The Chelsea Galleries is truly an immersive art experience. From the innovative High Line to the enclosed galleries to the brick nooks-and-crannies of the streets lined with graffiti, art is virtually everywhere. One of the pieces that really stood out to me was the 18 gold karat chains with the 24 gold karat Lenin pendants on display at the Lambard Fried Gallery.
It was not like many of the other pieces of art I was used to. Usually art works displayed on are canvas or in frames or monotone statue pieces. I think I was more used to graffiti art than the pure opulence that stood before me. However, I was able to rationalize that this was certainly art. Jewelry could be art, so why not this? I guess it was the sheer amount of lavishness. It did not help that this particular work was not exactly “out in the open,” compared to the statues (“Group of Teachers”) at the Matthew Marks Gallery, the High Line gardens where you could literally sit within the art, the graffiti you could lean against on the street walls, or even the photographs where you could inch closer and closer to.
The craftsmanship of the piece was masterful. The chains were done beautifully; the gold was absolutely stunning; the bust truly did capture Lenin very well. It certainly did look special. But then again, I think any shiny object made out of 18 and 24 karat gold would look heck of a lot of special.
The over the top lavishness did manage to add to the humor of the piece. Lenin and his Communist comrades threw out and exposed of the Romanovs for the same luxuries they kept for themselves and the poorer conditions they left the people in. They had fought for the poor and to have equal distribution of wealth. Yet they ended up with it all while the people again had to shoulder the few and their very expensive needs and wants. It really did capture what the lead Communists really were doing and what they really were all about (although Lenin is to have said to been a lot more genuine in the Communist philosophy and cause than his successors like Stalin). I think the artist did a good job of depicting this particular historical figure in choosing an interesting, but appropriate, medium.
