasily Sitnikov, whilst the artists themselves were beaten, verbally abused or even arrested. As a result, great number of extraordinary original and daring works had been destroyed. The assault, unparalleled in its brutality against the freedom of expression through art, resonated throughout Europe and the USA, leading to an overnight cultural revolution in Russia, whereby Nonconformist artists, previously largely ignored, suddenly became real heroes. Dedicated to the ten-year anniversary of the Bulldozer exhibition, Karl Marx and Cornucopia not only repeats the composition of the earlier, destroyed version, but also gains a new meaning through it. It becomes a monument to Russia’s unofficial art as a whole and to the everlasting struggle between the freedom of creative expression and conservatism and insularity of official regulations that strive to undermine it. It is for this reason that Komar and Melamid ended up with a work of a much larger format than they had planned originally. From this standpoint, the work acquires an independent status, and its symbolism becomes universal, thus greatly enhancing the significance of the painting.
MacDougall's
Jan. 19, 2016
Komar + Melamid, ‘George Washington (Red)’, Lithograph, 1995
Est: $550 - $715
Lithograph with hand-coloring on Somerset USA, 1995 Vitaly Komar (b. 1943) and Alex Melamid (b. 1945) – Russian/American Post-Art artists Signed in pencil and numbered ‘XXI’ Published by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Full margins Dimensions: 22 x 15 in. (55.9 x 38.1 cm.) Very good condition Estimate $2,000-$2,200 Vitaly Komar (American, b. 1943) and Alex Melamid (American, b. 1945) Vitaly Komar and Aleksandr Melamid both attended the Moscow Art School and the Stroganov Institute of Art and Design until 1967. They began collaborating in 1965 and established the Sots Art movement which combined Soviet Socialist Realism and American Pop art. Gaining a notoriety when they were arrested during a performance and had their work bulldozed down by the government in 1974, Komar & Melamid had their first international exhibition in 1976 at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York which they were not allowed to attend. Immigrating to America in 1978, they developed Post-Art and many series of works which referenced various historical styles and continued with the vein of political criticism and irony. The first Russian artists to receive a National Endowment for the Arts and to receive an invitation to the Documenta exhibition. After thirty six years, their last creative work was produced in 2003. Their collaborative pieces have been collected by institutions worldwide like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Pushkin Museum, and Australian National Gallery. Condition In overall good condition. Shipping costs excl. statutory VAT and plus 2,5% (+VAT) shipping insurance.
Auctionata US
Sep. 24, 2015
Komar & Melamid, ‘Sunrise at Bayonne’, Aquatint & Collage, 1988
Est: $600 - $800
Aquatint in colors with metallic leaf collage on wove paper USA, 1988 Komar & Melamid – Russian/American Post-Art artists Signed, titled and dated in pencil, numbered '10/40' Published by Riverhouse Editions, Steamboat Springs, Colorado with their blind stamp Full margins, framed Image dimensions: 23 ½ x 62 in. (59.7 x 157.5 cm.) Sheet dimensions: 32 ¼ x 73 ½ in. (81.9 x 186.7 cm.) Overall dimensions: 37 x 79 in. (94 x 200.7 cm.) Very good condition Estimate $600-$800 At once expressive and sterile, “Sunrise at Bayonne” depicts a fiery metallic sunrise over the city of Bayonne, New Jersey. Split into three parts, the left image shows a masked laborer, his gloves a gilded gold. Drawn with expressive strokes, the plate tone shadows the worker in gray, reflecting the industrial efforts of the city. Four lines of graphic text sit in the center panel, while the right image shows the sunrise fired by the efforts of labor. Vitaly Komar (American, b. 1943) and Alex Melamid (American, b. 1945) Vitaly Komar and Aleksandr Melamid both attended the Moscow Art School and the Stroganov Institute of Art and Design until 1967. They began collaborating in 1965 and established the Sots Art movement which combined Soviet Socialist Realism and American Pop art. Gaining a notoriety when they were arrested during a performance and had their work bulldozed down by the government in 1974, Komar & Melamid had their first international exhibition in 1976 at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York which they were not allowed to attend. Immigrating to America in 1978, they developed Post-Art and many series of works which referenced various historical styles and continued with the vein of political criticism and irony. The first Russian artists to receive a National Endowment for the Arts and to receive an invitation to the Documenta exhibition. After thirty six years, their last creative work was produced in 2003. Their collaborative pieces have been collected by institutions worldwide like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Pushkin Museum, and Australian National Gallery. Condition A pencil eraser size stain in lower center margin, not affecting the image. Otherwise in overall good condition. Shipping costs excl. statutory VAT and plus 2,5% (+VAT) shipping insurance.
Auctionata US
Sep. 24, 2015
Komar + Melamid, ‘George Washington (Red)’, Screenprint, 1995
Est: $1,500 - $3,000
Screenprint with hand-coloring on Somerset USA, 1995 Vitaly Komar (b. 1943) and Alex Melamid (b. 1945) – Russian/American Post-Art artists Signed in pencil and numbered ‘XXI’ Published by Derriere L’Etoile Studios, Inc., New York Full margins Dimensions: 22 x 15 in. (55.9 x 38.1 cm.) Very good condition Estimate $1,500-$3,000 Vitaly Komar (American, b. 1943) and Alex Melamid (American, b. 1945) Vitaly Komar and Aleksandr Melamid both attended the Moscow Art School and the Stroganov Institute of Art and Design until 1967. They began collaborating in 1965 and established the Sots Art movement which combined Soviet Socialist Realism and American Pop art. Gaining a notoriety when they were arrested during a performance and had their work bulldozed down by the government in 1974, Komar & Melamid had their first international exhibition in 1976 at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York which they were not allowed to attend. Immigrating to America in 1978, they developed Post-Art and many series of works which referenced various historical styles and continued with the vein of political criticism and irony. The first Russian artists to receive a National Endowment for the Arts and to receive an invitation to the Documenta exhibition. After thirty six years, their last creative work was produced in 2003. Their collaborative pieces have been collected by institutions worldwide like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Pushkin Museum, and Australian National Gallery. Condition In overall good condition. Shipping costs excl. statutory VAT and plus 2,5% (+VAT) shipping insurance.
Auctionata US
Apr. 04, 2015
VITALY KOMAR AND ALEXANDER MELAMID (RUSSIAN, 1943-) AND (RUSSIAN, 1945-) URBAN ANGELS, 1991 Acrylic on metal diptych: 36 x 28 in. ea...
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
VITALY KOMAR AND ALEXANDER MELAMID (RUSSIAN, 1943-) AND (RUSSIAN, 1945-) URBAN ANGELS, 1991 Acrylic on metal diptych: 36 x 28 in. each Framed; "Urban" lower left inscribed: AP-91; "Angels" lower right signed: Komar & Melamid Provenance: Roman Tabakman until 1995; purchased by Alexandre Glaezer; Private Collection
Potomack Company
Nov. 26, 2014
*§KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER - (B.1943 and B.1945) Karl Marx and Cornucopia, diptych
Est: £150,000 - £200,000
*§KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B.1945) Karl Marx and Cornucopia, diptych, each part signed twice, bears a commemorative inscription, titled in Cyrillic and dated 1982 (Karl Marx) and 1982-83 (Cornucopia). Each oil and tempera on cardboard, 300 by 150 cm (overall size). Provenance: Acquired directly from the artists by the present owner. Important private collection, Europe. Authenticity certificate from the artists. Exhibited: Sots Art. Political Art in Russia and China, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, 3 March-1 April 2007. Sots Art - Political Art in Russia from 1972 to today, La Maison Rouge, Paris, 21 October 2007- 20 January 2008. Karl Marx and Cornucopia by Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, offered here for auction, is one of the most important Russian Nonconformist works. Created specifically as a work of Sots Art, a recent artistic movement launched by Komar and Melamid in protest against the reactionary official policy towards art and culture in the USSR, the work is significant not only because of its unique style and ironic symbolism, but also as an embodiment of the critical rethinking of the history of the country. Komar thus described the Sots Art movement: "If pop-art was born by the overproduction of things and their advertising, then Sots Art was born of the overproduction of ideology and its propaganda, including visual propaganda... After the end of the Soviet Union an occurrence of Socialist Realism was put into historical quotation marks and became Sots Art." Karl Marx and Cornucopia was created as a new version of the work destroyed at the infamous Bulldozer Exhibition of 1974. It was ruthlessly swept off its makeshift stall in a park in Belyaevo, a Moscow suburb, together with works by Vladimir Nemukhin, Oscar Rabin and Vasily Sitnikov, whilst the artists themselves were beaten, verbally abused or even arrested. As a result, great number of extraordinary original and daring works had been destroyed. The assault, unparalleled in its brutality against the freedom of expression through art, resonated throughout Europe and the USA, leading to an overnight cultural revolution in Russia, whereby Nonconformist artists, previously largely ignored, suddenly became real heroes. Dedicated to the ten-year anniversary of the Bulldozer exhibition, Karl Marx and Cornucopia not only repeats the composition of the earlier, destroyed version, but also gains a new meaning through it. It becomes a monument to Russia's unofficial art as a whole and to the everlasting struggle between the freedom of creative expression and conservatism and insularity of official regulations that strive to undermine it. It is for this reason that Komar and Melamid ended up with a work of a much larger format than they had planned originally. From this standpoint, the work acquires an independent status, and its symbolism becomes universal, thus rendering the painting a truly epochal significance.
MacDougall's
Jun. 04, 2014
*§ KOMAR, VITALY (B. 1943) Portrait of the Artist's Son
Est: £30,000 - £40,000
*§ KOMAR, VITALY (B. 1943) Portrait of the Artist's Son , signed, also further signed, titled in Cyrillic and dated 1971; also inscribed with an authentication by the artist's son, Petr Degtyarev. Oil on canvas, 99.5 by 118 cm. Provenance: A gift from the artist to his son, Petr Degtyarev. Private collection, Europe. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the artist. Portrait of the Artist's Son is a rare early work by Vitaly Komar. Dating to 1971, this is one of the five canvasses painted in a "protosots art" style, as the artist himself called it. This is a personal work depicting Komar's son, Petya, at the family's country house in Podreskovo. Vitaly Komar was born in Moscow in 1943, graduated from the Stroganov School of Art and Design in 1967, and has been living in New York since 1978. He was one of the founders of the Sots Art movement (soviet Pop/Conceptual art) and a pioneer of multistylistic post-modernism (1972-73). Vitaly Komar worked in collaboration with Alexander Melamid between 1973 and 2003, which makes the present canvas an extremely collectable pre-collaborative work. This is the only stand-alone portrait of my son Petya that I painted in the summer of 1971 at our Podreskovo dacha, outside Moscow. After Petya's mother, Irina Degtyareva, and I separated I gave this canvas to my son. I painted no more than five of these works with red and white lettering over realistic images. With hindsight, one could potentially classify paintings of this sort as "proto-sots art". Although it should be said that it was only in 1972 that we made the decision to sign works with both our names and called the joint effort "Sots art". Vitaly Komar
MacDougall's
Jun. 04, 2014
*§ KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) The History of the USSR, 58 works
Est: £250,000 - £500,000
*§ KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) The History of the USSR, 58 works , some stamped with the artists' studio stamp on the reverse. Each tempera and oil on canvas, measuring 80 by 30.5 cm. Panels 46-50 executed in 1962-1966, the others in 1976. Provenance: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York. Collection of Mr and Mrs Goldberger, Puerto Rico. Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1986-2006. Acquired from the above by the present owner. Private collection, USA. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by V. Komar. Exhibited: Apartment exhibition, Komar & Melamid, Leninsky Prospekt, Moscow, 1975. Color is a Mighty Power, Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, 7 February-20 March 1976. Israel Museum, Jerusalem, on permanent display from 1986 to 2006. The History of the USSR, MacDougall's, London, April-May, 2008. Literature: M. Nathanson, Komar/Melamid. Two Soviet Dissident Artists, Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 1979, pp. 32-34, illustrated. C. Ratcliff, Komar and Melamid, New York, Abbeville Press, 1988, No. 55, p. 81, illustrated. "We can imagine time as a chain of abstract images. In The History of the USSR each canvas corresponds to a symbolic image of each year, with each canvas following one another in chronological order, starting with 1917. Each canvas is painted with three colours only: red, black, white and mixtures thereof. The years of revolution are associated with the abstract expressionist style; the years of industrialisation are associated with the constructivist style and the years of the Great Terror are associated with abstract surrealist styles. Gradually, the primary colours lose their brightness and turn into different shades, of grey and brown etc." Vitaly Komar The History of the USSR, by V. Komar and A. Melamid, is a key work of early Sots Art; it is of particular interest as it represents the movement in its initial Muscovite, pre-emigration guise. From the very outset the Sots artists, and especially Komar and Melamid as the founding fathers of the movement, assiduously manipulated Soviet mythology and ideology, reconstructing them, dissecting them, and turning them inside out. There was no "sacred calf " which was immune to the attentions of the movement: Lenin and Stalin, the Aurora and the Lenin mausoleum, emblems and decorations, the pioneer tie and the roll of honour... it appeared everything was aimed at laughingly casting off Soviet history, with a nod to Marx. Playing with Soviet mythology became the movement's trademark, all the more so since it enjoyed an eager market in the West where Soviet motifs were readily consumed when reduced to commonly accessible ciphers and particularly when combined with iconic images from American popular culture: from the second half of the 1970s onwards almost all Sots artists headed to New York where they industriously worked at cross-fertilising solidly Soviet elements with dyed in the wool American. The History of the USSR, as was the case with The History of Russia which preceded it, is distinguished by its monumental scale: consisting of 58 panels, each panel represents a year of Soviet history. Each panel is twelve inches wide, corresponding to the number of months in a year. There is a paradox in this, referring to the USSR's endless anniversaries for the party, state and individual leaders. Indeed, the work also parodies the Soviet mania for ranking, control and hierarchy, which if one considers for example that an inch is a western unit of measurement, then a Dadaist automatism motif comes into play, founded upon the Soviet mythology of total accountability. However, the most important aspect arises later on. In Soviet culture the concept of "chronicling", along with its many lofty and zealous connotations, featured in all such anniversaries. In visual terms the concept of chronicling involved assembling what were in a sense pictograms (media pictures which were based on cinematic and photographic documents): a man with a wheelbarrow, a sentry with a rifle, a political instructor with a revolver and so on, all of whom symbolised specific points in the life of the state. Komar and Melamid selected, in place of this, a non-mimetic language, the language of abstract painting. The underground re-invigorated abstract art from the mid 1950s, but the question remained how abstract art could be applied in the context of a chronicle of the USSR, especially as officialdom was staunchly rejecting even the conventional version of abstract art, perceiving it primarily as an ideological challenge and an attempt to undermine the "Leninist theory of reflection"! Again, however, there is here yet another layer, which lies deeper than the layer of political parody. The history of the avant-garde included a period where it allowed itself to be utilised for profoundly ideological purposes. We need only recall the formally suprematist yet thematically politically aggressive poster by El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Blade!. I think Komar and Melamid also thought of this as they created this non-figurative canvas infused with diverse types of energy. However, they were principally calling on contemporary art forms outside of figurative representation. In terms of correlations with realism they only used reminiscences of early Soviet engaged suprematism and strange, threatening biological forms...so the problems of selection of "language" in this large-scale and profound work of museum significance is a no less pressing one than the problem of a political stance. Aleksandr Borovsky, Head of the Contemporary Art Department of the State Russian Museum
MacDougall's
Jun. 04, 2014
*§ KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) Lenin Hails a Cab in New York, from the Series "Monumental Propaganda/Lenin's Tomb"
Est: £120,000 - £180,000
*§ KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) Lenin Hails a Cab in New York, from the Series "Monumental Propaganda/Lenin's Tomb" , signed, inscribed with the artists' names, titled and dated 1993 on the reverse. Oil and tempera on canvas, 102 by 76 cm. Provenance: Private collection, USA. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by Vitaly Komar. Related literature: For the other version of the present lot, see The New Yorker, New York, 12 July 1993, reproduced on the cover. Exhibition catalogue, It's the Real Thing: Soviet and Post-Soviet Sots Art and American Pop Art, Minneapolis, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, 1998, reproduced on the cover. Athanor XXIII, Tallahassee, Florida State University, Department of Art History, 2005, reproduced on the cover. Lenin Hails a Cab in New York is an iconic piece by Komar and Melamid painted in 1993, a period of political unrest and popularized destruction of the past in Russia. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the October Putsch in 1993, Russia embarked on the path to its newest history, taking down and destroying Soviet monuments, symbols and signs. Together with Independent Curators, Komar and Melamid, by that time already living in New York, began the Monumental Propaganda project in an attempt to preserve the historical lessons of the Soviet past for future generations. More than 200 Russian and Western artists participated in the project, creating artwork on theme of the preservation of monuments, which received extensive press coverage and subsequent public resonance in Russia. The present lot is the first, original version of this composition. Despite its relatively small size, the canvas possesses monumental, almost mural-like qualities. The tall figure of Lenin, as if defying the streets of New York, is echoed by the Chrysler Building and the red flag of the fast-food eatery in the background - the new symbols of the capitalist world dressed in communist symbols: the red of the MacDonald's flag and red Kremlin star on top of the Chrysler building. This juxtaposition is what creates a strong and powerful image of its time, so much so that another version of this canvas was published on the cover of the New Yorker Magazine in 1993. Addressing the issue of iconoclasm, the present work depicts Lenin in a pose familiar from multiple monuments across the major public spaces in Russia. Taking the iconic image out of its usual context and placing Lenin on the streets of New York transforms him from a leader of revolution to a regular passer-by engaged in the simple, humdrum act of hailing a cab. The narrative of the picture is developed though the collision of a real character with his utopian surroundings, addressing nostalgia and banality through mockery and humor. Through this unique interpretation, Komar and Melamid reveal all that stands behind Moscow Conceptualism of the 20th century. To quote Professor A. Leigh-Perlman of Montclair State University in Future Ruins: Time, Memory and History in the Work of Komar and Melamid: "Komar and Melamid's art from the past three decades has been characterized by many important themes and has utilized a wide variety of media and subject matter. As vanguards of Moscow's particular brand of Conceptualism, they have helped close this dramatic century with a temporal concern for the past as it colors our present and guides us into the future. The two-fold process of remembering and repeating acted out in much of their work serves to solidify the chance of recognizing oppression when it arises in the future. This process of nostalgic repetition may be uncomfortable, we may be confused as to whether we should laugh or cry, but we are left with the monumental sense that we must never forget. Embarking on the future, we need not fear how coming generations will interpret us, as long as we know that the memories of history have taught us the lessons of the past."
MacDougall's
Nov. 27, 2013
* KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) Head of Worker, Bergen Point Brass Foundry, four works
Est: £5,000 - £7,000
* KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) Head of Worker, Bergen Point Brass Foundry, four works , one signed, another numbered "15/40", and one plate signed and dated 1989, each also further numbered "472 A", "472 B", "472 C" and "472 D" and dated on the reverse. Two lithograph on paper, one with collage, another woodcut on brass foil, and one brass stamping on leather, two measuring 61 by 61.5 cm, and the other two 61 by 51 cm. Number 15 from an edition of 40. Provenance: Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York. Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1989. Private collection, USA.
MacDougall's
Nov. 27, 2013
* KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) A Knock at the Door, from Nostalgic Socialist Realism series
Est: £220,000 - £270,000
* KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) A Knock at the Door, from Nostalgic Socialist Realism series , indistinctly signed, also further signed, titled and dated 1982-83 on the reverse. Tempera and oil on canvas, 183 by 119.5 cm. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the artist V. Komar. Exhibited: Business as Usual, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, January-February 1984. Literature: C. Ratcliff, Komar & Melamid , New York, Abbeville Press, 1988, p. 141, pl. 131,illustrated.
MacDougall's
Jun. 05, 2013
* KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) - Double Portrait of Alexander Melamid.
Est: £15,000 - £20,000
* KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) Double Portrait of Alexander Melamid. Oil and tempera on cardboard, laid on board, 69 by 97.5 cm (board size). Executed c. 1972. Provenance: Collection of Alexander Melamid's family, Israel. A gift from the above to the present owner in the late 1970s. Private collection, Israel. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the artist V. Komar. Exhibited: Exhibition of non-conformist art at the flat of the mathematician Andrei Pashenkov, Moscow, 1973. The rare Double Portrait of Alexander Melamid, dated 1972 - is a product of the famous creative union between Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid. A tongue-in-cheek parody of Soviet posters and Socialist Realist portraiture, this work was one of the first in the Sots Art series which was born the same year. Most of the surviving works from Komar and Melamid's oeuvre prior to their emigration in 1977 are on canvas, with very few on cardboard. This makes the offered painting a real rarity on the art market. Vitaly Komar recalls: "This diptych, one of two double works, was exhibited at the flat of the mathematician Andrei Pashenkov. That is, it was exhibited with its pair, a diptych similar in style and size [portrait of Vitaly Komar]". According to the artist, the exhibition also included the artists' famous self-portraits as Lenin and Stalin, and the double portraits of their wives. This diptych is the quintessence of Sots Art, a new model of conceptual art constructed by Komar and Melamid which shone a new light on the founding principles of Socialist Realism. The irritating, moralising rhetoric of Soviet posters and the optimistic realism of portraits and genre scenes were used by the artists in parodied reflections of Stalinist reality, as well as of themselves and their Bohemian milieu. The anti-slogan imbedded in this ironically heroic portrait of Melamid, depicted as a bearded, bespectacled intellectual, tramples all over the foundations of the ideologically-saturated official Soviet art. The artists used familiar Socialist Realist clichés: the Komsomol-esque cocked head is executed on one side in the academic tradition, and in the other, like an agitprop poster. Yet this image, created using all the outward symbols of the intellectual, does not exude the optimism expected of one building a bright future, but looks down on the socialist reality from on high.
MacDougall's
Nov. 28, 2012
* KOMAR, VITALY (B. 1943) - Portrait of the Artist's Son
Est: £50,000 - £70,000
* KOMAR, VITALY (B. 1943) Portrait of the Artist's Son , signed, titled in Cyrillic and dated 1971 on the reverse; also inscribed with an authentication in Cyrillic by the artist's son Petr Degtyarev. Oil on canvas, 99 by 118 cm. Provenance: Gift from the artist to his son Petr Degtyarev. Private collection, Europe. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the artist. Portrait of the Artist's Son is a rare early work by Vitaly Komar. Dating to 1971, this is one of the five canvasses painted in a "protosots art" style, as the artist himself called it. This is a personal work depicting Komar's son, Petya, at the family's country house in Podreskovo. Vitaly Komar was born in Moscow in 1943, graduated from the Stroganov School of Art and Design in 1967, and has been living in New York since 1978. He was one of the founders of the Sots Art movement (soviet Pop/Conceptual art) and a pioneer of multistylistic post-modernism (1972-73). Vitaly Komar worked in collaboration with Alexander Melamid between 1973 and 2003, which makes the present canvas an extremely collectable pre-collaborative work. This is the only stand-alone portrait of my son Petya that I painted in the summer of 1971 at our Podreskovo Dacha, outside Moscow. After Petya's mother, Irina Degtyareva, and I separated I gave this canvas to my son. I painted no more than five of these works with red and white lettering over realistic images. With hindsight, one could potentially classify paintings of this sort as "proto-sots art". Although it should be said that it was only in 1972 that we made the decision to sign works with both our names and called the joint effort "Sots art". Vitaly Komar, September 2012
MacDougall's
May. 27, 2012
KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and
Est: £220,000 - £270,000
KOMAR, VITALY and MELAMID, ALEXANDER (B.1943 and B. 1945) A Knock at the Door, from Nostalgic Socialist Realism series, indistinctly signed, also further signed, titled and dated 1982-83 on the reverse. Tempera and oil on canvas, 183 by 119.5 cm. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by V. Komar. Exhibited: Business as Usual, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, January-February 1984. Literature: C. Ratcliff, Komar & Melamid, New York, Abbeville Press, 1988, p. 141, pl. 131, illustrated. For Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid the beginning of the 1980s was an unusually important time. It was then that this interesting artistic duo set about creating their most interesting series of works, entitled Nostalgic Socialist Realism. The canvasses in this series, which emulate the technique of the best known academic painters of Stalin's time, most notably Alexander Laktionov, are distinguished by their smooth glazed brushwork, attention to artificial lighting and special academic 'finish'. The half-gloom of dwellings built during Stalin's rule, with tablecloths, curtains and pseudo-Empire furniture lit in harsh patches by table lamps, confronts the viewer with that particular, solemnly threatening world of the totalitarian system. The artists skilfully combined technically accomplished execution, common to the art of socialist realism, with the conceptualist grotesque of images characteristic of pop art, which was in turn transformed into Sots Art in this amusing interpretation. A Knock at the Door was finished in the same memorable year that the artists' paintings were acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum. It is one of the best works of the Nostalgic Socialist Realism series and a typical example of Sots Art. This work, concise in terms of areas of colour, is outlandishly tragicomic. It is filled with symbols of the Soviet era: the green lamp à la Lenin in the shape of a toadstool with its lampshade like a cap, and the half-gloom, as if reviving images of Ilyich working in the half-gloom of his study filled with books and, lastly, the book in its red binding, worthy of accommodating the ideas of one of the leaders of the proletariat, which lies on the table covered by a cloth of historic red. Another symbol of Stalinism is the fear which has driven the occupant of the room under the table. Strictly observing all the socialist rituals and surrounding himself with symbols of the communist faith have not protected him from the sinister terror that has arrived with the midnight knock at the door. Komar and Melamid denied that this and other works were intended to be critical, pointing out that fear is an ecumenical reality: "Fear governs the Soviet Union in the same way it does the United States", they argued: "The KGB and Stalin are only symbols personifying an ageless social phobia..." The artists define the character of A Knock at the Door as sensitively nostalgic. This is a memorial-painting which is steeped in the era of Stalin, but not the events which brought that era about to begin with.
MacDougall's
Jun. 28, 2010
VITALY KOMAR AND ALEXANDER MELAMID
Est: £100,000 - £150,000
VITALY KOMAR AND ALEXANDER MELAMID B. 1943 AND B. 1945 THE RED FLAG (FROM NOSTALGIC SOCIALIST REALISM SERIES) signed and dated 1983 oil and tempera on canvas 228.3 by 163cm. 96 by 80in.
Sotheby's
Nov. 27, 2008
Vitaly Komar (b. 1943) and Aleksandr Melamid (b. 1945)
Est: £20,000 - £30,000
Vitaly Komar (b. 1943) and Aleksandr Melamid (b. 1945) God and the Night seven panels: four panels, watercolour on paper laid down on board; two panels, watercolour and gold paint on paper laid down on board; one panel, paper laid down on board with oil on board insert 48 x 120 in. (121.9 x 304.8 cm.); overall, 24 x 24 in. (61 x 61 cm.), each panel
Christie's
Feb. 15, 2007
f,m - VITALY KOMAR, B.1943
Est: £20,000 - £30,000
BROKEN WING 79.5 by 60cm., 31 by 23½in. signed with initials in Cyrillic and dated 71 l.r. on the purchase of this work by Arkady Novikov oil on canvas laid on board PROVENANCE The collection of Arkady Novikov, USA EXHIBITED Moscow, Blue Bird Cafe, Komar and Melamid Exhibition, 1967 Moscow region, Puschino, Exhibition in the House of Scientists, 1968 NOTE Vitaly Komar is best known as one of the founders of the Sots Art movement and a pioneer of multi-stylistic post-modernism (1972-73). He received a formal artistic education and in 1967 graduated from the Stroganov School of Art and Design, a Moscow university specialising in monumental propaganda. Wing belongs to a series of paintings depicting 'niches' from the artist's Blue Bird (Sinyaya Ptitsa) Cafe period. This celebrated venue owes its origins to the political 'thaw' of the 1960s, which saw the opening of a dozen or so cafes run by Komsomol members, and which united many young artists from different backgrounds. In one of his later interviews, Komar reveals that his 'early paintings came out of the idealistic melting pot of Moscow bohemianism'. For Komar the niche represented man's limited choice. At the time, Soviet art consisted primarily of state-sponsored official art and visual propaganda. Artistic exhibitions and publications were strictly regulated by the government and under these circumstances many artists felt trapped in terms of their creative freedom and chose to make their living as something other than artists. The message that is conveyed by Komar's early works such as Wing is a sentiment of hopelessness. The artist is not only concerned about his personal freedom of expression, but he also thinks about Russian life in general. This idea is further reinforced by the broken wing on the floor in front of the figure, which is representative of man's broken dreams.
Sotheby's