Grisha Bruskin is one of the most important and successful contemporary Russian artists. Born in Moscow in 1945, Grisha Bruskin graduated from the Moscow Art Institute in 1968 and the following year became a member of the prestigious Soviet Artists' Union. His solo shows in Vilnius (1983) and Moscow (1984) were closed by authorities for political reasons, as well as his nonconformist style. Nevertheless, glasnost brought his paintings to the attention of museums, art dealers and collectors in the West. His work went on to be displayed at the 1987 Chicago International Art Exposition. In 1988, Sotheby’s held it’s first-ever art auction in Moscow. Bruskin received worldwide media attention when six of his paintings sold for record-breaking prices. In the same year he was asked to design the poster for the Chicago International Art Exposition. This enabled him to move to the United States. In 1999, on the invitation from the German Government, and as a representative of Russia, Bruskin created a monumental triptych painting for the newly restored Reichstag building in Berlin. Grisha Bruskin is widely recognized for an oeuvre that deeply engages philosophy, history, and religion. In the art of Grisha Bruskin we are facing two themes. One is connected with the myth of Communism; the other one – with the myth of Judaism. Bruskin creates his own world of images and meanings, united by themes from Biblical, mythological, Kabbalistic and folklore traditions. During Bruskin’s childhood in the Soviet Union, he repeatedly encountered expressionless statues of sportsman, pioneers, and Communist heroes in public places. As the artist has noted, these mythic figures of the Soviet pseudo-religion “were telling us: ‘Be like us.’…They were Gods.” Bruskin creates art full of irony and hidden humor based on communist slogan promising heaven on earth for the ‘new’ Soviet people.