Soviet Art

Portrait of Indira Gandhi. 1970. Oil. Painting by Soviet artist Dmitry Nalbandyan (1906-1993)

Soviet artist Dmitry Nalbandyan
Artist Ilya Glazunov recalled that, in connection with the preparation to the official visit of Leonid Brezhnev to India 1973, he decided to “make an original gift – a portrait by one of the masters of socialist realism to a friendly government leader Indira Gandhi. To execute a responsible job to Delhi was sent academician Dmitry Abramovich Nalbandyan. He tried very hard, but when he showed the completed work to Indira Gandhi, she barely glanced at the canvas, noting: “I am not an Armenian.” And she refused to take a picture. Nalbandyan then exhibited it in the Arena with the inscription “Property of the author”. Nalbandyan created portraits of many representatives of the Soviet elite (including Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev), for which in the art circles he was called “the first brush of the Politburo.” Dmitry Nalbandyan – full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1953), Stalin Prize (1946, 1951), and Lenin Prize (1982) winner. In 1978, for a group portrait of figures of Armenian culture “Vernatun” was awarded the gold medal of the USSR.
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Songs of times. Triptych. 1970. Oil on canvas. Soviet Estonian artist Lepo Mikko (1911-1978)

Soviet Estonian artist Lepo Mikko (1911-1978) – People’s Artist of the USSR, Laureate of the State Prize and People’s Artist of the Estonian SSR in 1972. Lepo Yagovich Mikko was born on 7 December 1911 in the Northern Estonia. From 1927 to 1930 he studied at the School of Industrial Art in Tallinn. Since 1931, he continued his studies in Tartu Art School “Pallas”, following the example of Paris free academies. In his works Lepo Mikko combined French art of the twentieth century and features of an early Estonian modernism. His most productive and successful paintings were created during the Khrushchev thaw period. Mikko was able to catch and transmit optimism of the Soviet society of the 1950s-1960s, devoting his paintings to the themes of struggle for peace, space exploration, as well as still lifes and landscapes.
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Soviet sculptor M. M. Yershov. (b. 1945 Leningrad). Builders. 1975. Fireclay. Socialist Realism Sculpture

Socialist Realism Sculpture

Great October Socialist Revolution meant a turning point in the life of Russia, in the political, economic and social character of being of its peoples. A special role in the birth and development of a new country played culture – public, media, multinational. The October Revolution created the necessary public, social, ideological and moral prerequisites for carrying out a revolution in the field of culture. New challenges arose before the older generation artists, who immediately accepted the revolution and expressed it in their work. In fact, the Soviet generation of artists – the creators of the Socialist Realism art, having no analogies in the world history.
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Work by Soviet sculptor Mikhail Lysenko. Established in 1964 monument to Lenin was demolished after the coup in Ukraine in 2016

Born October 16, 1906 in the village of Shpilyovka, Sumy region, Soviet sculptor Mikhail Lysenko grew in a peasant family. People’s Artist of the USSR (1963), member of the USSR Academy of Arts (since 1970), in 1948, Mikhail Lysenko joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The future sculptor studied at the Kharkov Art Institute (1926 – 1931). Besides, he taught at the Kiev Art Institute from 1944, and became professor in 1947. He created monumental sculptures, however, the most important of them – the “Hill of Glory” in the cemetery of Soviet soldiers in Lvov (bronze, 1947). And also a monument to NA Shchors in Kiev (with co-authors, bronze, 1949-54), a monument to Lenin in Zaporozhye (with NM Sukhodolov; bronze, 1964), and a monument to VP Zatonsky in Khmelnytsky (granite, 1969).
Lysenko received the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals. Mikhail Lysenko died in the city of Kiev, May 8, 1972, after a hard trip to Turkmenistan. He was buried at the Baikovo cemetery.
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Soviet graphic artist Zinaida Lapshina (b. 1946). Glory to the Soviet woman – worker. Poster. 1975

Soviet graphic artist Zinaida Lapshina was born in 1946 in Moscow. She graduated from Moscow State Art Institute named after Surikov in 1971. Zinaida Lapshina studied at the workshop of NA Ponomarev, M. Savostyuk, BA Uspensky. She was awarded the first prize for the poster “Glory to the Soviet woman-worker” at the National competition of the poster “the Soviet people – active builders of communist society” (1974). Constantly working on propaganda posters, she became a Member of the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1974. Her major works: “My concern and care will bring great income!” (1970), “Red Devils” (1974), “October” (1974), “Glory to the woman-toiler!” (1975), “Dedicate Labor achievements to the XXV Congress of the CPSU”(1975), “Flourish, my motherland”(1976), “Flourish and grow, our scientific cities!”(1976), “We will build solar cities” (1976), “We – the masters of our country!” (1979).
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Goalkeeper training. 1976. Gouache on paper. Soviet artist Andrey Lopatin (born 1951)

Early works of Soviet artist Andrey Lopatin were first featured in the illustrated album “Youth of country” published to the 60th anniversary of Komsomol, in 1978. The embodiment of youth, health, and strength of the athletes was characteristic for the paintings of A.R. Lopatin – “Goalkeeper Training”, “Morning Running”. Andrey Rostislavovich Lopatin – Honored Artist of Russia, member of the Commission for the Creative Union of Graphic Artists of Russia, director of the House of creativity “Chelyuskinskaya”. Soviet artist Andrey Lopatin was born in 1951 in Moscow, the USSR. He graduated from Moscow State Art Institute of Surikov (1975), studied at workshops of MV Motorin, EA Kibrik, NL Voronkov. Already in the early works of Andrei Lopatin there has been interest in the genre compositions.
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Self-Portrait with a mask. Oil. 1943. Soviet Armenian artist Martiros Saryan (1880 — 1972)

Soviet Armenian artist Martiros Saryan
According to the artist himself, in his long life, he experienced a lot of grief and a lot of fun. He witnessed two world wars, and fought against the worst enemy of mankind – fascism. In the Soviet Army in the Great Patriotic War fought his son. The artist has painted dozens of portraits of war heroes. Saryan lived through the death of his beloved son, the death of many of his paintings. I do not know the artist more sunny than Martiros Saryan. And the bright, sparkling view of the world, a striking sense of light and color and love for his native Armenia, he had inherited from his parents, because he was born and raised in Russia. He studied painting in Moscow in the workshops of Soviet Russian artists Serov and Korovin, and only as an adult, twenty-year-old, he first visited the homeland of their ancestors – Armenia. And became sick of this country forever. Despite the fact that he had to go to Cairo and in the sultry and mysterious Tehran and multifaceted Constantinople, lived and worked in the Mecca of artists – Paris, he has always been irresistibly drawn to his homeland.
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