Soviet Art

Svetlana. 1975 (artist’s wife). Painting by Soviet Belarusian artist Leonid Dmitrievich Shchemelyov (born 5 February 1923)

Soviet Belarusian artist Leonid Dmitrievich Shchemelyov
Born February 5, 1923 in Vitebsk, Leonid Dmitrievich Shchemelyov turns 95 years old this year. He is one of the greatest masters of Belarusian fine arts, a teacher. People’s Artist of the BSSR (1983), Honored Artist of the BSSR, and laureate of the State Prize of the BSSR (1982).
Being a native of Vitebsk (1923), most of his life he lives in Minsk. In 1959 he graduated from the Belarusian State Theater and Art Institute, painting department. From that time up to now, Shchemelyov is a participant of almost all Belarusian republican exhibitions. Also, exhibitions of Soviet art in the USSR – RSFSR, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Ukraine. Besides, his works appeared in the exhibitions of Soviet Belarusian artists abroad. In particular, in England, Austria, Algeria, Angola, Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, West Berlin, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Poland, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia, and Japa.
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Stalin Generalissimo of the Soviet Union. 1945. Soviet artist Vasily Nikolayevich Yakovlev (2 January 1893 – 29 June 1953)

Soviet artist Vasily Nikolayevich Yakovlev
Born on January 2 (14), 1893 in Moscow, V.N. Yakovlev was a Soviet painter, People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1943) and Laureate of two Stalin Prizes (1943, 1949).
The boy grew up in a wealthy merchant family. Since 1911 he studied at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University, simultaneously visiting the art studio of VN Meshkov. Just before the Great October revolution, in 1917, he graduated from the Moscow University of painting, sculpture and architecture. In the university, his teachers were famous Russian artists Konstantin Korovin, AE Arkhipov, SV Malyutin, and others.
Vasily Yakovlev taught at VKhUTEMAS (1918-1922), at Moscow Institute of Arts (1934-1936), and Moscow State Institute of Architecture and Art named after VI Surikov (1948-1950). And in 1922 he became a member of Union of artists of Revolutionary Russia (AHRR).
After the great Patrotic war, in 1947 he became a full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. From
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Surgeons. Operation. 1981. Painting by Soviet Belarusian painter Eduard Belagurov (November 27, 1947 – May 17, 1998)

Soviet Belarusian painter Eduard Belagurov
Born in Bobruisk, Belarus, USSR, Eduard Alexeyevich Belagurov was a Soviet painter, member of the USSR Union of Artists (1977). In 1974 he graduated from the department of monumental and decorative painting of the Belarusian State Theater and Art Institute. Currently, his works are in the National Art Museum of Belarus, Museum of Modern Art in Minsk, the funds of the Belarusian Union of Artists and the Ministry of Culture of Russia.
The artist has participated in the exhibitions of Soviet Art since 1975, awarded a diploma of the USSR Academy of Arts (1980). Meanwhile, already in the early works Eduard Belagurov manifested his civic position and the desire to raise actual problems of history and modernity in his art. He worked in easel painting in genres of figurative paintings and portraits. Among his major works: “Autumn cross” (1975), “Early Spring” (1976), “Conversation” (1982), “Dialogue” (1982), “Children of War”, “The Return”, “Surgeons. Operation” (the above image), and others.
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Born 22 August 1950, Stavropol, the USSR, Soviet Russian actress Natalya Egorova

Soviet Russian actress Natalya Egorova

Since her father was a Soviet officer, the family often moved to different cities. In particular, they lived long enough in Central Asia. However, because of the suspicion of tuberculosis in the daughter, her parents decided to change the climate and go north. Fortunately, in a colder climate, the disease really receded.
In the school days she loved to play sports, sing, participate in theatrical productions and various concerts. For this she was often called an actress, but in reality she did not think about her career as an actress. After graduating from school, she intended to enter the institute, but suddenly changed her mind and went to the Irkutsk Theater School.
A gifted girl fell to the taste of the admissions committee. She entered the school from the first attempt, but a year later she decided to go to Moscow. However, in the capital, success did not smile: she could not enter any of the Moscow theater schools. Nevertheless, luck still found her – she attracted the attention of the television crew. They offered her a small role in the film “The City of First Love.” She agreed and as a result was able to stay in Moscow for a year. This whole year she not only worked, but also trained diligently in the studio, which operated under the “Central House of Creativity”. A year later she still entered the “School-Studio of the Moscow Art Theater».
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Portrait of actress Lyudmila Chursina. 1980. Painting by Soviet artist Viktor Mikhailovich Oreshnikov (20 January 1904 – 15 March 1987)

Soviet artist Viktor Mikhailovich Oreshnikov
Born 20 January 1904 in Perm, Oreshnikov – Soviet painter, teacher, and master of portrait. Candidate of Art History (1937), Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947) and Doctor of Art History (1948). Besides, he was the winner of the Stalin Prize of the third degree (1948) for the painting “VI Lenin at the exam at the Petersburg University” (1947). In addition, the winner of the Stalin Prize of the third degree (1950) for the painting “At the headquarters of the defense of Petrograd” (1949). Academician of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1954) and People’s Artist of the USSR (1969).
First, Oreshnikov received an art education in the Perm Art College (1924). Next, in 1927 he graduated from the Leningrad Higher Art and Technical Institute, and Academy of Arts (1933-1936). Noteworthy, his teachers were prominent Soviet masters Konstantin Petrov-Vodkin and I. I. Brodsky.
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Go and save my trail. 1987. Wood, gesso, gilding, painting, State Tretyakov Gallery. Soviet sculptor Adelaida Germanovna Pologova (1923-2008)

Soviet sculptor Adelaida Germanovna Pologova

Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1989), Adelaida Pologova belonged to a pleiad of sculptors of the 1960s, who ignored the traditional canons, giving an original view of the world. Her work – the creativity of a free and extremely original thinking sculptor. The peak of Adelaide Pologova’s creativity was in the 1980s, when she created, according to Soviet artist Dmitry Zhilinsky, “the finest sculpture of our time” – “Go and save my trail”. This is a masterpiece of the sculptor, which later gave the title of one of her posthumous exhibitions.
Her professional education A.G.Pologova began in 1942 in her native city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). She grew up in a creative family where her father worked as an artist-decorator at the State Opera Theater named after A.V. Lunacharsky (1923-1925). The echo of the very early children’s theatrical impressions will later appear in the structure of many works by Pologova.
Having graduated from the faculty of painting of the local art school in 1948, she entered the Moscow Institute of Applied and Decorative Art (MIPiDI). In 1952 Pologova entered the Leningrad Higher School of Art and Industry named after V.I. Mukhina (LVHPU). She graduated from the institute in 1955 on the specialty of “architectural and decorative sculpture”. Born the same year her son Alyosha became a hero of her works for life.

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Collective farmers welcome tankmen during maneuvers. 1937. Soviet artist Ekaterina Sergeevna Zernova (19 April 1900-1995)

Soviet artist Ekaterina Sergeevna Zernova
Born 19 April 1900, Ekaterina Sergeevna Zernova (Simferopol) – Member of the Moscow Union of Soviet Artists (1932), book illustrator, poster and monumental artist. Daughter of the curator of the Natural History Museum of the Tavrichesky provincial zemstvo. When she was 14 years old, the family moved to Moscow. There she studied in private studio of F.Rerberg (1915-1918). Later, she studied at the State Free Art Studios – Vhutemas (1919-1924). First, it was the workshop of I. Mashkov, and then A. Shevchenko and D. Shterenberg. Meanwhile, alongside with artistic education she studied at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University (1917-1924).
She joined the artistic group OST and in 1925 presented her works at the first exhibition. In the late 1920’s, within the framework of this society she conducted active public work. In particular, she decorated clubs, created wall newspapers, and cartoons. Also, illustrated several books, including children’s books, for the publishing houses “Mediator”, and “Gosizdat”. Engaged in a poster, she led agitation work to combat illiteracy, and even designed the “Poster alphabet.”
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