Russian art blogger Matthew Brown reports on the death of Vagrich Bakhchanyan, a Russian artist who emigrated to the US. Brown points out one of the ironies of his work is the way that imagery has been inverted by events. Where his controversial satire of Lenin was risky because it poked fun at Lenin in 1980, the same image is now risky in contemporary Russia because it is not sufficiently respectful of Christ:

a Bakhchanyan that formed part of the Forbidden Art show (IZO).

The artist and writer Vagrich Bakhchanyan has died in New York, aged 72 […] Bakhchanyan had been suffering for months from a neurological disorder that led to him hearing loud unstoppable screams; it is reported that he committed suicide.

IZO on Bakhchanyan (IZO)