''Bear Surprise'' (often dubbed just ''Surprise!'') is a

watercolor painting Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

by American painter/musician

John Lurie John Lurie (born December 14, 1952) is an American musician, painter, actor, director, and producer. He co-founded the Lounge Lizards jazz ensemble; has acted in 19 films, including ''Stranger than Paradise'' and '' Down by Law''; has composed ...

, the style of which has been described as

primitivist Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that either emulates or aspires to recreate a "primitive" experience. It is also defined as a philosophical doctrine that considers "primitive" peoples as nobler than civilized peoples and was an o ...

and naïve. The painting depicts a couple having

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

in a meadow, with a bear standing in front of them, with forepaws in a distinctive position. There is a

speech bubble Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...

beside the head of the bear, which reads "Surprise!". The painting features in a popular internet meme in Russian online culture. It has been described by Victor Sonkin in ''

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates s ...

'' as having "gained vast popularity with the speed of an avalanche". Its popularity in

Runet Runet (russian: Рунет), a portmanteau of ru (code for both the Russian language and Russia's top-level domain) and net/network, is the Russian-language community on the Internet and websites. The term Runet was coined in Israel in the sp ...

led to the bear's speech bubble being changed from "Surprise" to ''" Preved"'', misspelling of the Russian word ''privet'' ("hello" or "hi"). The title eventually became known as ''Preved Medved'' (translation "Hello Bear").

References

External links

Official webpage of John Lurie"Полный превед"
{{in lang, ru American paintings Bears in art Russian Internet slang Internet memes Watercolor paintings