Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky

Have worked together since 1994. Participans in the Venice Biennale (2003, Russian pavilion); the Cetinje Biennial (1997), among many others. Included in the collections of the Tretyakov, the RussianMuseum, the GeorgePompidouCenter ( Paris) and MAK ( Vienna), and others.

A decade, the work of this imaginative Moscow art duo could be found everywhere: on the cover of a Talking Heads album; in a book by eminent Russian author Viktor Pelevin; on the walls of the largest international fairs. The number of copycats they have spawned is countless. By rehabilitating the Stalin-era style of painting, Vinogradov and Dubossarsky allowed others to stop being self-conscious about the rigid artistic training they received from Socialist Realist masters. The Four Seasons of Russian Painting was produced by Vinogradov and Dubossarsky for the opening of the new permanent display of 20th-century art at the Tretyakov Gallery. For this rather conservative institution, they offered a restrained piece. The Four Seasons does not scandalize, but rather reconciles and unites conflicting styles and images. Here Stalin and Voroshilov, side by side, gaze into the distance with the beggar from Surikov’s Boyarinya Morozova; a sorrowful lyric poet of the 1960s shows off Malevich’s Black Square; and the Nazi Shot-Down Ace by Alexander Deineka falls into a river from one of the Wanderers’ paintings. Each masterpriece is treated equally. The Four Seasons is a dramatic rethinking of the methods of Socialist Realism, which was founded on eclecticism and a selection of quotes from “right” and “popular” artists of the 19th century. Vinogradov and Dubossarsky have carried the pleasure of realistic, if plain, art into today’s word.
Valentin Dyakonov

Зима. Из серии Времена года русской живописи. 2007. Печать на холсте, акрил, 195х2900 (20 частей, 195х145 каждая) Winter. From the series The Four Seasons of Russian Painting. 2007. Print and acrylic on canvas. 195 х 2,900 cm. (20 parts, 195 х 145 cm. each)

Весна. Из серии Времена года русской живописи. 2007. Печать на холсте, акрил, 195х2900 (20 частей, 195х145 каждая) Spring. From the series The Four Seasons of Russian Painting. 2007. Print and acrylic on canvas. 195 х 2,900 cm. (20 parts, 195 х 145 cm. each)

Лето. Из серии Времена года русской живописи. 2007. Печать на холсте. акрил, 195х2900 (20 частей, 195х145 каждая) Summer. From the series The Four Seasons of Russian Painting. 2007. Print and acrylic on canvas. 195 х 2,900 cm. (20 parts, 195 х 145 cm. each)

Осень. Из серии Времена года русской живописи. 2007. Печать на холсте, акрил. 195х2900 (20 частей, 195х145 каждая) Autumn. From the series The Four Seasons of Russian Painting. 2007. Print and acrylic on canvas. 195 х 2,900 cm. (20 parts, 195 х 145 cm. each