Freedom, Russian Style, 1989 75.5 x 50 cm (click images for larger view)		Leonhard Lapin is a seminal figure in the Estonian art world, active as an artist and architect. He studied architecture at the Tallinn Art University from 1966 to 1971 and has received numerous prizes and awards for his prints, paintings, installations and architectural proposals. He has participated regularly in national and international exhibitions since 1970 and his work is represented in numerous public and private collections in the Baltic and abroad. His work, often made in thematic series, has been influenced by the early Russian avant-garde as well as by popular iconography. INTERPRETATION Lapin works with images borrowed from the Russian avant-gardists of the 1930s such as Malevich, Tatlin, Popova, questioning the politics of these highly esteemed artists who ultimately supported an autocratic regime. In Freedom, Russian Style, Lapin fuses the most powerful icons of recent history – the Soviet hammer and sickle and the Nazi swastika. Using Bolshevik red and the black typically used to portray the swastika, these colours refer to the constructivists. The text on top is the Estonian word for freedom, an ironic reference to the Molotov Pact considered a marriage of the Soviet and the Nazi regimes when they gave away the freedom of the Baltic republics. Red Square refers to minimal abstraction but the Red Square in Moscow is also the epitome of the Soviet government. Self Portrait is a profile portrait of Lapin, yet painted in red it looks more like a heroic silhouette of Karl Marx used prominently during Stalin and Lenin’s rule. ARTIST'S C.V.
Freedom, Russian Style, 1989 75.5 x 50 cm
Freedom, Russian Style, 1989 75.5 x 50 cm
The Black Triangle, 1978 103 x 93 x 5.7 cm		Self Portrait, 1979
Installation views, 1992

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