Collections Database

Label Text:
At the age of eighteen, Shemiakin was expelled from art school for his non-conformist views. To cure him of his “sick modernistic tendencies,” the authorities subjected him to psychiatric treatment in 1961. Further confrontations prompted Shemiakin’s emigration to France in 1971; he would eventually settle in New York ten years later.

Here, the artist transforms the Soviet Union’s national symbol, a bear, into a critique: with its mouth tied, the beast forces free-thinking citizens into the private refuge of their minds. Two vertical signal lines seem to hang suspended in air, without substantial support, suggesting a failure of security. Meticulously rendered in line and color, the print restricts its joyfully saturated composition within cautious, vigilant borders.
MW, 2010

Tags:
abstract; stylization; birds; faces; animals; lines; patterns

Subjects:
patterns (design elements); Animals; Art, Abstract; Birds; Face; lines (artistic concept); stylization

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2001.430

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.