Lot 259: Arkady Petrov , Russian b.1940 Buttons, 1990 mixed media on canvas mounted onto board

signed twice, titled and inscribed in Cyrillic and dated 1990 (on the reverse) mixed media on canvas mounted onto board

measurements 59 by 59 in. alternate measurements 150 by 150 cm

Renee Baigell and Matthew Baigell, Soviet Dissident Artists: Interviews after Perestroika, New Brunswick. N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995, p. 232

Arkady Petrov is a very sophisticated, well-trained painter who has adopted the manner of an ingenious primitive or naïve artist who uses elements of Russian kitsch. He finds and transforms images based on postcards, greetings cards, stuffed animals, and cheap souvenirs. As he has said, "The basis of my work is kitsch--the marketplace, the bazaar. I am interested in what poor people sell, like candy wrappers. Their culture interests me very much. Mass culture is my culture because I am a product of that culture."

Yet Petrov's art is not a Russian version of Pop Art, which is based on the surface appearances of objects in popular culture. In effect, he is a social and psychological historian of the lives of common folk.