Kozik's Stalin bust
Artist Frank Kozik, best known for leading the concert poster revival, created this strange plastic bust of Stalin smoking a cigarette and wearing a baseball jersey. The bust is 15-inches tall and sells for $199.95 from KidRobot. The Web shop seems to be sold out but I just spotted one at my local Kidrobot retail store.Link
the latest
latest episodes
you can also snag it online in Army Green at Uberbot Online.
These colors are also available
Pinkghost - White
Rotofugi - Cyan Flocked
Cardboardspaceship - Silver
Chindogu Gallery - Black
Juxtapoz- Red
Mmm seems like a bit much, even for a cheerfully artistic paperweight.
Of course, what do I know about modern anti-communist art?
Do we REALLY want to glorify STALIN in art? Even if it's ironic art, this guy was a MAJOR dickhead.
Yes he was, Moon. But Ironic Appropriation is the ultimate up yours. It's like slapping a Kick Me sign on the back of Darth Vader's cape.
They must be trying to appeal to the Che-T-shirt-wearing crowd.
sweet, im getting one!
The problem is, most of the punks who would buy this thing have NO knowledge of what a dickhead Stalin was.
If your going to do a Soviet figure, might as well do Lenin. Much more striking in appearance and more iconic. Either way, $200, no.
I know what a "dickhead" Stalin was and I will be getting one. It will go nicely with my Mao bust.
I can't imagine wanting this in my home except that I love the bubblegum pink this one's done in.
must be nice to have money to burn
While it is still interesting to cross-wire pop and political idolatry, you have to wonder about the results when there is no statement by the artist to describe this process. Does the site have a manifesto that outlines the artist's reasons for choosing this person? The clothes? The colours? The cigarette? Or is it all just left to the audience to decide the common denominator of least effort? Shock value alone is not enough to justify re-idolizing, even ironically, a mass murderer. I was going to comment that the intended market is probably the kind of person who has a poster of Mao on their wall, but AGITPROP beat me to it. I hope it was a joke. I guess the question is, how many people does one have to kill before a hipster will consider putting a day-glo icon of you on their wall? Is the act of selling it at gallery prices a comment on the politics of the subject? What if the politics of the subject were different, or unjustifiable? Would you buy a bust of Idi Amin? Milosevic? Klebold? Not that a bust of any of them wouldn't, in the right situation and with an artist's statement, be a rational concept, but you want that in your house? What does it say about how easy it is to insulate ourselves from some murders but not others?
We have been watching Mr. Kozik's work with interest for years. Ridiculing the Great Effort with pink colorization, and in addition lying that the General Secretary of the Central Committee was involved with the worst effects of smug and cancerous capitalism: Marlboro cigarettes and "baseball jerseys." Does this so-called artist have no shame? We have passed on this information to the NKVD.
Oh yeah - nothing quite like a pink version of a mass murderer to adorn my shelf.
NE2D, only the ones who are wearing the Che t-shirts ironically.
Moon (8), what makes you think someone who doesn't know who Stalin was would buy a figure of him?
Billy (14), it's reportedly nice to have money no matter what you do with it.
Kib (15), I can see why you miss having an artist's statement to fall back on.