(photo by Del Hall)
Misha Livshulz and family are back again,
with an even larger and more fascinating exhibit
This year's centerpiece is the First Congress of the Soviets (1917),
as depicted by Misha's father, Chaim, in 1975
Detail areas of drapery make for a stronger abstract painting than anything that Jasper Johns or other contemporary Gray Masters have ever done.
I'm waiting for our local Trotskyites to place a few flowers on the floor beneath this fine portrait.
(correction: actually, this represents Yakov Sverdlov. Trotsky did not attend this meeting. The dark face behind him is Stalin)
And here's a fascinating document of art history : Chaim's explanation of "the gigantic power of party leadership, the revolutionary proletariat, and progressive intelligentsia"
It is, however, difficult for me to see this event as anything other than the greatest world disaster of the 20th Century
Here's one of Misha's plein air paintings from the Skokie Lagoons.
Same location - different season -- this one depicts Chaim painting in the same park
Misha did this in the 1970's --- before he came to Chicago
(and I love it!)
He painted this familiar scene this winter
...and yet again -- during one of those blasts from the arctic vortex
..and yet again this Spring while gallery sitting.
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self portrait
But the most exciting part of the show, at least for me, was the gallery taken by another Belorussian, Leonid Osseny, an architect and painter who also happens to be Misha's brother-in-law.
This is a portrait of his friend, a local Russian poet, Raphael Levchin
Leonid seems to be fascinated by the avant garde from a hundred years ago.
He brings it all back to life -- though it's not necessarily his life.
These pieces have so much centrifugal energy, I'm surprised they haven't exploded.
He's like a classical musician who loves to perform Stravinsky.
In the center is an homage to that masterpiece of Russian Supremistism: the black square by Kazimir Malevich.
As you might have noticed in the
piece recently purchased by the Art Institute Malevich was more of a designer than a painter --- the actual piece itself was roughly executed.
Leonid's blackness is much more painterly. (if that makes any difference)
And finally, we get a scale model of Lenin's Mausoleum in Red Square.
(Leonid is an architect - so you can believe this thing is detail perfect)
... a look down into the crypt
The people's hero -- after a visit to the taxidermist.
You might notice that the marching figures have been cut and pasted from Chaim's painting shown at the top of this post.
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(photo by Del Hall)
