The Tennis Player according to Oriabinsky

If we gather all Soviet artists under the label of Socialist Realism and do not look behind and beyond then we could be wrong. This ping-pong player was painted in the 1970's. The guy has a kind of dry humor: dry, not cynical - it is dry in order to give us a signal, hey folks, forget about Socialist Realism and Real Socialism, just laugh and feel good. He is just playing with us, for him the game is an imaginative dance and we are challenged to join.


(Principle Gallery)