I don't want to be a Russian artist...

New York, 2010

I met Alexander Melamid in New York in 2007 when he moved into a studio next to mine. It was the time when Russian art market was flourishing. The New York Times business section was writing about millions paid by Russian collectors for Russian contemporary art at Sotheby’s and Phillips de Pury auctions. Melamid, who enjoyed a successful career in New York since 1978 working in tandem with Vitaliy Komar, saw for the first time his works sold for top dollars to Russian collectors. All of a sudden he realized that now they called him a “Russian artist”.

When the prices for oil tumbled, the Russian collectors stopped buying. Seeing the crash of the Russian market, Alexander Melamid walked into my studio and cried out: “I don’t want to be a Russian artist”. I asked him: “Who do you want to be?” and he provided me with a number of answers. Many of the answers reflected mixed fillings of an artist from Russia who has built a career in the West.

Melamid said that he wanted to be:

The Queen of England
A Rapper from Brooklyn
A Japanese Samurai
A Wall Street broker
A cat
A Sea Queen
A Rhyme from Poetry
…

Inspired by this idea I started painting dualistic portraits with the first painting entitled I Don’t Want to be a Russian Artist, I want to be the Queen of England, depicting the Queen and Alexander Melamid. Soon a painting entitled I don’t want to be a Russian Artist, I want to be a Chinese Artist depicting myself and Yue Minjun was created. I started applying the idea of dualistic portrait to a number of individuals and objects and the following paintings came about:

I don’t want to be Joseph Stalin, I want to be Mao Zedong
I don’t want to be Chuck Close, I want to be Ai Weiwei
I don’t want to be Poor, I want to be Rich
I don’t want to be Andy Warhol, I want to be Mao Zedong
I don’t want to be a Russian Vodka, I want to be a Chinese Vodka
I don’t Want to be a Russian Grenade, I Want to be a Chinese Grenade
I don’t want to be Peggy Guggenheim, I want to be Victor Pinchuk
I don’t want to be Yves Saint Laurent, I want to be Karl Lagerfeld
Rick perry and barack obama, strong lone star
I don’t want to be a Russian artist, I want to be Friedrich Nietzsche
I don’t want to be the Founder of Yuan Dynasty, I want to be the Founder of Facebook
I don’t want to be Ralph Lauren, I want to be Marc Ecko
I don’t want to be a Bear, I want to be a Tiger

As I continue creating dualistic portraits, I understand more and more the value of political, social or economical commentary that my paintings reveal by bringing together “I don’t want to be, I want to be”.

To be, or not to be…
Hamlet
William Shakespeare

By Anton S. Kandinsky