Lot 690: - Maxim Kantor , b.1957 Stray Dog oil on canvas

signed in Cyrillic l.r.; further signed in Latin, dated 2006-2008 and titled on reverse oil on canvas

100 by 120.5cm., 39 1/2 by 47 1/2 in.

Increasingly in his recent works, Kantor appears to have broadened his solidarity with creatures capable of suffering. The philosopher, Vittorio Hösle, has argued that just as Tolstoy's reader is forced to examine the relationship between man and beast in the short story 'Kholstomer', the viewer of Kantor's vulnerable subject is asked similar questions. The same intensity can be found in Franz Marc's paintings of animals, though Kantor refrains from idealising his subject - the dog stands unnervingly close against the manmade landscape, its left ear half raised, eliciting a response from the viewer. This same dog is met in another of Kantor's works shown standing behind a tree in winter, a symbol of the basic mystery of existence.