Soviet Art

USSR Culture

Category Archive: Sculpture

Soviet artist sculptor Evgeny Rastorguev

Village festival. 1950s, fragment. Soviet artist sculptor Evgeny Rastorguev

Village festival. 1950s, fragment. Soviet artist sculptor Evgeny Rastorguev (1920 – 2009)

Soviet artist sculptor Evgeny Rastorguev
An honored Artist of Russia, a member of the USSR Union of Artists (1953), Evgeny Rastorguev was born into a family of teachers in the village of Nikolo-Pogost of Nizhny Novgorod region. In 1940 he graduated from the Gorky Art School, and immediately began to participate in exhibitions of Soviet art. 1941-1945 – participant of the Great Patriotic War. In 1941, he became a military cartographer, and later worked in the front newspaper, participated in the erection of the first memorial museum of the Second World War – the architectural memorial complex “Svir victory”. After the war, in 1946, he enters the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin in Leningrad, and then transferred to the Moscow State Art Institute named after VI Surikov. He studied in the workshop of SV Gerasimov. In 1953, on the recommendation of his teacher, SV Gerasimov, he was admitted to the Union of Artists. Rastorguev was a member of the famous “Group of 16”.
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Soviet Era Monumental Fountain Golden Sheaf

Soviet Era Monumental Fountain Golden Sheaf

Soviet Era Monumental Fountain Golden Sheaf

Soviet Era Monumental Fountain Golden Sheaf
Golden Sheaf monumental Fountain, also known as “Friendship of Peoples of the USSR” was created by the architect-artist KT Topuridze, engineer VI Klyavin and teams of sculptors Z. Bazhenova, AI Tenet, IM Chaikov, ZV Ryleyeva and VP Gavrilov. It was opened in 1954. The initial project was called The Main Fountain, but in project documentation of 1953-1954 was also called “Golden Sheaf”. And finally, since 1954, it’s official name has become “Friendship of Peoples”, however, some sources sometimes use the name “Friendship of Peoples of the USSR.” The Golden Sheaf Fountain, first of all, fascinates with its size and outright luxury. Pool of fountain – an elongated octagon with internal dimensions for the major axis of 81 m and a minor axis – 56 m. By the way, to completely bypass the octagonal fountain, one will have to pass 170 meters and an area of 3.5 thousand square meters.
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Soviet sculptor Yuri Chernov 1935-2009

Soviet sculptor Yuri Chernov (1935-2009). Yuri Gagarin (1934 - 1968). 1972. Copper, bronze

Yuri Gagarin (1934 – 1968). 1972. Copper, bronze. The State Tretyakov Gallery. Soviet sculptor Yuri Chernov

Soviet sculptor Yuri Chernov (1935-2009) – Academician of Russian Academy of Arts (1997, Corresponding Member of 1979), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1979), Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1960), member of the Academy of Arts of Kyrgyzstan (1998). From 1977 to 1987 – Secretary of the USSR Union of Artists, awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples, “Badge of Honor”. The most famous works – the monument to Yuri Gagarin in Moscow and Orenburg.
Yuri Chernov became an orphan early: in 1939, was arrested and killed his father, in 1944, his mother died. The true parental warmth and care, Yuri and his two brothers found in the family of their aunt Anna (elder sister of mother) and her husband Lev Chernov, who adopted the boys, brought up and led them to an independent way of life. Seeing Yuri’s capacity for modeling, he was sent to study at the Moscow Art School (now – Moscow State Art Lyceum), the sculpture department. Communicating with friends, visiting exhibitions, museums, and especially the Tretyakov Gallery, which was opposite the school in Lavrushinsky Lane, living in the atmosphere of art, friendship, respect for knowledge and work – shaped the identity of the future artist.
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Soviet sculptor Nikita-Gleb Lavinsky

Vladimir Mayakovsky, sculpture by Soviet sculptor Nikita-Gleb Lavinsky

Vladimir Mayakovsky by Soviet sculptor Nikita-Gleb Lavinsky (August 12, 1921 – June 14, 1986)

Soviet sculptor Nikita-Gleb Lavinsky (August 12, 1921 – June 14, 1986) is the author of monuments and busts, installed in different cities of the former USSR. His most famous work is the second monument to Ivan Susanin in Kostroma. Honored Artist of the RSFSR, Commander of the Order “Badge of Honor”. According to testimony and materials released in the TV documentary on the First Channel “Odd Man Out” (2013), his father was the prominent Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. The fact that the biological father of Nikita-Gleb is Vladimir Mayakovsky, who was acquainted with a married Elizaveta (Lily) in 1920 during their joint work in the satire magazine “Windows of ROSTA”. The documentary film “Odd Man Out”, which premiered at the First channel to the 120th anniversary of the poet’s birthday, 20 July, 2013 revealed that fact. In the film, Elizaveta, the daughter of Lavinskaya, confirms the fact, relying on documents and photographs of the family archive, evidence of her late father, who left memories of visits of Mayakovsky to their family and his relationship with her mother.
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Soviet Russian sculptor Vladimir Tishin

Dialogue (Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilev). Bronze, 2001. Sculptor Vladimir Tishin

Composition “Dialogue” (Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilev). Bronze, 2001. Sculptor Vladimir Tishin

Creativity of Soviet Russian sculptor Vladimir Tishin bears the features characteristic of the Moscow School of plastic. In particular, the desire to intensify the artistic language, theatrical, and colorful imagery. A great sense of material and design allows the sculptor to work in a variety of materials: wood, stone, bronze, and chamotte. Born 16, 1963 in Moscow, Vladimir Tishin graduated from Moscow State Art and Industry University named after Stroganov (MGHPU of Stroganov), the sculpture department (1985). And four years later, in 1989, became a member of the USSR Union of Artists. In addition, in 1990-1991 got a scholarship of the Union of Artists of the USSR. In 2012 he became a member of the Russian Academy of Arts.
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Soviet sculptor Ivan Pershudchev 1915-1987

Soviet sculptor Ivan Pershudchev 1915-1987. Portrait of Hero of the Soviet Union sergeant M.A. Yegorov (1923-1975). 1945. Bronze, granite

Hero of the Soviet Union sergeant M.A. Yegorov (1923-1975), a soldier hoisted the Banner of Victory on the remains of the defeated Reich. 1945. Bronze, granite. The State Tretyakov Gallery. Soviet sculptor Ivan Pershudchev 1915-1987

Soviet sculptor Ivan Pershudchev (1915 – 1987), Honored Artist of the RSFSR – one of those sculptors whose works entered the golden fund of Soviet art. He created gallery of sculptural portraits of heroes of the Great Patriotic War. His monuments that perpetuate military exploits are well known in our country and abroad. They show a deep sense of love to the simple Soviet man, the ability to see and clearly display the extraordinary and heroic, which is often hidden behind the modesty and the seemingly ordinary. This amazing involvement of artist in the lives of those people whom he portrayed explains the biography of the sculptor.
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Soviet Armenian sculptor Nikolai Nikogosyan

N. Nikogosyan working on a model of the monument to the poet Vahan Terian. 1986

Soviet Armenian sculptor Nikolai Nikogosyan (born 1918) working on a model of the monument to the poet Vahan Terian. 1986

Works of Soviet Armenian sculptor Nikolai Nikogosyan entered the “golden fund” of Soviet art. They are in the Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts of Karelia and other regional museums in Russia, as well as in the State Art gallery of Armenia, in the art museums of former Soviet Union – Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania. Nikolai Nikogosyan – painter, graphic artist, teacher, People’s Artist of the USSR (1982), Winner of USSR State Prize (1977). Corresponding Member (1983) of the USSR Academy of Arts, Academician of Russian Academy of Arts (2001). Nikolai Bagratovich Nikoghosyan was born December 2, 1918, in the village of Shagrar (now Nalbandyan) in Armenia. In 1930-1940-ies N.B.Nikogosyan got an excellent education – first at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of All-Russian Academy of Arts in Leningrad, and later at the Moscow Art Institute of Surikov (workshop AT Matveyev). Since 1985, he taught at the Faculty of Architecture plastics, since 1998 professor. In 1940, the artist began to participate in exhibitions, in 1942 he joined the USSR Union of Artists. In 1956 he represented the country at the XXVIII International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Venice.
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