In Yerevan, Armenia, in an antique shop full of musty tomes and dusty artifacts I found an old Soviet Don Quixote iron statuette. The Soviets loved Quixote. His fight against the oligarchs; his utopian sense of the possible; his tireless struggle to fight the oppressors despite the overwhelming odds. They were very careful about what art they promoted (and allowed to be promoted). The iron statuette has CCCP stamped under the base, reminder of an old empire that has now passed away and the way that it wanted to see itself. They were very romantic, oddly enough. It wasn’t just the grinding machine technocratic communism of China that knows no humanity. It was full of dreamers, like Turgenev or Dostoyevsky — and whoever it was who first cast this statue. People are weird, humanity is weird, and surprise you in unexpected ways. Which is what wonder is about, I suppose. https://www.artpal.com/joeldhirst?i=319328-48