Stalin and the Muses

Personally, I have a much more heightened interest in the Sots-art movement of Komar and Melamid more than any other movement in Soviet art. I feel personally rather cut off from the “genius” elitist ideals of modernism in the West and, obviously because of lack of lived experience, to the simultaneous style of Socialist Realism in the East, both of which fail to speak to my artistic sentiments. Yet, Komar and Melamid’s historical satire speak volumes to what I like to see out of culture: the underlying critiques of flawed systems. And Komar and Melamid’s work does just that, much like the Dada and Surrealist artists of the post-WWI era. I especially like this painting, Stalin and the Muses, which, to me, is the physical embodiment of the caricature scenes depicted in post-WWI literature by setting up absurd scenery that is marred by a negative image but depicted in a comical way.

Regardless of the way Sots-art fits in with the critical movements of other time periods, the way Komar and Melamid framed this painting ties in the histories of other time periods, similar to the way Lenin and Stalin constructed the international socialist history and manipulated these to create some sort of unified culture for the broad ethnic spectrum of the Soviet Union. They situated Stalin amongst the Roman emperors of history classical architectural style of the Romans (the arch) and the “Muses of Antiquity,” evoking the power of Stalin as the emperor presiding over the vast expansive empire of the Soviet Union, ironically replacing the elitist empire of the old Russian monarchy with its own. They also appropriated the imagery of David’s portrait of Napoleon in a similar manner, to further the image of Stalin as the heroic emperor. By doing this, they situated Stalin within the histories of other “great” emperors to satirize Stalin’s depiction of himself as the godlike father of the Soviet Union and the narcissistic imagery of himself in the paintings of Socialist Realism.Beyond that, they also place Stalin within the annals of the history of empires, most of which (the classical ones at least) had declined, much like Stalin’s regime after Khrushchev’s secret speech deleted him from Soviet history. Also, they play on Socialist Realism by making Stalin the central image, as he always was during the height of official art. Basically, this works serves as a revision to the created myth of Stalin in Soviet art, but not in a way that deletes him from history like Khrushchev had hoped. Rather, Komar and Melamid wished to keep Stalin as he “existed” during his reign as a reminder of the absurdity and contradictory nature of Stalin.