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.

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