Soviet Art

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Category Archive: Soviet Art

Soviet artist Alexandr Dmitriyevich Romanychev 1919-1989

Soviet artist Alexandr Dmitriyevich Romanychev

On the peaceful land. Soviet artist Alexandr Dmitriyevich Romanychev (September 18, 1919 – August 21, 1989)

Soviet artist Alexandr Dmitriyevich Romanychev

Born on September 18, 1919 in the village of Russian Gorenki of Simbirsk province, A.D. Romanich was Honored Artist and People’s Artist of the RSFSR.
He studied in the Rostov-on-Don Art College named after M. Grekov (1937-1938). Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, after graduating from the Naval Aviation School he served as a naval pilot. After demobilization he returned to study at the Rostov School, from which he graduated in 1948. And the same year he entered the painting faculty of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after IE Repin. Noteworthy, he studied in the workshop of famous Soviet artists Mikhail Avilov and Yuri Neprintsev. After graduation, he continued studying in the graduate school of the Institute (1954-1957), and then taught art there.
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Soviet Ukrainian artist Evgeniy Volobuev 1912-2002

Soviet Ukrainian artist Evgeniy Volobuev (1912-2002)

Lenin with a girl. oil on canvas. 1972. Soviet Ukrainian artist Evgeniy Volobuev (1912-2002)

Soviet Ukrainian artist Evgeniy Volobuev
Born in the village of Varvarovka of Kharkov region, Evgeniy Volobuev – Soviet painter, Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, People’s Artist of Ukraine.
According to Evgeniy Volobuev, all his life he painted only what he worried about, and mostly worked in the genre of easel painting. “And this is a great luxury.” “Perhaps, in the sense of the good things I lost, I definitely lost, but in the main, I think, I won … Yes, otherwise I could not work”, said Yevgeny Vsevolodovich.
Volobuev grew in the family of rural teachers. He spent his childhood and youth in Kursk province of Russia, where he began his artistic education under the guidance of the artist NN Arshinov. Later, he graduated from the Kharkov Art College (1928-1931), where he studied in the workshops of AA Kokel and I.Z. Vladimirov. In addition, he received art education in the Kharkov Art Institute (1931-1934), workshops of MA Sharonov and SM Prokhorov. Also, until 1940 he studied at the Kiev Art Institute, the workshop of F.G. Krichevsky and D.N. Shavykin. And after graduation, he taught art in the Kharkov Art College, and then at the Kharkov Art Institute.
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Soviet artist Viktor Ivanovich Zaretsky 1925-1990

Selection of flax. (Portrait of a team leader P. Syrovatko). 1960. Tempera. Soviet artist Viktor Ivanovich Zaretsky 1925-1990

Selection of flax. (Portrait of a team leader P. Syrovatko). 1960. Tempera. Soviet artist Viktor Ivanovich Zaretsky 1925-1990

Soviet artist Viktor Ivanovich Zaretsky

Born in 1925 in the Kharkov province, Viktor Ivanovich Zaretsky – Soviet artist, educator, Veteran of WWII, a member of the Communist Party, a member of the USSR Artists’ Union, and public figure.
Viktor spent his childhood and youth in Donbass in the workers’ settlements of Gorlovka and Stalino (now Donetsk). His father worked as an accountant at the then created chemical production. During the Great Patriotic War (1943-1945) he served in the reserve regiment, and after the demobilization lived with his parents for some time in the village of Obidimo near Tula, Russia. There he took private lessons from the Soviet painter L. Orekhov.
In 1946 Viktor Zaretsky entered the art school at the Kiev State Art Institute, workshop of Gennady Titov. A year later he entered the institute, where his teachers were K. Yelev, M. Sharonov and S. Grigoriev.
As an excellent student, he received Repin and Stalin scholarship. Besides, the diploma picture – “The Line to Lenin’s Mausoleum” – received the highest score. After graduating from the institute in 1953, Viktor Zaretsky began to teach in his Alma Mater.
Since 1955, the artist worked in Donbass. There he created such paintings as “Miners. Shift”, “After the war”, “Hot day”, “Mine yard”, “After the change” and others.
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Soviet graphic artist Viktor Ivanovich Govorkov

"No to alcohol!" (1954). Soviet graphic artist Viktor Ivanovich Govorkov (18 November 1906 - 13 June 1974)

Perhaps, the most famous poster of the USSR period “No to alcohol!” (1954). Soviet graphic artist Viktor Ivanovich Govorkov (18 November 1906 – 13 June 1974)

Soviet graphic artist Viktor Ivanovich Govorkov
Born on November 18, 1906 in Vladivostok, Viktor Ivanovich Govorkov was a bright representative of Soviet Art. Member of the USSR Union of Artists, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1971). Known, first of all, as the author of numerous propaganda posters on various themes. In particular, foreign and domestic politics, sports, fighting alcoholism and hooliganism. Worked in the field of journal and newspaper cartoons, and book graphics.
Viktor Ivanovich Govorkov studied in Moscow VKhUTEIN from 1926 to 1930. Noteworthy, his teachers were prominent Soviet artists – SV Gerasimov, DS Moor and VA Favorsky. His thesis work was a sketch of a panel for the decoration of Red Square by May 1 (1930). Having started as a painter, Govorkov, however, later worked exclusively in book graphics and a poster.
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Traditional Soviet Decorative art

Soviet Decorative art. G. Orlova. Tapestry. Festive Moscow. Wool, handwoven. 1977

G. Orlova. Tapestry. Festive Moscow. Wool, handwoven. 1977. Soviet Decorative art

Soviet Decorative art
Originated in folk art, Soviet applied art flourished in the USSR, both in the midst of the people and among professional artists. Traditionally, every museum in every city had a permanent exhibition of unique works worthy of museums. In particular, porcelain and glass vases, ceramic and porcelain figurines and compositions. Also, textile art, popular and especially loved – tapestries and carpets, traditional elements of the Soviet interior.
Meanwhile, the craftsmen paid special attention to improving the artistic quality of mass household items. In the field of ceramics, many Soviet artists have successfully worked in Russia, Ukraine and Georgia.
Exhibitions of Soviet decorative art certainly included the best examples of art glass products, artistic carvings on the bone, embossing on the skin and jewelry.
A special place in the Soviet arts and crafts occupied the lacquer miniature, Palekh, Kholui and Mstera. In addition, embroidery and lacework. Also, the finest carved articles made of bone, an expressive small sculpture made of bone, horn, stone, etc., created by the Kholmogorsky, Tobolsk, Chukchi and other masters.
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Soviet Avant-garde artist Dmitry Krasnopevtsev

Soviet Avant-garde artist Dmitry Krasnopevtsev

Self-portrait in make-up. Soviet Avant-garde artist Dmitry Krasnopevtsev (2 June 1925 – 28 February 1995)

Soviet Avant-garde artist Dmitry Krasnopevtsev

Born 2 June 1925 in Moscow, talented graphic artist Krasnopevtsev was a representative of “unofficial” Soviet art. Besides, one of the most significant representatives of Soviet nonconformism of the second half of the twentieth century, and the Second Russian Avant-garde.
His first works date back to the post-war era, and the style that made Krasnopevtsev a truly original artist was formed by the early 1960s. Characterizing this style, critics use the term “metaphysical still life”.
He began his studying fine arts in 1942 in the Moscow Regional Art College in memory of 1905. However, in 1943, like many of his contemporaries, he had to to go to the front. After the WWII ended, he graduated from college. Then he worked as a drawing teacher in high school, and in the period from 1949 to 1955 he again studied, but already at the Moscow State Art Institute of VI Surikov.
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Soviet artist Rudolf Nikolaevich Baranov

Soviet artist Rudolf Nikolaevich Baranov

From the height of the port crane. 1974. Soviet artist Rudolf Nikolaevich Baranov

Soviet artist Rudolf Nikolaevich Baranov
Born January 1, 1942 in the village of Khvostsovo, Vladimir region, Baranov is a Soviet Russian monumental artist, painter and teacher. Member of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (1976).
First he received art education at the Palekh Art College of the lacquer miniature of Maxim Gorky (1959-1964). Here, his teachers were such Soviet artists as N. Zinoviev, B. Nemtinov, V. Astakhov and P. Korin. Next, studying at the Surikov Art Institute, he turned into a great master of painting with an individual creative handwriting. Merchant Samara, where he still works, Volga, family, people of intelligent work – this is the soil that feeds the creativity of Rudolph Nikolaevich.
In 1971 he graduated from the Faculty of Monumental Painting of the Moscow State Art Institute of Surikov (teacher KA Tutevol). Noteworthy, his first diploma he received from the hands of prominent Soviet artist Nikolai Tomsky for the painting “From the height of the port crane” (1974), which became a classic of Soviet art.
While still a student, he worked as an artist decorator in the theater of Vakhtangov.
Meanwhile, in 1971 he came to Samara. Repeatedly, he was a Chairman of the Board of the Samara Regional Organization of the USSR and Union of Artists of Russia (1981-1985, 1998-2010). In addition, he taught at the Kuibyshev Art School and the Art College of KS Petrov-Vodkin (Samara). Since 2006 – Professor of Samara State Architectural and Construction University.
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