Dubossarsky and Vinogradov

Between Pop Art and Social Realism, Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky's paintings illustrate the daily paradise of the 21st century.

When they began working together in 1994, Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky threw a veritable brick through the window of the russian art world; the time being ripe for radicalism and conceptual art for Moscow. In the middle of this peaceful battlefield, both artists impose their will to launch a project in agreement with time and current fashion trends. In contrast to the radicals, their statement is neither violent nor in protest but simply covering the covers of magazines and film posters.

With an aesthetic stemming from social realism (a privilege of the soviet period), their paintings illustrate a close connection to Pop Art; the central character arises from imagery of mass. With the will to fade as artists, they have decided to create public images like the social paintings of the previous century. But, the world has changed. The wall has fallen and the empire has collapsed leaving this place to a new ideology of consumption.

Their social paintings have been adapted to a new reality where we see magnificent women, film actors, animals, comic strip heroes... Just as the capitalist dream extended through the entire earth, Dubossarsky and Vinogradov want to reach a global audience.

Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky want to develop a transparent, understandable painting that speaks a universal language. But their works is addressed particularly to Russia. In 1994, Russia emerged out of Perestroika while a certain fear of the future remained. Everything needed to be made, but without precedent to guide them.

The art then decided that everything will be alright and created images as perfect as the dream promised in the magazines. For this to their new beginnings, the two artists populate their paintings with nude characters. They were and always will be determined to please those who look at their works, to offer them images of paradise.

But how does one elaborate on a four hand painting? Difficult to explain, even for the main protagonists. Discussion in any case is not based on colors or tones. Construction is another. Composing a collage with an overhead projector, both artists then draw by hand the reproduced images. Their sources are obviously the popular media: television, magazines and books of all kinds.

The stage concerning the choice of what comprised the final result is a matter of immediacy. If one of them decides no, then the answer is no. Discussion happens only if both are in doubt, which does not happen very often.

And it works! Dubossarsky and Vinogradov have represented Russia at the 50th Biennial event of Venice in 2003. They exhibited in Germany, Spain, Hungary, Lithuania, the United States, France, and in the United Kingdom. Their works are in numerous museum collections such as the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Historic Museum in Bonn, Germany as well as the Museum of Modern Art of Houston in the United States or the Russian National Museum in Saint-Petersburg.