To produce the images that convey his fatalistic and ironic approach to life, tinged with hope, he needed the environment and knowledge of Mother Russia, oiled with a bit of bribery to certain circus trainers. Enter the Great Russian Bear, the personification of Russia for the last several centuries, onto center stage and into his studio. The bear is recognized as both brutish and cute – Misha was the mascot for the 1980 Olympic Games – and has remained a symbol of Russia since Tsarist times. In 2009 it is the symbol of the United Russia Party.

“Residents in a small town littered with giant potholes may be ready to “crack” the art world – after turning their massively damaged roads into hilarious masterpieces. Fun-natured drivers from Scranton, Pennsylvania have been challenged by an arts group to turn the ugly craters in their neighborhood into pothole art”. – Caters News. Photo: Cereal bowl pothole. (Photo by Caters News)

Children play football on March 10, 2022 on a concrete slab in Mukuru Kwa Njenga informal settlements, where structures have been demolished in November 2021 to pave the way for the construction of the Nairobi Expressway. (Photo by Simón Maina/AFP Photo)

Models use their phone lights during a power outage to put on make-up before the start of the third Ouaga Fashion Week in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Friday May 13, 2022. Ouaga Fashion Week returned to the Burkinabe capital after a two year COVID-19 related break. (Photo by Sophie Garcia/AP Photo)

Circus artists perform at the International Circus Show started in Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis, Tunisia on June 23, 2022. (Photo by Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Pupils wearing face masks wait for the opening of their primary school on the first day of the new school year, in Ouagadougou, on October 1, 2020. (Photo by Olympia de Maismont/AFP Photo)

Models sit backstage during an outdoor show at Dakar Fashion week on December 12, 2020 just outside Dakar, Senegal. With Senegal's low incidence of Covid-19, Dakar's marquee fashion event looked markedly more normal than its counterparts in other global capitals, whose fashion weeks were heavily curtailed or canceled. (Photo by Finbarr O'Reilly/Getty Images)

A police officer chases shoppers to clear the streets of the Red Light market on the first day of lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Monrovia, Liberia on April 11, 2020. (Photo by Derick Snyder/Reuters)