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A shaded utility pole with bright orange power lines attached to its four insulators stands atop a hill with the words “Premonition of War” inscribed underneath. Instead of coming straight out of the ground, the pole zigzags to the left, giving it the appearance of a hovering cross. The war in the title of the painting might refer to “the war on the environment,” an issue hotly debated among critical intellectuals during the last years of the Soviet Union.
Sergei Alexandrov, Premonition of War, 1990
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A Byzantine-style portrait of St. Nicholas fills the composition, his slightly asymmetric eyes gazing off to the left and his lips highlighted by a dark red shade. A yellow halo around the saint’s head contains a faint cross. St. Nicholas is one of the most venerated Russian Orthodox saints, and a popular subject on icons, for he is seen as the protector against catastrophes in Russia. The painting references the new national and religious pride of the Russian Federation after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Alexei Rezaev, St. Nicholas, 1992
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A relief sculpture of a crucifix is painted against a twilight sky. A bucket covers the top of the cross. The Ukrainian text on the left of the image reads, “Whose sons? Where are the parents?” This might be a reference to the numerous youths who lost their lives during the Second World War or as a result of foreign occupation of Ukraine throughout the centuries.
Andrei Vishnevski and Yuri Panfilov, Untitled, 1989
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