(google images)

Artists Komar and Melamid have been pivotal in the portray of art and history under repressive and autocratic governments since the 1970’s. According to Valerie Hillings, the duo have used their artwork to “debate, negotiate, and critique the process by which governments and other power elites manipulate both history and art history in their efforts to achieve specific ideological goals” (1). I thought it was very interesting how the two artists approached the task of incorporating all of Soviet society into an exhibit, as the task must have been monumental because it was during this time that many of Soviet era art pieces were also being destroyed after the collapse of the regime. I liked how the artists incorporated major symbols of Soviet history onto the cover of the catalogue, to include Lenin’s head, the hammer, and the sickle. The setting sun beneath all these symbols represented the dawn of a new era, which I think captured the entire movement quite well.