1997-98

Luc Sante reviews Painting by Numbers in a cover story in the New York Times Book Review, January 4.

Real Love, Andrew Ross (Chapter 7, What the People Want From Art?, pp. 149-161), New York University Press, New York and London.

Komar & Melamid, Schon-Haslich, curated by Gerald Matt, Kunsthalle, Vienna (catalog published by Kunsthalle Wien Ritter Verlag).

Naked Revolution, an Opera about Washington, Lenin, and Duchamp created with David Soldier, is performed at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Kitchen, New York. Later performed at George Masson University, stage director Kirby Malone.

The opera as well as a series of paintings, sculpture, and collages, becomes part of the American Dreams series (1996-1997), based on artists' collection of George Washington memorabilia.

Working with images of both the Soviet and America revolutions, K&M found a similarity between Socialist Realism in the Soviet Union and government supported patriotic art in the US. (See K&M’s portrait of George Washington in: George Washington, American Symbol, Barbara J. Mitnick, Hudson Hills Press, NY, the Museum of Stony Brook, and The Museum of Our National History; also Komar & Melamid’s American Dreams, Philadelphia Art Alliance, catalog by Mark Thistlethwaite, Neil Rector, and Amy Ingrid Schlegel, curator, 2024.)

Liberty as Justice (see below), mural in the lobby of the Bronx New Housing Court Building, New York. Architect Ralph Vinoly. Commissioned by New York Percent for the Art (1996-1998).

K&M return to their early concept of the Healing Power of Art (see 1974-1975, Circle, Square, Triangle and Color Therapy). Projects: Light and Shadow Therapy; Neosenilism and Neosincerity; Van Gogh Art Ministry; etc.

For Asian Elephant Art And Conservation Project, K&M travel to Thailand to teach elephants to paint. Revenue for sale of paintings assists elephants and their keepers. Thai Princess Galiyani and World Wildlife Fund support project.

When developing Collaboration with Animals, K&M propose architectural projects for the beaver’s canals and dams, and termite’s towers. They propose using both the branches of trees and the wind to paint on canvas, and also a special device to outfit potatoes to take photographs.

K&M travel to Moscow to teach Mikki, a chimpanzee, to take photographs.


K&M, Liberty as Justice, mural in the lobby of The Bronx New Housing Court, Bronx, New York. Architect Ralph Vinoly. Commissioned by New York Percent for the Art (1996-1998).