Self Portrait of Oleg Komov
My Armenian sculptor friend,
Vartkes Barsoumian ,
has been sending me more photos of Soviet sculpture lately,
including this self portrait by one of my favorites,
Oleg Komov
For some reason,
sculptors just are not as inclined
as painters
to produce portraits of themselves
Perhaps because they cannot easily
see all-the-way around their own head ?
Or perhaps because,
having chosen a profession
that has traditionally had the responsibility
of making objects for worship,
they have been a bit too modest
to present themselves up on the pedestal.
But thankfully,
Oleg Komov,
a great sculptor of heroic figures
from Russian history,
overcame whatever modesty he ever had
to offer us himself ...
and a wonderful sculpture it is !
Swaggering,
self assured,
and looked up to,
with a rather blank stare of admiration,
by one of his own pieces.
Go Oleg !
Vartkes Barsoumian ,
has been sending me more photos of Soviet sculpture lately,
including this self portrait by one of my favorites,
Oleg Komov
For some reason,
sculptors just are not as inclined
as painters
to produce portraits of themselves
Perhaps because they cannot easily
see all-the-way around their own head ?
Or perhaps because,
having chosen a profession
that has traditionally had the responsibility
of making objects for worship,
they have been a bit too modest
to present themselves up on the pedestal.
But thankfully,
Oleg Komov,
a great sculptor of heroic figures
from Russian history,
overcame whatever modesty he ever had
to offer us himself ...
and a wonderful sculpture it is !
Swaggering,
self assured,
and looked up to,
with a rather blank stare of admiration,
by one of his own pieces.
Go Oleg !
posted by chris miller at 9:30 AM
3 Comments:
Am I allowed to agree this time Chris? I do like this work. Yes it is a very clever self expresson.
Yes it does show off his, as you put it;
Swaggering,
self assured,
and looked up to,
with a rather blank stare of admiration,
but it also hints at his own human frailties; he wears a corset to hold his tummy in, he has not tried to hide his own vanity as I would do by giving myself the “perfect male physique”.
Vartkes tells me that Oleg was controversial -- people love him or hate him -- and I do believe that if he had made this self-portrait 50 years earlier, he might have earned himself a free ride on a cattle car to the Gulag.
Hah!
I liked the way you describe the little head looking up to him.
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