Ilmar Kimm 1920–2011 Still Life with Bananas. 1958

A rather chilling painting whose plot is difficult to explain. Here we see painting techniques and objects that should have been banned in 1958, but are not. Born, raised, and educated in Russia, the son of a Red Army commander, Ilmar Kimm, a war veteran who fought as a partisan in the war and was seriously wounded, uses a brushstroke in and through the painting that could almost be considered neo-impressionist. The elegant ornamentation speaks of the artist’s freedom and emphasis on painterly self-esteem, which was not yet favoured in the late 1950s. 
Separately, however, one has to wonder about bananas. An extreme deprivation on the one hand, a symbol of Western prosperity on the other – and yet there are many of them in Kimm’s painting. They are so desirable that Kimm has even depicted the banana peel as a sign of special luxury. The solemnity is added by a carafe with an unknown drink, so here we see bourgeois enjoyment performed by a Soviet war veteran. Pleasures and privileges, perks and luxuries – an amazing work.