Soviet Art

Training frigate Nadezhda. 1989. Soviet graphic artist Evgeny Voishvillo 1907-1993

Soviet graphic artist Evgeny Voishvillo is the author of made with a great documentary precision graphics of historic ships. He was the first in the USSR to recreate the images of famous Russian ships, images of which after so many years were lost. E. Voishvillo was born 16 October 1907 in the city of Libava of Kurland province into the family of engineer-mechanic of the Russian Imperial Navy. After graduation he worked first as a locksmith assistant at the plant “Ayvaz”, and then a turner at the factory of Volodarsky. In the summer of 1927, he passed the exam to the Academy of Arts, but failed. He was admitted to the second year of the Leningrad Art-Industrial College at the same Academy, where he studied in the workshop of V.A. Tambi. Immediately after graduating from college in 1930, his clear graphic designs began to publish many Leningrad publishers.
More »

A portrait of Cosmonaut №1 – Yuri Gagarin, Oil on canvas. 1963. The portrait opened the Russian pavilion at the international exhibition in Paris. Work by Soviet battle painter Mikhail Ananievich Ananiev (born 1925)

Soviet battle painter Mikhail Ananievich Ananiev – Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1965), Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (1995), People’s Artist of the Russian Federation (2010). Mikhail was born in Moscow on October 15, 1925. In 1940-1943 he studied at the Moscow School of Industrial Art named after Mikhail Kalinin. Ananiev – veteran of the Great Patriotic War, fought on the Japanese front. He was awarded the medal “For the Victory over Japan”, “30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy”, “Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”, “50 Years of the USSR Armed Forces”, and other medals. In 1955 he graduated from the pedagogical department of the Moscow School of Industrial Art. The same year he became a regular participant of art exhibitions. He has worked in the studio of military artists named after MB Grekov since 1955.
More »

One happy Aul. Soviet Kazakhstan artist Kamil Shayahmetov 1928 – 1995

Soviet Kazakhstan artist Kamil Shayahmetov (15 October 1928 – 1995) – Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1957), Honored Artist of the Kazakh SSR, People’s Artist of Kazakhstan. At different stages of his artistic growth Shayahmetov created works that with absolute clarity flashed the main trends in the development of Soviet art. His paintings have become a historical document era. In the mid-20th century, the artist turned to the Kazakh steppe and village life. He seemed to write short stories about life in Aul. His paintings are endowed with a living breathing, authenticity, and sincerity. Each of the paintings of Shayahmetov is able to illustrate the literary source.
More »

Self-portrait. Soviet Karelian artist Georgy Stronk (October 10, 1910 – December 6, 2005)

Soviet Karelian artist Georgy Stronk (October 10, 1910 – December 6, 2005) – Member of the USSR Union of Artists, Honored Artist of the Karelian-Finnish SSR (1947), People’s Artist of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1970), laureate of the State Prize of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1981). He got the state prize for a series of portraits of the “Old Bolsheviks of Karelia”, as well as for his illustrations and easel drawings to the epic “Kalevala”. In 1940-53 and 1982-85 he was a chairman of the Union of Artists of Karelia.
Georgy was born October 10, 1910 in Poland. After moving to Ukraine, he worked as a worker, and in particular, as a tinsmith at a shipyard in Nikolayev. In 1932 he graduated from Nikolaev art college. And in the 1932-38 he studied at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, workshop of Brodsky (diploma painting – “Pushkin after the duel”). While on vacation, he took part in folklore and ethnographic expeditions to Karelia (1937).
More »

Soviet Turkmen artist Izzat Klychev (October 10, 1923 – January 12, 2006). A new era (in April 1917). Oil. 1975

Soviet Turkmen artist Izzat Klychev (October 10, 1923 – January 12, 2006) – People’s Artist of the Turkmen SSR (1964), Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1970), People’s Artist of the USSR (1973), Hero of Socialist Labor (1983), laureate of the State Prize of the Turkmen SSR (1985), Member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1988), Foreign honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts.
Klychev was born October 10, 1923 in the Turkmen village Yalkym. Since 1938 he studied at a boarding school of the Ashgabat Art School. In 1940-42 he studied at the Ashgabat Art School (teacher Y.P. Daneshvar). In 1942, as a volunteer went to the front; participated in the liberation of Kharkov, and met Victory Day in Berlin.
More »

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.
More »

Still life with yellow flowers. 1957. Painting by Soviet artist Anatoly Nikich-Krilichevsky (1918-1994)

Soviet artist Anatoly Nikich-Krilichevsky (1918-1994) was a member of the USSR Union of Artists, Moscow Union of artists, and an Honored Artist of Russia. He studied in the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts, where his teachers were such prominent Soviet painters, as Boris Ioganson and Alexander Osmyorkin. He graduated from Moscow State Art Institute of Surikov in 1942. Like many artists of the time, he participated in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Anatoly Nikich-Krilichevsky lived and worked in Moscow. His works are in the Tretyakov Gallery and the regional museums of Russia and former Soviet Union.
More »