Fragment of painting ‘To the memory of twenty million people’ (died in WWII). Artist G.P. Sapozhnikov. 1975 Soviet Self-taught Artists All-Union exhibition

Soviet Self-taught Artists All-Union exhibition
First of all, this post is a tribute to the amateur artists of the USSR, and, in particular, those, whose works became a part of All-Union exhibition of 1977. By the way, the exhibition, titled “Self-taught Artists – to their Motherland” was a great success. According to a prominent Soviet artist D. Shmarinov, the exhibition was the self-portrait of the country. And those who sincerely love art, who had occasion to see the exhibition of amateur artists, still keep bright memories of them for a long time. Indeed, there is so much amazing truthfulness, integrity of perception, vital persuasiveness and at the same time, poetic freshness and spiritual health.
Especially rich in information about the life of the country were all-union expositions, representing the work of people’s talents from all the republics of the USSR.
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St. Bernard dog sleeps. Painting by Soviet artist Igor Skorobogatov

Soviet artist Igor Skorobogatov (10 June, 1920 – 1997) – animal painter, member of the Leningrad organization of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Honored Artist of the Russian Federation. Born in 1920 in Saratov into the family of a professional actor Konstantin Skorobogatov. Veteran of the Second World War (1941-1945), awarded with medals “For the defense of Leningrad”, “For victory over Germany”. During the Great Patriotic War he fought on the Leningrad front. Demobilized in 1945 in the rank of sergeant. And the same 1945 he entered the painting faculty of the Leningrad Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the Academy of Arts, from which he graduated in 1951. Skorobogatov studied in the workshops of prominent Soviet artists Isaak Brodsky and Professor Rudolf Frentz (1945-1951). His thesis work was the picture “On the collective farm” (1951). Already after the institute (1952), he began participating in exhibitions of Soviet art, together with the leading masters of fine arts of Leningrad.
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On guard of peace. 1975. Soviet realist painter Akhmed Kitayev 1925-1996

Soviet realist painter Akhmed Kitayev (15 February 1925 – 13 July 1996) – Member of the USSR Union of Artists.
Born in the village of Tatar Yunki, Mordovia, Akhmed Ibadullovich Kitayev grew up in the religious family (his grandfather was a mullah). When the boy was 5 years old, his family was exiled to Siberia (1930). Meanwhile, drawing accompanied the talented boy in grief and joy. Aged 10, Akhmed won the All-Union competition of young artists. And he decides on a brave act: he writes a letter to Stalin, in which he expresses a desire to learn to draw and asks him to help. A few weeks later, to the Siberian settlement where they lived, a military man appeared. He told Akhmed to get ready and put him on a train to Leningrad.
So, in the 1940-1945’s he studied at the Moscow Secondary Art School. And then, at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute of VI Surikov (1945-1950). After graduation from the institute he worked in Moscow. Starting exhibiting since 1950, he took part in All-Union art exhibitions of Soviet Art in Moscow (1950, 1955), and “Soviet Russia” (Moscow, 1960). He mostly specialized in genre paintings, and since the 1960s – in portraits. Besides, in the 1950-1952 he taught at the Moscow Secondary Art School.
Ahmed Ibadullovich died on July 13, 1996 (Moscow).
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Smile. Artists Kaleria and Boris Kukuliev. Yuri Gagarin in Soviet Palekh lacquer miniatures

Yuri Gagarin in Soviet Palekh lacquer miniatures
The world’s first cosmonaut – the man who left the Earth’s atmosphere and ventured into outer space Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. Не is а hero whose name has gone down in history ..
The hero’s life resembles а lens which focuses the fate of а people, а thorny way of science, the voice of poetry and strivings of the human intellect. These beautiful lacquer miniatures explain the essence of the Russian man, in particular Yuri Gagarin. His soul, woven of many threads – fairy tales of childhood, dreams, heroes and ideals. None of the miniatures has a specific name, but the plots of these miniatures clearly show the history of the Russian people, whose glorious son was Yuri Gagarin.
Gagarin’s history is inseparable from the history of the country and his great compatriots Lomonosov, Pushkin, Tsiolkovsky, and Chkalov. His fate is inseparable from the conquest of the revolution, the young Soviet country and its achievements in the fields of energy, construction, and engineering. Without the first five-year plans and hard work, there would be no success in cosmonautics.
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Lyucia, 1986. Oil on cardboard. Soviet artist Margarita Dmitrievna Ruban (May 1, 1934 – October 21, 2011)

Soviet artist Margarita Dmitrievna Ruban was a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Born May 1, 1934 in Yanaul, Bashkortostan, she grew up in Leningrad (since 1937). She showed her ability to draw very early. Accordingly, in 1953-1961 she studied at the Tavrichesky Art College. After graduation from the college she entered the Faculty of Painting at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of I.E. Repin of Academy of Arts of the USSR. She studied in the workshops of prominent Soviet artists Yuri Neprintsev and A.D. Romanichev (1961-1967). The diploma painting “Attack repulsed” was dedicated to the difficult tense years of the Great Patriotic War, witnessed by Ruban herself, having experienced all the 900 days of the blockade.
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The monument to Musa Jalil erected May 1 1966 in Kazan in memory of the Hero of the Soviet Union, laureate of the Lenin Prize, participant in the anti-fascist underground, executed in Nazi prison in 1944. Work by Soviet sculptor Vladimir Efimovich Tsigal 1917-2013

Soviet sculptor Vladimir Efimovich Tsigal (17 September, 1917- 4 July, 2013) was Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts (1978, Corresponding Member 1964). People’s Artist of the USSR (1978), awarded the Lenin Prize (1984), the Stalin Prize of the First Degree (1950) and the RSFSR State Prize of the Repin (1966). Member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1952.

Born on 17 September 1917 in Odessa, in the 1920s he lived in Penza, where he graduated from high school. In 1937-1942 he studied at the State Art Institute named after VI Surikov in Moscow. Being a graduate student, in 1942 Vladimir volunteered to the front. Until 1944 he served in the Navy as a military artist. Participated in the landing in Novorossiysk and Kerch, as well as in other combat operations of the Black Sea and Baltic fleets. In 1945, the Committee for the Arts sent him with the famous sculptor Kerbel to Berlin. Their task was to build monuments to the soldiers of the Red Army in Berlin, Zeelow, and Kiistrin.
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Portrait of E.M. Bebutova. 1922. Soviet Russian painter Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov (17 November, 1878, Saratov – 21 February, 1968, Moscow)

Soviet Russian painter Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov (17 November, 1878, Saratov – 21 February, 1968, Moscow) quickly and unconditionally accepted the revolution. He genuinely believed in the slogans it proclaimed. And believed that, just after the victory of the October Revolution, art should have been assigned one of the most crucial roles in the grandiose plans for building a new life. He actively participated in the design of public holidays, and was an initiative member of the Department of Fine Arts Commission and the protection of monuments of art and antiquities of the Moscow Soviet of Workers’ and Red Army deputies.
Simultaneously, the artist worked in the College of Fine Arts, and even before the October days, in July 1917, he became an art editor of the magazine “The Way of Liberation”, combining it with teaching at the Stroganov School of Monumental Painting. In 1918 he became elected professor at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In both educational institutions, Kuznetsov directed the workshops, and when the two free art workshops merged, Kuznetsov headed the united monumental workshop up until the end of 1929.
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