Provenance
Livet Reichard Company, Inc., New York
Exhibited
New York, Phyllis Kind Gallery, 1989
Catalogue Essay
This painting by Eduard Gorokhovsky presents a characteristic painterly montage by superimposition: a portrait of a 19th century lady is laid over the image of a Soviet demonstration.
The portrait almost completely blocks out the demonstration in the background, but one can still see that its members include people whose chests are decked out with medals and combat ribbons. In a sense, Gorokhovsky's use of the traditional modernist method of collage is not synchronic but diachronic: like fragments of a puzzle, images are not placed next to one another as equals. Instead, they overlap in layers, canceling one another out as though seen over time. In this sense, historicity plays a central role, though it has been inverted, since the earlier image actually wins out in the end.
This superimposition can be read in a number of ways. The pre¬revolutionary past is better than Soviet reality; the image of an individual human being deserves more attention than an image of the crowd. As an autonomous work of art, the traditional portrait contains far more moral truth than a picture with an ideological message; if it is really painting, and not propaganda, painting is far more noble than photography (the piece's ‘bottom layer,' the image of the demonstration has clearly been painted from a photograph.)
Needless to say, Gorokhovsky shares all these positions. Yet despite his obvious distaste for the images of Soviet propaganda, his own paintings are also ideological statements, and quite passionate ones at that. Only their spirit is liberal and even openly anti-communist. His montage criticizes the superficiality and falseness of the Soviet ‘façade,' but this critique actually works by creating a façade of its own falsehoods. The medals and combat¬ribbons on the demonstrator's chests are no coincidence; much in the same way, Gorokhovsky's painting wears a ‘medal' of its own, albeit in the form of a classical portrait painting.
The present painting contains yet another truth: in the end, both image planes are reproductions, postcards, little more than rectangular pieces of paper, and nobody really knows which of them contains more traces of reality. After all, Gorokhovsky painted the demonstration from a photograph, while his 19th century portrait is clearly a copy of a postcard reproduction. He has never set eyes upon the original in either case, and neither have we.
Dr Ekaterina Degot

7

Eduard Gorokhovsky

Untitled

1981
Oil on canvas.
100 x 80 cm. (39 3/8 x 31 1/2 in).
Signed ‘E.Gorokhovsky 81 [in Cyrillic]’ lower right.

Estimate
£30,000 - 40,000 ‡

Important Contemporary Russian Art–Property from a Foundation

28 Feb 2008, 6pm
London

1
Igor Makarevich
Liberty
Estimate £8,000 - 12,000 ‡♠
Sold for £29,300
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2
Igor Makarevich
Freedom
Estimate £8,000 - 12,000 ‡♠
Sold for £14,900
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3
Eduard Gorokhovsky
Untitled (Stalin)
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡
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4
Eduard Gorokhovsky
Bitsa
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡
Sold for £24,500
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5
Eduard Gorokhovsky
Dukat
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡
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6
Eduard Gorokhovsky
Manezh
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡
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7
Eduard Gorokhovsky
Untitled
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡
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8
Simon Faibisovich
Indoor Family Portrait
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £180,500
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9
Simon Faibisovich
Line up for the Wine/At Last
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ‡♠
Sold for £41,300
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10
Simon Faibisovich
One More Glance at the Black Sea
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠
Sold for £300,500
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11
Yuri Albert
Dispute III
Estimate £3,000 - 4,000 ‡♠
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12
Estimate £8,000 - 12,000 ‡♠
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13
Estimate £8,000 - 12,000 ‡♠
Sold for £13,700
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14
Ilya Kabakov
Beetle
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,932,500
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15
Ilya Kabakov
The Little Water Sprite
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡♠
Sold for £204,500
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16
Erik Bulatov
Glory to the CPSU
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17
Erik Bulatov
Street at Night
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18
Erik Bulatov
Urban Painting
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ‡♠
Sold for £108,500
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19
Oleg Vassiliev
Variations on the theme of the Ogonyok magazine cover
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £356,500
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20
Oleg Vassiliev
Broken Tree (Tarusa)
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ‡♠
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21
Oleg Vassiliev
Figure in a Circle
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠
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22
Oleg Vassiliev
Where are you?
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23
Oleg Vassiliev
Necessary Meadow
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24
Ivan Chuikov
Fragment No. 6
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25
Ivan Chuikov
Fragment No. 4
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26
Ivan Chuikov
Road Accident
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27
Yuri Dyshlenko
Return to Landscape
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28
Yuri Dyshlenko
Where and How to Look for Gold
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29
Pyotr Belenok
Big Moon
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30
Pyotr Belenok
Interplanetary Station
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31
Natalya Nesterova
Griffin
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32
Natalya Nesterova
Endless Beach
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33
Natalya Nesterova
Coin
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34
Anatoly Slepyshev
Morning
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35
Anatoly Slepyshev
Solovinaya Night
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36
Sergey Volkov
C¬4 Matroshka
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37
Sergey Volkov
A-10
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38
Dmitry Plavinsky
Cosmic Leaf
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Sold for £78,500
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39
Dmitry Plavinsky
Shell
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Important Contemporary Russian Art–Property...

28 Feb 2008, 6pm London

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

7

Eduard Gorokhovsky

Untitled

Important Contemporary Russian Art–Property from a Foundation

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28 Feb 2008, 6pm
London