Soviet pin — up took a very logical way from the tradition of Russian Socialist Art. We can figure out these predictable steps of development of the style: while in the United States people enjoyed these beautiful images of pretty girls, Soviet people saw posters depicting strict women, policemen or firemen, who were permanently giving advice to the society, or dead leaders, who were reminding people about the values of communism. By the end of the 80s a few artists who had traveled to the USA had mixed diametrically opposing traditions of the pop art and advertising with socialist realism. The result of this experiment can be seen in the new ironic style of social art with no boundaries, idols and conventionality. Those artists have certainly succeeded at eroticising of social realism.

Valery Barykin can be seen as one of the successors of this tradition. He was fond of Socialist Realism but then fell for American illustration. Valery brought his special attention to Norman Rockwell, who worked wit h The Saturday Evening Post. Valery’s very first illustration was so successful that became extremely popular on the internet. This is how curators became aware of his style. Works by Valery Barykin were exhibited at several Russian Art Fairs and were in the programme of the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Valery Barykin works with a tradition of soviet erotica which has typical features of classic American or Italian ones. Should we remind you of ‘The Queen of Gas Station’ (popular Soviet film) or a female student who slowly takes off her clothes while reading her study notes in the slapstick comedy film by Leonid Gaidai ‘Navazhdenie’ (means ‘delusion’). The world of Valery Barykin is quite similar to these films. The artist shows us the idealistic Soviet era: model husband gives all his salary to his wife and gorgeous flight attendant suggests passengers delicious éclairs (this sweet is extremely popular among Russians) with a duchesse drink.

P. Markaitis