Soviet Art

Soviet Sculptor Sergey Merkurov in the studio at work on the statue of Leo Tolstoy. 1913. Photo from the archives of GS Merkurov

Alexandropol (now Leninakan), where future Soviet Sculptor Sergey Merkurov was born in 1881, is famous for many crafts. Workshops of goldsmiths and copper smiths, carpenters and painters filled the streets of the commercial part of the city. From the ringing, knocking, heat, appeared in front of spectators products, rich in enchanting beauty and diversity of shapes and materials. But stone-cutters work attracted little Sergey most of all. Many months the boy spent with them helping, and finally received permission to carve Nightingale on a branch. “Perfect cutter’s roses smell better than the real ones, and his nightingale song wakes up the sunrise: in the hands of good master stone cutter everything comes to life, in the hands of bad master everything breaks down”, – Sergey was taught.
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V. Khodov. Wind of Revolution. Plate. 1969. Soviet Palekh Art

In the panel “Wind of Revolution” symbols are already in the title. Its figurative embodiment – the central figures of a Soldier, Worker and Peasant, and dramatically different scale figures in the scenes about the different stages of the revolutionary struggle. The dynamic pattern, vigor movements of characters, generalized color, built on the hot shades of red and golden ocher, give special expressiveness to the composition. Soviet Palekh art, where socialist realism bizarrely mixed with the iconography tradition, was born after the victory of the Great October Revolution, in the early 1920s. Great artists, former masters of iconography created it. The miniature painting on black-lacquered boxes made of papier-mache, in the technique and methods of ancient Russian painting, carefully maintaining its high poetic structure. It turned out the old plastic arts, fine, accurate drawing, emotional expressiveness of color, the very technique give enormous opportunities to reflect the events of the day. Pioneers of Soviet Palekh laid the basic principles of miniature painting, later developed by more than one generation of masters.
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VI Lenin. The first half of the 1920s. Gypsum, covered with varnish. Leniniana by Soviet artist Nikolay Andreyev (14 October 1873 — 24 December 1932)

Leniniana by Soviet artist Nikolay Andreyev
The image of Vladimir Lenin has long attracted the attention of artists. Appeared a lot of portraits of the leader of the Great Proletarian revolution in painting, sculpture, drawings and engravings. Many of them are successful. However, the first place, without doubt, belongs to Soviet artist Nikolay Andreyev – pioneer of “Leniniana” (created around 100 sculptures and 200 graphic images of Lenin) … Gogol monument, Monument to Alexander Ostrovsky, Statue of Herzen and Ogarev in Moscow – all works of the sculptor NA Andreev (14 October 1873 — 24 December 1932). From the very first days of the Great Proletarian Revolution Andreev became irrevocably on its side. And the origin, and a large, serious mind and sharp observation helped him to properly understand and appreciate the significance of the October Revolution. Most of all his attention attracted the personality of the leader of the revolution. Artist persistently sought a meeting with Vladimir Ilyich, following him everywhere, where Lenin spoke publicly at rallies, meetings and congresses.
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Unknown artist Ivan Chistov (1925-1943). Self-portrait. Pencil. 1942

Talented but unknown artist Ivan Chistov, an orphan, who in the difficult time of war lived with some kind old lady, who loved him as her own grandson. She was proud of Vanya – a top student at school, and one of the first and most diligent students in the art studio. The head of the art studio Stanislav Kachinsky always set him as an example to others in the Studio. The boy perfectly sculpted from clay, even tried to make a sculpture out of found somewhere a piece of marble. Ivan was good at pencil drawing and oil painting. About love and devotion of Ivan to the art say the pages of his diary, which he started in January 1942. But the war went on, and instead of a pencil, brush and paints in the hands of an 18-year-old artist Ivan Chistov was now the gun – 16 August 1942 he left for the front. He became a hunter on German tanks. A year later, his grandmother got a short message – “Anti-tank rifleman Ivan Chistov was killed near the village of Shui of Ekimovichevsky district of Smolensk region, September 10, 1943”. He was 18.
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Soviet artist Inna Shirokova (b. 1937) Khokhloma. 1969. Oil on canvas

Soviet artist Inna Shirokova – member of the USSR Union of Artists (1968), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1987). Her canvas – positive, bright holiday, whether it’s a portrait or still life – there is always a place for items of crafts – Gzhel, Khokhloma, Dymkovo toy. Kirov based artist explains – “I was brought up on Dymkovo toy, and other folk crafts. Besides, I was in Gorky, and there flourished Khokhloma, Gorodets painting, and Polkhov-Maidan painting. Always Gzhel and ceramics drew my attention. Still life with these items in my view, go beyond just painting, and add to the whole canvas elegance and festivity, and it is close to me in spirit… All my life I was very fond of my work, often waking up at night, thinking about how to make my paintings more expressive. And now I can hardly spend a day without my studio… I always knew that the artist must work carefully, a lot, passionately, and the audience will appreciate it”.
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Nadezhda Krupskaya in Soviet Art. Nikolay Zhukov (1908-1973). Portrait of Nadezhda Krupskaya. Pencil. 1969

Nadezhda Krupskaya in Soviet Art
Nadezhda Krupskaya (1869 – 1939) dedicated her life to the struggle for the happiness of the working people, for communism. Much effort and energy she gave to the complex challenges of science teaching, the creation of the Soviet school, the formation of education system based on new principles. She saw this as one of the necessary conditions for the successful building of socialism in the USSR. Lenin spoke highly of pedagogical activity of Krupskaya. Nadezhda Krupskaya is considered one of the founders of Soviet pedagogy. Her ideas, tips to this day are of great importance. As a gifted teacher, a Marxist, Krupskaya was able to see far ahead, and many of her ideas born at the dawn of life of the USSR, had a huge effect. Maybe not everyone knows that Krupskaya was an active promoter of the fine arts, considering it as a powerful means of communist education of the younger generation.
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Vladimir Lenin. 1947. Oil on canvas. Soviet painter Victor Tsyplakov (1915-1986). The Central Lenin Museum

Soviet painter Victor Tsyplakov
Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1967), Tsyplakov was People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1975), and twice winner of the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1950). The award, in particular, for his painting “The advanced people of Moscow in Kremlin” (collective work with other prominent Soviet artists). Also, for a series of other paintings. Popularity came to Tsyplakov for his works “Gorky on the Volga” (1945), “V. Lenin” (1947), and “The interrogation of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya” (1945). Noteworthy, he was one of the few artists allowed to make sketches at funeral of Stalin in 1953. Tsyplakov had solo exhibitions of his artworks in 1956, 1986 and 2007 in Moscow. To date, his works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, as well as the major museums of the former USSR.
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