514 - Alexander Melamid,

Alexander Melamid, Russian b.1945 - Anti-heroes of the XX Century, 2020; ten silkscreens on canvas, edition 1/1, each stamped with signature on the reverse 'Alex Melamid', each 100.5 x 74.5 cm (unframed) (10) Note: a copy of the Certificate of Authenticity from the Artist, signed and dated 10th October 2020, New York, accompanies this lot. The work is edition 1/1 with the Author's Proof (AP) owned by the Artist. The sitters are: Bugsi Siegel, David Berkovitz, Genrikh Yagoda, Julia Brystiger, Lazar Kaganovich, Matvei Berman, Matyas Rakosi, Meyer Lansky, Naftal Frenkel and Rosalia Zemlyachka. Melamid rose to prominence in the late 1960s as part of an Soviet Pop Art duo Komar & Melamid, who parodied Socialist realist imagery, which they called Sots Art. The two emigrated to New York in 1978 after being declared political dissident by the Russian government. They were included in Documenta 8 in Kassel in 1987 and, in the mid-1990s, a project with the Dia Center for the Arts that surveyed public taste in painting country by country. The present lot takes cues from the work of Andy Warhol.