Soft Lenin (2018)

The piece was made of the found original embroidered portrait of Lenin of Soviet times. Frame dimensions are 86 x 66 cm | 33.8 x 25.9 inch. The unframed painting is 70 x 50 cm | 27.5 x 19.6 inch. It is signed, titled, and dated on the back.

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The piece was made of the found original embroidered portrait of Lenin of Soviet times. This peculiar image has attracted the artist by the meagreness of detailing for rather large work. Apparently, the unknown author of the original embroidery wanted to emphasize the significance of the figure of the world proletariat leader with the size of the portrait. However, he did not bother with the quality of elaboration.
This detail, in the best way possible, characterizes the Soviet system itself. The huge Soviet Union population was engaged in seemingly a fundamental matter ‒ the building of communism ‒ but it did it somehow carelessly, reluctantly.
Once, the leader of a formidable empire now looks not intimidating at all, surrounded by a kitsch frame and soft pompons, adding the image of a kind of eccentricity. Lenin looks at us through streams of blue tears, regretting his ideas' death due to undiligent followers.

In 2015 the Ukrainian government banned all symbols and images associated with the USSR. But numerous oil portraits, sculptures, monuments, and other images of Lenin began to be removed from public places decades before the "decommunization laws." What happened to the hundreds of thousands of portraits of former Soviet leader? Many of them are already destroyed. Some of them had been left in attics or basements. Oleksandr is looking for all these forgotten things and giving them a new life and new artistic content.