Six compositions from the series 'Appearances': Sakharov, Stalin, Prigov, Perestroika, Nepravda, Glasnost

The retrospective exhibition of Dmitri Prigov's oeuvre at the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, in 2014 showcased several comparable works on Pravda newspapers dated June-July 1987. In parallel to the present lot, these works are also inscribed with their titles on the obverse: 'Horror', 'Glasnost' and 'Democratisation' respectively. According to the exhibition catalogue, these examples of Prigov's writings and drawings on newspapers belong to his series called ‘Appearances’ (K. Svetlyakov, Dmitri Prigov: From Renaissance to Conceptualism and Beyond, Moscow, 2014, pp. 75-77).
Although the artist began to work with newspapers in the late 1970s, Prigov actually created most of his artistic output in this medium from the late 1980s onwards, often favouring Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Challenging the dry and bureaucratic language of the newspaper, which often reported on the successes and achievements of the Soviet government, the artist used black and sometimes red colours to create a dark void in the middle of the page with certain key words; words of existential and philosophical meaning, with strong political connotations and almost cult significance for many Soviet people, words on everyone’s lips and in everyone’s minds. These words emerge, 'appearing' from the black nothingness, breaking through the small typographic font. Prigov demonstrates the hegemony and power of such words, questioning the true importance of official discourse and everything it represents by comparison, and creates a conflict between the printed words and his written ones.