The Wings will Grow from the series American Dreams
Artist
Vitaly Komar
(Born in Moscow, Russia (formerly the USSR), 1943)
Artist
Alexander Melamid
(Born in Moscow, Russia (formerly the USSR), 1945)
Date1999
MediumScreenprint on paper
DimensionsImage: 32 × 19 inches (81.28 × 48.26 cm)
Sheet: 41 1/2 × 27 1/2 inches (105.41 × 69.85 cm)
Frame: 45 × 32 × 1 7/8 inches (114.3 × 81.28 × 4.76 cm)
Sheet: 41 1/2 × 27 1/2 inches (105.41 × 69.85 cm)
Frame: 45 × 32 × 1 7/8 inches (114.3 × 81.28 × 4.76 cm)
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LineGift of J. Gibson Waitzkin
Object number1999.5.1
Collections
- MODERN & CONTEMPORARY
- RUSSIAN
- WORKS ON PAPER
Edition46
State10
Label TextThe Wings will Grow belongs to émigrés Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid’s American Dreams series, which appropriates nationalistic imagery of the United States in order to comment on the realities of living there. Here, George Washington appears with a globe, a column, and drapery that the artists borrowed from the left side of Edward Savage’s painting The Washington Family (1789–1796). General Washington, often called the “father of the nation,” holds an infant with the head of a bald eagle, a bird symbolizing long life, strength, and beauty selected as an emblem of the US in 1782. Rather than present the eagle majestically, Komar and Melamid depict it as a helpless baby whose “wings will grow.” This ironic title references the infancy of the nation, especially compared with Russia’s long history. The globe, turned toward Russia, may remind viewers that identity and politics are always matters of perspective.