The context is important here. Remember, what is 1979? In the “decaying West”, there is a computer revolution. There is an incredible seething of energies, a passionate explosion. In the U.S., there is a consumption boom. At the same time, in the USSR, the era of stagnation is in full swing. Propaganda on the background of growing scarcity. But at the same time, 1979 was a time of rapid scientific and technological progress and a paradoxical flowering of culture! Such a strange time of disappointments, successes and hopes. And all these fears, doubts and optimism became part of the large-scale work of Petr Belenok — the creator of the unique concept of “panic realism”.

While living in the Soviet Union, Ernst Neizvestny did not consider himself a dissident. He saw the harassment and insults from the political leadership as “local excesses” and a manifestation of the “uncultured” nomenklatura. But Neizvestny had had enough of the totalitarian system. And he knew the price of freedom in every sense. And that, in fact, was why he left.

David Burliuk is known as the father of Russian futurism. As a young man, he and his friend Vladimir Mayakovsky gave out a lot of slaps to public taste. The futurists painted their faces, wore bright clothes, decorated the buttonhole of their jackets with spoons — in general, they terrified the average man. Then the revolution — emigration — quiet fruitful work in America. It is no coincidence that the majority of works we see today on the market are items from the American period.