Soviet Art

Village landscape. 1980. Soviet Landscape painter Vladimir Yukin (1920-2000)

Soviet Landscape painter Vladimir Yukin

The founder of the Vladimir School of Painting, Vladimir Yakovlevich Yukin (1920-2000) lived most of his life in Vladimir and the Vladimir region. Born in the family of a paramedic, in the village of Mstera in the Vladimir region, since the XIX century known for its iconography and restoration school. First of all, the genus from which Yukin originated was famous for hereditary artists of almost three centuries. And mostly icon painters, then restorers.
Yukin graduated from the Ivanovo Art College (1940) and attended two courses at the Lvov Art Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts. Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Yukin was a member of the USSR Union of Artists (1952), People’s Artist of Russia (1995) and Laureate of the State Prize of the RSFSR (1992).
On his canvases the clear, open colors sparkle in full force. Each stroke is bulky, weighing. If you stand close to his painting, it is like a rough plowed field. However, when you take a step backward – the tension of the colorful spot develops into a visible image of the native land. And here they are – deserted autumn fields, rest after harvest, meadow motley grass, waving in the summer breezes, sparkling snow in the birch copses, and forest spills.
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USSR by Danish cartoonist Herluf Bidstrup

USSR by Danish cartoonist Herluf Bidstrup

This post is a continuation of the previous article – “What Herluf Bidstrup saw in USSR”, based on the book of Danish communist Herluf Bidstrup (September 10, 1912 – December 26, 1988). The book includes lots of cartoons which capture everyday life of the Soviet people. An honorary member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, laureate of International Lenin Peace Prize (1964) visited the Soviet Union many times. So, the presented gallery of selected images from his book reconstructs the impressions of the author. According to Bidstrup, his cartoons – fleeting, sometimes casual impressions, but they can be interesting for those who want to know more about the world’s first socialist country. “I deeply respect the Soviet people and I bow before them more than before anyone. For 50 years they have created a society which was utopian before, under difficult conditions and thanks to selfless labor and heroic struggle”. Bidstrup, Herluf
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What Herluf Bidstrup saw in USSR

“What Herluf Bidstrup saw in USSR” – the title of the book of cartoons published in 1970s in Moscow. Noteworthy, Danish cartoonist Herluf Bidstrup (September 10, 1912 – December 26, 1988) was a Danish communist, who drew cartoons on foreign policy and social themes. In particular, his work “What Bidstrup saw in the USSR” captures and presents everyday life of the Soviet people in humour genre. The life, which he saw with his own eyes after he had travelled to the Soviet Union. By the way, Herluf Bidstrup, an honorary member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, received the International Lenin Peace Prize in 1964. Books with drawings by Bidstrup published in the USSR in huge editions and were very popular. Bidstrup was a convinced communist and considered in the USSR as a “progressive artist” because in his cartoons he exposed the ulcers and vices of a capitalist society, which in fact are relevant even in today’s state of world capitalism.
Since 1945 he worked in the newspaper of the Communist Party of Denmark “Land og Folk”. Meanwhile, the gallery of selected images from his book reconstructs the most important events of the time, according to the author.
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Walkers to Lenin. 1950. Oil. Soviet artist Vladimir Alexandrovich Serov (1910-1968)

Soviet artist Vladimir Alexandrovich Serov was an apologist for the art of socialist realism. Among his titles and honors – member of the USSR Union of Artists, member of the Academy of Fine Arts (since 1954), People’s Artist of the USSR (1958), and Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR. Besides, he was twice winner of the Stalin Prize (1948 and 1951). In addition, he was the first Secretary of the Board of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (1960-1968) and President of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1962-1968). And also the member of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (since 1958).
Born in the village of Emmaus, Tver province, he lived in the years of total devastation that occurred after the Civil War. However, he was able to develop his artistic abilities since childhood. In the town of Tver he visited the studio of the artist Savyly Yakovlevich Shleifer, who had fled from the famine of Petrograd. Later, in 1924, the future artist moved to Petrograd and three years later became a student of the Academy of Fine Arts (Leningrad Institute of Proletarian Fine Arts, 1927-1931). He studied in the workshops of prominent representatives of Soviet art V.E. Savinsky and I. I. Brodsky.
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The nomad. 1931. Soviet Uzbek artist Ural Tansykbayev (14 January 1904 – 18 April 1974)

Soviet Uzbek artist Ural Tansykbayev
Often called the bard of Soviet Uzbekistan, landscapes by Tansykbayev are full of poetic inspiration and at the same time, are truly monumental.
People’s Artist of the USSR (1963), member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1958), chairman of the Union of Artists of the Uzbek SSR (1956 – 1959), Tansykbayev was one of the founders of contemporary fine art in Uzbekistan. An outstanding painter, canvases by Tansykbayev entered the gold fund of the largest museums, such as the State Tretyakov Gallery and the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow. And also the state museums of arts of Uzbekistan and Karakalpakstan, and a number of museums of the countries of the former USSR.
Tansykbaev was born in Tashkent. After graduating from a seven-year school, he went to work at the plant. Aged twenty, he began to draw. After his drawings have appeared in the exhibition of club factory where he worked, the newspaper “Turkestanskaya Pravda” published a note “about the artist-worker Ural Tansykbaev” (1924).
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Lenin in October, 1986. Soviet Ukrainian artist Nikolai Borovsky (April 14, 1930 – April 26, 1988)

Soviet Ukrainian artist Nikolai Borovsky (April 14, 1930 – April 26, 1988) – Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1964) and Honored Artist of the USSR (1984).
Born 14 1930 in Svetlovodsk, Nikolai Stepanovich Borovsky graduated from Dnepropetrovsk Art school with honors (1953). His teachers were M. Pogrebnyak and A. Kuko. Then, he studied in Kiev art institute (1956-1960). In particular, the historical and battle workshop of the People’s Artist of the USSR, GS Melikhov, and his teachers were M. Khmelnitsky and M. Ivanov, the diploma work – “Koliivshchina”.
Since 1960 he taught at the Art College in Dnepropetrovsk. In addition, he took part in exhibitions of Soviet Art. Borovsky worked in the field of easel painting, and created canvases, portraits, landscapes and still lifes. In 1966 he received the III prize of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Ukraine and the Union of Artists of the Ukrainian SSR for the painting “Worker. Year 1928». And his first solo exhibition took place in 1980 in Dnepropetrovsk.
Nikolay Stepanovich died on April 26, 1988 (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR). His works are in the Dnepropetrovsk Art Museum, the Dnepropetrovsk National Historical Museum of DI Yavornytsky, and the Museum of Ukrainian Painting (Dnepropetrovsk), as well as private collections.
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Rest after fight. Oil on canvas. 1960s. Painting by Soviet Ukrainian artist Igor Reznik (April 15, 1918 – 1978)

Soviet Ukrainian artist Igor Reznik

Born April 15, 1918 in the city of Yekaterinoslav, Igor Alexandrovich Reznik graduated from the Dnepropetrovsk Art College in 1939. And then, in 1948 he graduated from the Kiev Art Institute, where his teachers were Soviet artists AA Shovkunenko and TN Yablonskaya.
The artist began participating in exhibitions of Soviet art (since 1949) and soon became a member of the Union of Artists of the Ukrainian SSR. In addition, for a long time he worked in the creative workshop of his teacher AA Shovkunenko, including the monumental canvas “Hymn of People’s Love” commissioned by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The author of thematic paintings, Reznik also taught at the Kiev Art Institute.
Ukrainian painter and teacher Igor Aleksandrovich Reznik died in 1978 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR. His works are in art museums of Ukraine and Russia.
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