«RUBLEVKA - 24 CAPRICES»
2007, canvas, «Paganini’s 24 caprices» score, mixed technique, acrylic, 160х176 cm.

The most prestigious residential area west of Moscow, «Russian Beverly Hills», unreal Rublevka, competing in real estate prices with Nice, Manhattan and Ile Saint-Louis in the centre of Paris, - and the golden salt-celler made by a goldsmith and painter Benvenuto Cellini for Francis I of France... What is it about such a symbol? In the present picture this precious fantasy (estimated today at 50 million Euro, by the way) embodies affluence and satiety - we see the pompous architecture, viands, animals, naked couple with man clearly demonstrating woman a kind of «spear», and the inscription similar to a waymark. The irony of this work is at the same time its dramaticism: a golden trinket on the table of gourmet king is visually interpreted as a burning hot brazier overladen with vices and luxury symbols. It seems just about it is going to crash into pieces, so likely to the situation before the 2008 crisis when Russia was surfeited with its fast oil money.*

* The picture and the commentary are made in 2007, one year before the October crisis of 2008.