Leonid Sokov is a Russian artist who immigrated to the United States in the midst of the Cold War. This piece, Marilyn & The Bear was shown by Art Link International, Lake Worth, Florida.
His work takes the only officially sanctioned style in the USSR (Soviet Realism) and blends it with Pop Art. The idea behind it is that ideology itself is an “item of consumption.”
Normally when I see a piece with an image of Marilyn Monroe in it I roll my eyes (Artists? Stop? Please? Also lay off the American Flag, Abraham Lincoln, James Dean and soup cans). This piece, Marilyn & The Bear is different aesthetically and in its context. It LOOKS different and is based on a different photo of the iconic actress.
It is also aesthetically interesting and unique. So many other bits of new “Marilyn” art make you say “oh..look…a Warhol” and then realize that it is a Warhol someone pissed on and covered in glitter.
Russia has also embraced their native son Sokov, with the Moscow Museum of Modern Art holding a major retrospective of the artist’s work earlier in 2012.
His work takes the only officially sanctioned style in the USSR (Soviet Realism) and blends it with Pop Art. The idea behind it is that ideology itself is an “item of consumption.”
Normally when I see a piece with an image of Marilyn Monroe in it I roll my eyes (Artists? Stop? Please? Also lay off the American Flag, Abraham Lincoln, James Dean and soup cans). This piece, Marilyn & The Bear is different aesthetically and in its context. It LOOKS different and is based on a different photo of the iconic actress.
It is also aesthetically interesting and unique. So many other bits of new “Marilyn” art make you say “oh..look…a Warhol” and then realize that it is a Warhol someone pissed on and covered in glitter.
Russia has also embraced their native son Sokov, with the Moscow Museum of Modern Art holding a major retrospective of the artist’s work earlier in 2012.
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