Untitled
/1
- Untitled
- без названия
- 1990s
- marker, pencil, ballpoint-pen on paper
- 41,3 × 32,2 cm
Mark Verlan’s drawing combining Lenin and Buratino brings together two emblematic figures from radically different cultural spheres: the revolutionary leader and the popular wooden puppet of Soviet children’s literature. Through this improbable fusion, Verlan subjects the visual language of political authority to a playful yet incisive process of desacralization. Lenin, whose image occupied a central position within Soviet public iconography, is displaced into the realm of fiction, childhood, and theatrical masquerade. Buratino, in turn, acquires an unexpected political dimension. This hybrid subject challenges distinctions between historical personality and invented character, suggesting that political mythology itself depends upon narrative construction, repetition, and collective imagination. Verlan’s characteristic absurdism exposes the mechanisms through which ideological images become culturally ingrained. By merging Soviet political memory with a familiar fictional figure, the drawing transforms an authoritative icon into an unstable, ironic image that is open to reinterpretation. W.S.