This is Radio Moscow ...
- Artist: Viktor Pivovarov
- Date: 1992–6
- Medium: Enamel paint on canvas on fibreboard
- Dimensions: support: 1122 x 832 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is "This is Radio Moscow …" by Viktor Pivovarov. The enamel on canvas, mounted on fibreboard, dates from 1992–6 and reads like a comic strip. The scene is an apartment room at twilight, dominated by dark blue tones. A door opens to reveal a bright yellow sunset behind a neighboring building. On a table you’ll spot a lit lamp, an open book and a half‑drunk glass of tea. The Russian text at the bottom gives the painting its title and tells us the exact time – 19:30 Moscow – and the next radio show. Notice the absence of a human figure; the only hint of a person is a partially obscured portrait of a male bust with a blank face, heightening the uneasy mood. It’s part of Pivovarov’s Apartment 22 series, a set of thirty‑five works produced in Prague that draw on memories of a 1950s communal Moscow apartment. The series blends everyday domestic objects with subtle social commentary, a hallmark of Moscow conceptualism.
See it in person
This is Radio Moscow ... is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
