Culver City,
California
x
Maker: Lozenko, Aleksandr
...1935-1940...
Date Made: 1987
Country: Soviet Union
Measurements: 56 cm x 88 cm; 22 1/16 in x 34 5/8 in
This work portrays a long train stretching into the distance out of frame, with only the passengers in the first car visible through the transparent rendering of the train’s exterior. The car is filled to the brim with passengers, all with similar facial expressions, standing upright, and closely packed together. Above the train is a cloud of dark smoke with the dates 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1940 written inside. There is a hint of faded numbers both before and after the written dates, suggesting the numbers would continue after 1940 if the smoke had continued. The date range encompasses the years of Stalin’s Great Purge, a period when hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens were arrested, exiled, and executed without fair trial on suspicion of disloyalty to the state. Those exiled were shipped by train to Siberia and the Soviet Far East to live in gulags or concentration camps, often to be never seen again. The crowd of people in the one visible train car represents the thousands of Soviet citizens exiled during this period, and the sheer number of them crammed into only one car out of the neverending line of cars attempts to visualize the enormous number of people arrested during this time.
Accession Number: 2009.053.103
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
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