Culver City,
California
x
With A Big Communist Greeting!
Date Made: 1991
Country: Soviet Union
Method: Tempera paint on fiberboard
Measurements: 70.5 cm x 100.5 cm; 27 3/4 in x 39 9/16 in
At first glance, this painting looks like a typical soviet poster propagating communism by using an image of Lenin and a slogan “With a big communist greeting!” However, this painting is actually a mockery of communism and Lenin. The phrase “s privetom” in colloquial Russian means “wrong in the head” and to complement these words, Lenin is making a hand gesture that shows that he is “loose in head.” In addition, the background color of this poster is yellow, which could be associated with “yellow house” which is another colloquial expression for an insane asylum in Russian. The word play, the gesture and the background color all ridicule the revolutionary figure and the communist state that he created. The idea was that communism was all a fanatical idea and the man who dedicated his life to this ideology was crazy as well. Essentially, this entire system of the Soviet Union was a loony bin. The red butterfly that appears on Lenin’s left chest is a parody of the red ribbon that Lenin often wore to symbolize the revolution. While there is a comical aspect to the butterfly, there is a fatal meaning behind it as well. If one looks carefully, one can see that the butterfly has a face of a skull, an allusion to the dark side of the revolution, communism and Lenin. The ideology that was promised to give people a better life actually did the opposite and the artist is using the skull-faced butterfly to highlight both the ridiculousness and the deadliness of the communist ideology.
Accession Number: 2009.053.166
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