Triumph

Materials

Oil on canvas; 89.00 × 58.50 cm

About the artist

Igor Baskakov graduated from the Tver College of Art, where he had received a very traditional art training in portrait and landscape painting. During his time in the army he learnt about Socialist Art and painted typical Russian propaganda placards for the Union of Soviet poster artists.
After his military service, Baskakov, probably inspired by his famous fellow artists Erik Bulatov and Ilja Kabakov, started to play with Soviet symbolism. However, compared to his two forerunners, he added a contemporary twist to conceptual art. The Soviet Union no longer existed and so he mixes the symbols of the East with the symbols of the West, politics and propaganda battle commerce and dullness. His paintings are full of nuances and ambivalent allusions. All of his works are one-of-a-kind-oil paintings. Thereby he ironically breaks his commercial poster-like style, which underlines the exchangeability of today’s advertising. In a Russian art scene affected by regulations and constraints, Baskakov creates his very own, critical Pop-Art.