Soviet Art

Early morning. Red Square, 1988-1990. Moscow USSR. Photo by Soviet photographer Gennady Bodrov (May 17, 1957 – February 14, 1999). Image source kursk.com

The shot from the series “Black and white Russia” by Gennady Borisovich Bodrov (May 17, 1957 – February 14, 1999), made in 1988-1990, evaluated at 2-3 thousand pounds at Sotheby’s auction. Soviet photographer Gennady Bodrov was born in 1957 in the city of Soltsy of Novgorod region. In his childhood, aged ten, he injured his hand examining the found shell left from the Great Patriotic war (1941-1945). At school, in the early 70s he became interested in photography. Then his first cameras were “Kiev” and “Zenith”. He studied by correspondence at the national University of Arts in 1973 – 1976. In 1974, immediately after graduation, he began working with newspapers. He worked as the head of photo club, assistant cameraman, a photographer for the newspaper. In fact, Gennady Bodrov was a freelance photographer.
Read more »

Soviet artist Igor Radoman (1921 – 1992). Adoption of the emblem of the RSFSR, 1960

Soviet artist Igor Radoman (1921 – 1992) – Member of the Moscow Union of Artists (1944), Honored Artist of the RSFSR. Bright Soviet painter, muralist, author of genre works on historical-revolutionary theme, a series of portraits of socialist statesmen, intellectuals, his contemporaries. He has also worked in the genre of landscape and still life. For 50 years of creative activity IV Radoman made a significant contribution to each of these types and genres of Soviet art. He participated in the painting of the Kharkov railway station, the station “Kievskaya” of the Moscow Metro. Radoman created a series of multi-image panels for the Soviet pavilion at the International Exhibition in Beijing and Leipzig. Solo exhibitions were held in Moscow (1968, 1978, 1980, 2004). Artworks of the Soviet artist are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Historical Museum, Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War, and the other largest art museums of the former USSR.
Read more »

Distant 1941st (seeing off to the front). Soviet artist Stepan Yegorovich Orlov (1929-2003)

Soviet artist Stepan Yegorovich Orlov – member of the USSR Union of artists (1970), Honored Artist of Tuva ASSR (1982), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1991). Born on August 3, 1929 in the village of Kalugin, Kazakh SSR, Stepan Orlov spent his childhood and adolescence in Magnitogorsk, the Urals. To survive during the difficult years of war, the boy had to begin working at the age of twelve. He worked at the Central Club of builders as an apprentice of artist. And in 1947 – as the artist in the open-hearth shop of the plant, simultaneously studying at night school. Then, in 1955 he entered the Leningrad Art College of Serov. After graduation from the college, in 1960, he arrived in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. There he began working in the Art Fund. His first steps in Soviet art connected with the romance of the construction of the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric power station in the city of Divnogorsk. The first work – “Portrait of a welder Reutsky”. Then followed a series of portraits, which brought him the deserved fame of a brilliant portrait artist. His work combines restraint and inner strength, deep emotionalism, images filled with drama.
Read more »

The image of Stalin in the Soviet art. Fyodor Shurpin. The morning of our country. 1946-1948. The State Tretyakov Gallery

To portray a leader – does not mean to see the leader. His life is shrouded in mythology. The image of Stalin in the Soviet art — it is a work of art, not documentary evidence. “There is no art for art’s sake, there can not be any “free”, independent of society, as if standing above this society artists … They just are not wanted. Yes, these people can not exist”. This is a quote from Stalin’s speech at the meeting with the creative intelligentsia in 1946. A topic worthy of a Soviet student of early 1950s – “The image of Stalin in the Soviet art.” Immediately comes to mind iconic painting “The morning of our homeland” by Fyodor Shurpin where peoples father stands on the background of the infinite blue sky and fields with dozens of random tractors. He – the conqueror of space. Moreover, its creator, tired with a greatcoat over his right hand after a good cause, similar to the Creator on the “sixth day”: “That was not bad.”
Read more »

Soviet painter Ilya Mashkov (1881-1944). Pioneer with the horn. Oil. 1933

Student of Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin, a wonderful Soviet painter Ilya Mashkov (1881-1944) loved the Crimea, repeatedly worked in Gurzuf and in each trip visited the most popular in the USSR pioneer camp Artek. Communication with the pioneers, the lives of children, full of the romance of socialist transformation, provided the basis for the creation of the portrait in 1933, the “Pioneer with the horn.” Soviet artist, co-founder and member of the artistic association “Jack of Diamonds” (1910) and the Society of Moscow Artists (1927-1929), was a member of the “World of Art” (1916) and the Society “Moscow painters” (1925), in the period 1924-1928 member of the Association of artists of Revolutionary Russia, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1928).
Read more »

Stalin in the Kremlin. Socialist Realism artist Isaak Brodsky (6 January 1884 – August 14, 1939)

Socialist Realism artist Isaak Brodsky
It is difficult to overestimate the enormous impact that had Isaak Brodsky on the development and creation of the Soviet school of art based on the principles of socialist realism. Many generations of artists have successfully passed this school, having become outstanding representatives of our multinational art. The authority of Brodsky, his enormous popularity as the greatest artist of his time, the artist-realist especially appreciated by the part of young people who wanted to learn. For them he was a very close friend, who did not leave any request ignored. Isaak did titanic work in many areas: creative, educational, social, state, to each of which he gave himself completely. At the same time he found an opportunity to respond to any beginner artist, who turned to him with a request.
Read more »

Soviet artist Pavel Fyodorovich Sudakov (1914 – 2010). Peace for Peoples (Speech of NS Khrushchev at the UN)

Soviet artist Pavel Fyodorovich Sudakov (1914 – 2010) – representative of social realism, People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1982), the winner of the Stalin Prize III degree (1952). Pavel Sudakov was born on August 20, 1914 in Moscow into a family of workers. He finished seven classes of factory training school. In 1933 – 1934 studied in the art studio of the Moscow Union of Artists, where his teachers were A.M. Kanevsky and V.A. Favorsky. He was a member of the Department of Fine Arts of Working Youth (IZORAM). In 1935 – 1941 studied at the Moscow state art institute of Surikov, workshop of G.G. Ryazhsky. From the fifth year he went to the front, to the people’s militia. In late 1943, Pavel Fedorovich was recalled to Moscow and was appointed head of the art studio of the border troops, which lasted until 1947. After demobilization in the same 1947 P.F. Member of art exhibitions since 1947, Sudakov was admitted to the USSR Union of Artists.
Read more »