The reader

This original tempera work, titled "The Reader" and signed by V. Feoktistov 1985 .", is a striking piece of late-Soviet grotesque realism. It depicts an absurd, deeply provincial scene filled with expressive, heavily distorted characters.

The explicit inclusion of the book by Gogol serves as a conceptual key to the painting. Much like Gogol’s literary works, the painting captures the comedy, melancholy, and mild absurdity of provincial life, elevating ordinary country folk into caricature-like figures of a surreal, tragicomic theater.