Dream 1990

Vigen Vartanov made this mixed media artwork, “Dream,” which is a kind of relief sculpture using metal, and found materials, built on a box-like support. It's not a painting, but it feels painterly, like a crusty impasto. I can imagine Vartanov in his studio layering up the materials, building this three-dimensional collage slowly. It reminds me of Schwitters Merzbau or the work of Nancy Spero. The textures are so interesting, aren’t they? Like he's taken a discarded object and transformed it into something full of expression. I wonder what the artist was thinking about when they made this, their feelings as they affixed each piece? It’s got a Dada quality to it, a kind of rebellion against the established order. It also speaks to a longer tradition in art, where artists are constantly playing with each other’s ideas, building upon what came before.