Category Archive: Soviet Art

Sculptor A.P. Kibalnikov at work (creating monument to Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky). Oil on cardboard, painting by Soviet artist Vitaly Polyakov (1925-1997)

Soviet artist Vitaly Polyakov
Born 18 June 1925 in Saratov, Polyakov Vitaly Anatolyevich was a renowned master of socialist realism. Vitaly Anatolyevich graduated with honors from the Saratov Art School in 1948. After graduation 24-year-old artist moved to Riga, where he studied painting in the workshops of J.R. Tilberg and K. Butcher (1949 – 1954) in the Latvian Art Academy.
The artist began participating in group exhibitions of Soviet art in 1954. Traditionally, the artist painted landscapes and portraits in oil. Among his works – a portrait of the composer L. Ladova, a portrait of the actress N. Neznamova, series of landscapes of Crimea, as well as cityscapes, including Riga, Jurmala and other cities. According to sources, his personal exhibition took place only in 1986. The member of the USSR Union of Soviet artists, Polyakov had lived in Riga until his death in 1997.
Now his oil paintings decorate various museums and private collections both in Latvia, Russia, Germany, and the USA.
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Published in 1979 set of postcards. 22 June 1941 fascist Germany attacked Russia. Moscow is now the Hero City. Soviet Moscow in drawings by Vladimir Semyonov (27 November 1936 – 19 December 2003)

Soviet Moscow in drawings by Vladimir Semyonov
Born in Moscow in 1936, Vladimir Ivanovich Semenov was a famous Soviet graphic artist. He graduated from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute in 1966. Noteworthy, he became famous for created by him sets of postcards about the capital. In particular, postcards for foreign tourists in 1990. And this post features 32 postcards ‘Moscow and Moscovites’ published in 1979.
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Celluloid beasts of the Soviet sculptor animalist Boris Vorobyov (November 6, 1911, Tomsk – April 25, 1990, Leningrad)

Soviet sculptor animalist Boris Vorobyov

Probably, each of Soviet family had porcelain or plastic animal figures at home, and the author of them was Vorobyov. The animal sculptor worked in various materials: porcelain, faience, ceramics, glass, wood and metal. He is one of the leading animal sculptors and artists of the Leningrad Porcelain Factory, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, participant of all-Union and international exhibitions. His works are in the Hermitage, the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery, museums and private collections.
Boris (Isai) Vorobyov was born in the city of Tomsk in 1911. Until the age of 25, Boris himself had no idea that he would become an animal sculptor and this would become the work of his life. During his life, he tried many professions: he was an assistant to a bricklayer, a school teacher, and even an air gymnast in a circus. Also, he served at a dairy factory and studied at the construction college. In 1932, he entered the Moscow Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering, but in 1936 left it and moved to Leningrad to enter the Academy of Arts to become a sculptor.
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Holiday. 1952. Oil on canvas. Painting by Soviet artist Maria Savchenkova 1917-2017

Soviet artist Maria Savchenkova
Born in 1917 in Novocherkassk, Maria Vladimirovna Savchenkova (1917 – 2017) is a famous Soviet artist. First, she studied at the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (1936-1937), workshop of Konstantin Yuon and M.S. Rodionov. Then, from 1937 to 1945 – at the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov. Her teachers were such famous masters as Grigory Shegal, Vasily Pochitalov and Dmitry Mochalsky. Her thesis was a painting “The Germans Caught” under the direction of no less famous master – Sergei Gerasimov.
While still a student, she met the artist Vasily Nechitailo, who for many years became her friend and partner in work and, later, her husband. They had a wonderful large and friendly family: in 1940 they had their firstborn – son Dmitry, in 1942 – daughter Ksenia, and after the war, in 1952 – son Sergey. All the children followed in the footsteps of their parents, became famous artists.
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Green house. 1966. Oil on canvas. Painting by Soviet artist Oleg Loshakov (born May 16, 1936, Moscow, USSR)

Soviet artist Oleg Loshakov
The communication of a person with nature, its cognition and creation in it are the main issues that interest the Moscow painter O. Loshakov.
The work of the institute era still did not portend the direction of his creative interests of a more mature period. Most often, these were modest landscapes made in the realistic traditions of the Moscow school of painting. It is difficult to say if Loshakov would have found his own path if, after graduating from the Surikov Institute, he had not gone to the Far East. There he had been a teacher at the Vladivostok Art School for two years. In fact, these years, this experience formed the personality of the young Soviet painter.
So far, Oleg Nikolaevich Loshakov is a teacher, professor, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1982), and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts (2002). Also, he’s been a member of the USSR Union of Artists since 1967. In 1960 he graduated from the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov.
Even a student, in 1957 he began participating in republican, all-union and international exhibitions. Since 1993 he has been teaching at the State Specialized Academy of Arts, head of the department of painting and graphics (professor since 2002). Among his awards the Order of the Badge of Honor and a silver medal of the Russian Academy of Arts (1998).
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A woman in a black shawl. Sketch for the painting ‘Mother’. 1968. Soviet artist Vladimir Boborykin

Soviet artist Vladimir Boborykin

Born in 1922 in the village of Levkovo of Moscow region, Vladimir Mikhailovich Boborykin grew up in a family of a carpenter. According to the artist, he began drawing very early and already as a schoolboy was a recognized artist. Soon the family moved to Moscow. There the young artist became acquainted with the “peredvizhniki”, the popular artists of the time. In 1939 he entered Moscow Art school, where his teachers were such Soviet artists as Ye. Pochitalov, V. Dobroserdov and A. Khazanov. In 1941 Boborykin, like many of his contemporaries went to the front. After the war, in autumn of 1948 he became a student of Leningrad Art Instituite of Ilya Repin, workshop of Boris Ioganson. He graduated from the institute in 1954 with the thesis work “L.T. Kosmodemyanskaya at the Warsaw Peace Congress”. In search of characters for his paintings he went to Tadjikistan, where he found the heroes of socialist labor at the great construction sites. Among them are steel workers, builders, cotton growers and shepherds. For ten years, since 1954 to 1964 the artist taught art in Stalinabad (Dushanbe) art school and participated in exhibitions of Soviet Art.
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Work by Soviet artist K. Kazanchan. Expanse, 1955. 1950s All-Union exhibitions of Soviet Art

All-Union exhibitions of Soviet Art

The All-Union Art Exhibition dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution was held from November 5, 1957 to March 16, 1958 in Moscow at the Central Exhibition Hall. Also, at the USSR Academy of Arts, in the House of Artists, in the exhibition hall of the USSR Union of Artists and in several other halls of the capital. The exhibition became the largest event of the year in contemporary Soviet and European fine arts.
Republican exhibition committees, composed of the most respected experts carried out the direct selection of works for the exhibition. In total, they selected over 5500 works for exhibiting and published an illustrated catalog of the exhibition.
In total, 2142 artists from all republics of the USSR took part in the exhibition. Noteworthy, most of the works were previously shown at city, regional and republican exhibitions of 1957. Many of them subsequently ended up in the collections of art museums, as well as acquired by the RSFSR Art Fund, domestic and foreign galleries and collectors.
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