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The image of an etching-like black-and-white eye dominates the painting, with a single tear in the colors of the Russian flag. Reflected in the pupil is the date 21.08.91, the day of the attempted coup by the State Emergency Committee to oust Gorbachev from power. The painting honors the memory of those fallen defending the White House, the Russian parliament building.
Sergei Sukharev, Dedicated to the Memory of Those Fallen Defending the White House, 1991
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The painting features a large buttocks wearing a Soviet Army cap and two floating shoulders marked with Soviet Army insignias. It has the faint outline of a nose, giving it the appearance of a face, and beneath it are the letters “GKChP� (in Russian) in the form of feces. The GKChP was the acronym for the State Emergency Committee, the group of Communist Party hard-liners who attempted to overthrow Gorbachev in August 1991. The ridiculous image of a buttocks in Soviet military apparel alongside the painting title mocks the GKChP and their coup attempt.
Mikhail Rozhdestvin, An Official Announcement, 1991
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An octopus is multitasking to repaint himself. One arm is painting his forehead, obscuring the Soviet hammer and sickle with the colors of the flag of the Russian Federation. Other arms embrace a stack of American dollars; a microphone; a copy of Pravda, the leading newspaper of the Soviet Union; a book by Marx; a pen; and a fired gun that has shot off the arm that held it. Alexei Rezaev, Repainting Itself, 1991
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