Lot number 479 - Auction 161
'LASST ES KRACHEN!'

GINO SINIGAGLIA 1937 Moscow - 1997 ibid. 'LET'S HAVE A BLAST!' Dated 1972 Oil, ink, assemblage on canvas laid down on cardboard. 50 x 70 cm. Signed in Cyrillic lower right 'G.S.'. Verso: signed in Cyrillic and dated. This work is a characteristic example of Sinigaglia's assemblages, in which historical objects are brought together to form a new, associative composition. Here, the artist combines three Imperial Russian banknotes of 50 roubles (1899), 25 roubles (1909) and 3 roubles (1905), a menu from the 'Ermitage' restaurant (St. Petersburg, 1910) - a symbol of the sunset of the Silver Age, where Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and Tchaikovsky dined - four playing cards and a ribbon united under a hooligan, ironic slang inscription, turning nostalgia into criticism. Gino Sinigaglia - a Russian-Italian avant-gardist, member of the group "21 Moscow Artists" and a representative of Moscow's unofficial art scene of the Soviet post-war period. Following his studies, he developed an expressive artistic language independent of Socialist Realism and participated in numerous underground exhibitions, including the legendary 'Bulldozer Exhibition' of 1974. He called himself an artist-archivist, pasting into his works genuine historical artifacts that he preserved during Soviet times, risking his freedom. Five paintings by Gino Sinigaglia are in the collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA). Provenance: Gino Sinigaglia Archive.