ALEXEI SUNDUKOV (RUSSIAN B. 1952)
ALEXEI SUNDUKOV (RUSSIAN B. 1952)
Star, 1988
oil on canvas
61 x 76 cm (24 x 30 in.)
framed dimensions: 71 x 85.5 cm (28 x 33 5/8 in.)
signed and dated lower right
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist by Private Collector, Connecticut
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
EXHIBITED
Pasadena, ArtCenter College of Design, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Forbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde, February 22?May 3, 1998; travelled to St. Petersburg, State Russian Museum, February 12?April 4, 1999; Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery, May 15?June 15, 1999; Oxford, Ohio, Miami University Art Museum, November 2?December 12, 1999
LITERATURE
Garrett White, ed., Forbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde (Los Angeles: Curatorial Assistance; New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 1998), ex. cat., p. 74 (illustrated)
LOT NOTES
Painted in 1988, at the height of perestroika, Star turns the central emblem of Soviet power into something unsettling. Up close, the red star is built from hundreds of identical gray spheres, each marked with a single point. They read as anonymous heads massed into one collective body, extending the crowd and queue imagery that made Sundukov's name in the late 1980s. Radiating from the star like beams of light are Soviet slogans and folk proverbs, including "Be prepared! Always prepared!" (the Young Pioneers' motto), "He who does not work, neither shall he eat," "A spectre is haunting Europe ? the spectre of communism," "Patience and labor will grind through anything," "To each his own," and "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Set against one another, official ideology, Christian ethics and peasant wisdom flatten into equally hollow noise.
A graduate of the Moscow Higher School of Art and Industry (the former Stroganov), Sundukov joined the Union of Artists in 1986. He rose to prominence through the Moscow youth exhibitions of the late 1980s, and in 1989?90 he was shown alongside David Salle and Peter Halley in the Soviet-American exchange exhibition 10+10. His work is held by the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, and the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection). The present work was reproduced in Forbidden Art, the catalogue of the landmark survey of postwar Russian unofficial art that toured from Pasadena to the State Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery.
Keywords: Soviet Nonconformist Art, Sots Art, Soviet Red Star Painting, Forbidden Art Exhibition, Perestroika Era Painting, Tretyakov Gallery Artist
N.B. Condition reports are available upon request. All lots are sold in as-is condition at the time of sale. Please note that any condition statement regarding works of art is given as a courtesy to our clients in order to assist them in assessing the condition. The report is a genuine opinion held by Shapiro Auctions & Appraisals LLC and should not be treated as a statement of fact. The absence of a condition report or a photograph does not preclude the absence of defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of any others. Shapiro Auctions & Appraisals, LLC., including its consultants and agents, shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.
ALEXEI SUNDUKOV (RUSSIAN B. 1952)
Star, 1988
oil on canvas
61 x 76 cm (24 x 30 in.)
framed dimensions: 71 x 85.5 cm (28 x 33 5/8 in.)
signed and dated lower right
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist by Private Collector, Connecticut
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
EXHIBITED
Pasadena, ArtCenter College of Design, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Forbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde, February 22?May 3, 1998; travelled to St. Petersburg, State Russian Museum, February 12?April 4, 1999; Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery, May 15?June 15, 1999; Oxford, Ohio, Miami University Art Museum, November 2?December 12, 1999
LITERATURE
Garrett White, ed., Forbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde (Los Angeles: Curatorial Assistance; New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 1998), ex. cat., p. 74 (illustrated)
LOT NOTES
Painted in 1988, at the height of perestroika, Star turns the central emblem of Soviet power into something unsettling. Up close, the red star is built from hundreds of identical gray spheres, each marked with a single point. They read as anonymous heads massed into one collective body, extending the crowd and queue imagery that made Sundukov's name in the late 1980s. Radiating from the star like beams of light are Soviet slogans and folk proverbs, including "Be prepared! Always prepared!" (the Young Pioneers' motto), "He who does not work, neither shall he eat," "A spectre is haunting Europe ? the spectre of communism," "Patience and labor will grind through anything," "To each his own," and "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Set against one another, official ideology, Christian ethics and peasant wisdom flatten into equally hollow noise.
A graduate of the Moscow Higher School of Art and Industry (the former Stroganov), Sundukov joined the Union of Artists in 1986. He rose to prominence through the Moscow youth exhibitions of the late 1980s, and in 1989?90 he was shown alongside David Salle and Peter Halley in the Soviet-American exchange exhibition 10+10. His work is held by the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, and the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection). The present work was reproduced in Forbidden Art, the catalogue of the landmark survey of postwar Russian unofficial art that toured from Pasadena to the State Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery.
Keywords: Soviet Nonconformist Art, Sots Art, Soviet Red Star Painting, Forbidden Art Exhibition, Perestroika Era Painting, Tretyakov Gallery Artist
N.B. Condition reports are available upon request. All lots are sold in as-is condition at the time of sale. Please note that any condition statement regarding works of art is given as a courtesy to our clients in order to assist them in assessing the condition. The report is a genuine opinion held by Shapiro Auctions & Appraisals LLC and should not be treated as a statement of fact. The absence of a condition report or a photograph does not preclude the absence of defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of any others. Shapiro Auctions & Appraisals, LLC., including its consultants and agents, shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.
