Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid might not be the hot figures in the art world that they were a decade or so ago, but their work from that period has lost none of its bite.
Gaining prominence first in the 1960s as dissident artists in the Soviet Union and later as émigrés in the United States, the two built a highly original body of work that was at once prickly and provocative, witty and whimsical.
While so much socio-political art is pat, obvious and just plain shallow, Komar and Melamid consistently invested their paintings, installations and performances with complexity and ambiguity, leaving ample room for viewers to draw their own conclusions.
In 1994-99, the artistic duo, which has since split, undertook a multifaceted project titled “American Dreams.” Key works from that effort – eight paintings and 40 collages – are on view through Nov. 11 at Mizel Arts & Culture Center’s Singer Gallery.
The pieces are on loan from Wayne Yakes, a doctor who directs the Vascular Malformation Center in Englewood and an obviously shrewd and knowledgeable collector. In an essay in the show’s catalog, he describes his fascinating, dogged pursuit of these works with the help of Mina Litinsky, the unsung owner of the Sloane Gallery in LoDo.
In “American Dreams,” Komar and Melamid draw on their immigrant heritage to delve into a sensitive and potentially controversial realm – the patriotic iconography, cultural mythology and national heroes of primarily Russia and the United States.
By taking symbols and images out of their usual context and recombining them in unexpected, sometimes startling ways, the two artists force viewers to reconsider these iconic elements that are so familiar that we normally accept them without question.
The exhibition’s main component is a group of eight mock allegorical paintings that draw on the exaggerated, heroic style of socialist realism and reach back to the historical and mythological traditions of Jacques-Louis David and others.
The main figures in these eight works are George Washington and Vladimir Lenin, the founding fathers of their respective countries and governmental ideologies. But Isadora Duncan and Marcel Duchamp also make a guest appearance in a 66-by-98-inch canvas titled “Lenin, Washington, Duchamp and Duncan.”
The defining composition, which, not surprisingly, adorns the cover the show’s catalog, is “George Washington as Victor With Hitler and Stalin’s Heads” (1996-1997), an 8-by-4-foot tempera and oil on canvas.
It depicts Washington, holding the heads in each hand, on a pedestal with the words, “Washington Lives.” Above him is the seal of the United States.
It is unsettling sight, to be sure. Komar and Melamid have jumbled history in a bold, surprising way, forcing viewers to recall that Washington was a general and that America’s independence and the defeat of fascism and communism was overcome through hot and cold wars.
The rest of the exhibition is devoted to smaller works on board that make up a series titled “40 Sketches/Collages for the Opera.” Along with the paintings, they shaped the plot and served as scenery for the artistic duo’s opera, “Naked Revolution,” which debuted at The Kitchen in New York City in 1998.
At the bottom of each of the collages is a photograph of a Russian emigre – Komar – speaking to a psychiatrist (who not coincidentally resembles Freud) about his dreams of Washington, Lenin and others, that are depicted above.
These pointed yet often humorous works travel further afield than the paintings, incorporating a larger array of imagery and figures, ranging from Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2” to Jesus Christ.
This thought-provoking look at a recent slice of art history makes clear that despite the recent burst of new and expanded institutions on the Denver art scene, the Singer Gallery still fills a vital niche.
“Vitaly Komar & Alexander Melamid’s American Dreams” Art exhibit. Singer Gallery, Mizel Arts & Culture Center, Jewish Community Center, 350 S. Dahlia St. An exhibition of collages and paintings by the Russian-born artistic team of Komar and Melamid. Through Nov. 11. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays Free. 303-316-6360 or .
