Culver City,
California
x
Maker: Aleksandr Amelin
The Specter is Haunting...
Date Made: 1990
Country: Soviet Union
Measurements: 93 cm x 63 cm x 3 cm; 36 5/8 in x 24 13/16 in x 1 3/16 in; 90 cm x 60.5 cm; 35 7/16 in x 23 13/16 in
The painting depicts a face that is made of four distinctive facial features of communist figures: (from the bottom to the top) the unkempt beard of Marx, the trademark mustache of Stalin, the bushy eyebrows of Brezhnev and the birthmark of Gorbachev. The upper edge is marked by a ruler, and there are numbers next to each quadrant of the face: 35, 78, 6, and 21 respectively. Below the facial composition are the words, “The specter is haunting…,” a shorter version of the famous quotation by Karl Marx, “A specter is haunting Europe - the specter of communism," the opening sentence of the Communist Manifesto (1848). Marx‘s declaration of principles was meant to oppose capitalism and pronounce the unstoppable rise of communism. At the time, this impending specter was to bring a better life. However, the quote, read after perestroika, has a sinister tone pointing to a painful memory of the Soviet Union that haunts those who lived through the communist past.
Accession Number: 2009.053.071
Item Name: Painting
Credit Line: The Ferris Russian Collection, Donated by Tom and Jeri Ferris
Collection/Series: The Ferris Russian Collection, Donated by Tom and Jeri Ferris