Scene 35 (plate, folio 108) from The Dream of Abu-Said and Wind
Ilya Kabakov
American, born Russia. 1933–2023
1957-1990
A small color linocut with blue and black pencil additions that presents a solitary, nude figure enclosed in a blue, cocoon-like bubble beneath a showerhead, making a private psychological state into a staged ‘scene.’
What first strikes you is the blunt, almost childlike body—outlined in black and warmed with peach tones—isolated inside a luminous blue oval while a spare showerhead hangs above and the artist’s handwritten Russian notes on the gray mount turn the image into an intimate, unsettling tableau.
As a plate from The Dream of Abu‑Said and Wind, this work shows Kabakov’s fusion of humble print techniques, narrative voice, and conceptual staging that made visible private experience under Soviet everydayness and helped shape later narrative and installation art.
Medium
Linoleum cut, printed in color , with blue and black pencil additions
Dimensions
irreg. composition 7 x 4 1/2" (17.8 x 11.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Emilia Kanevsky and the artist
Accession
289.1991.35
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
