The Architect of Irony Born in 1946, Rostislav Lebedev emerged from a landscape defined by rigid ideological structures to become a foundational figure in the Sots-art movement. During the 1970s and 1980s, he navigated the complexities of Soviet existence by adopting the playful, often irreverent tools of Pop-art and Postmodernism. His work did not merely observe the world; it engaged in a sophisticated game with the symbols of state a…