Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

If you've never heard of Ilya Repin, blame it on the Iron Curtain. Repin enjoyed more fame in his lifetime than any other Russian artist in the nineteenth century. A book on his life and work, Ilya Repin, Painting * Graphic Arts, translated from Russian by Sheila Marnie and Helen Clier is one of my prized possessions. When the cold war ended I had the great privileged to see his Barge Haulers masterpiece at the Guggenheim.

Recently The Russian Museum, in order to increase art appreciation, is placing replica masterpieces like Repin's "Reply of the Zaporozhian to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire" around Moscow and St. Petersburg. What a great idea! I'd like to see that in the New York subways.

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