Female portrait. 1954. The State Tretyakov Gallery. Soviet painter Andrei Gorsky (17 April 1926 – 22 September 2015)

Soviet painter Andrei Gorsky (17 April 1926 – 22 September 2015) – member of the USSR Union of artists (1956), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1982), People’s Artist of the Russian Federation (1996). Andrei Gorsky belongs to the national culture, which determines all his work during the difficult and dangerous for the existence of the Soviet state war and post-war years. Then was laid a solid foundation of his art. The young years of the artist passed in the time of the Great Patriotic War, full of anxiety, both for the fate of each individual soldier, and for the fate of the entire country. And in the soul of a sensitive man, an intellectual grew a sense of patriotism, interest to the history, and love for the motherland. The nature of the Russian North, its courageous people and the historical past of our country, the roots of its culture attracted the artist. Russian history, native environment, the Soviet people, defending the right to live with our heads held high – that unified in its diversity the theme of the artist.
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Mother. 1945. The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Soviet artist Boris Mikhailovich Nemensky (b. 1922)

Paintings by Soviet artist Boris Mikhailovich Nemensky (b. 1922) many times became a phenomenon, of not only artistic, but also social life, the subject of a very heated debate. Faith in humanity, in its beauty and indestructibility, the artist’s belief in the power of the human principle, to be fought not only among inhuman trials of war, but today – this is perhaps the most important characteristic of his work. “B. Nemensky has already become a classic at twenty-two years old when he created his famous picture “Mother”, – said the famous Soviet poet Konstantin Simonov. Boris Nemensky is known as a painter of easel painting with complex and dramatic content, and at the same time as very lyrical artist with a bright and vibrant view of the world. As an academician, a member of the Academy of Education and the Academy of Arts of the USSR and Russia, People’s Artist of the RSFSR, laureate of Stalin and State prizes, he remains the same, not going to compromise, original master.
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Self-portrait in a hat. 1921. Soviet artist Igor Grabar (1871-1960)

Soviet artist Igor Grabar (1871—1960) – one of the most famous names in the history of Russian and Soviet culture of the twentieth century. A man of art, science, museum and restoration work, Grabar in his very long life showed the wonders of diligence, putting all of himself into art. In addition, origin and place of birth of Grabar, his family history is quite unusual. He was born March 13, 1871 in Budapest, in the Russian family that belonged to an ethnic group concentrated in the Ugrian Russia. This Carpathian region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And almost all the numerous relatives of Grabar, especially his maternal grandfather Adolf Ivanovich Dobryansky, were involved in the European Slavophile movement. Besides, they participated in the fight against “Magyarization” of Slavs of Austria-Hungary.
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Portrait of the Artist (self-portrait). 1912-1913. Art Museum, Kostroma. Soviet artist Constructivist Vladimir Tatlin (28 December 1885 — 31 May 1953)

Soviet artist Constructivist Vladimir Tatlin

“Vladimir – thin and tall young man, a bit like a fish with a protruding upper lip, with a snub nose and evocative melancholy eyes.” Natalia Goncharova, 1911.
In fact, Constructivism was a Soviet phenomenon that emerged after the October Revolution as one of the areas of new, avant-garde, proletarian art. As Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote in his essay on the French art: “For the first time not from France, but from Russia flew the new word of art – constructivism …”
And one of the largest representatives of the Russian Soviet avant-garde, the father of constructivism was Soviet artist Constructivist Vladimir Tatlin (28 December 1885 — 31 May 1953). This direction, called Constructivism, was a new way of thinking. It presents a new logic in the way of artistic thinking, hence its importance to contemporary art. Besides, it assigns a major role to structure and establishes design principles. Tatlin, Rodchenko and many other artists, coming from the abstract, worked on the problem of interdependence of forms. By the way, Tatlin was one of the few avant-garde artists who stayed in the USSR, while the majority of them left the Soviet country.
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Self-portrait. 1927. Soviet artist Vasily Hvostenko (1896 – 1960)

Soviet artist Vasily Hvostenko (1896 – 1960) – comes from a galaxy of serfs artists (his great-grandfather, grandfather and father were icon painters), a member of the “Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia” (AKhRR). One of the first works carried out on the revolutionary theme: “Lenin on the armored car”, “Lenin in Smolny”, etc. Hvostenko – artist and researcher, developed technologies and modern methods of encaustic painting and revived this ancient art.
Soviet graphic artist, painter, and muralist Vasily Veniaminovich Hvostenko was born August 15, 1896 in Kursk province. In 1910-1917 he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, workshops of Alexander Arkhipov, V. Baksheyev, N. Kasatkin, K. Korovin, A. Korin, S. Malyutin, L. Pasternak. Since 1918, he exhibited his works at many art exhibitions in the USSR and abroad, including the exhibitions “Free art”, “Union of Russian Artists”, “Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.”
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Morning of tank crew. 1952-1954. Painting by Soviet artist Boris Fyodorov (born August 15, 1922)

Soviet artist Boris Fyodorov was born August 15, 1922 in Samara, the USSR. At nineteen years old, while a student of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of Repin, he volunteered to the front. In 1942-44 he fought at Leningrad and 2nd Baltic fronts as a senior mechanic-driver of a heavy tank “HF”. He was wounded twice. In 1945, on the instructions of War Artists Studio of MB Grekov was assigned to the 79th Rifle Corps, involved in the storming of the Reichstag – drew from nature the raising flag over the Reichstag. He was awarded the Order of “Red Star”, “Fame”, “World War II” 2 degrees, medals “For Courage”, “For Victory over Germany”, “For the capture of Berlin.” In the 1945 he continued studying at the Faculty of Painting of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of IE Repin, the workshop of M.I.Avilov. His diploma work was “Gorky and Chekhov among artists of Moscow Art Theatre.
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Soviet Ukrainian painter Vladimir Nesterov (born 1932). Listening to space (The Earth listens). 1970. Canvas, oil. Sold at auction for $ 72,063

Soviet Ukrainian painter Vladimir Nesterov was born August 16, 1932 in the city of Kherson. Vladimir Dmitrievich – an artist of social realism, a teacher, a member of the USSR Union of Artists. While studying in the art studio of Kherson Pioneers House, he was awarded a trip to Moscow for the watercolor painting “Duel of Pushkin with Dantes.”
After returning from the capital, the young man was invited to lead an art studio in the House of Folk Art. Within months, the number of visitors to his studio reached seventy.
Later Nesterov graduated from the Kiev Art Institute. His graduate work at the Institute was devoted to one of the most favorite themes in the Soviet Art – Space exploration. Then he created two paintings “The Earth is listening” and “The Astronauts”. He studied all that was available about space exploration, traveled to the Crimean observatory, collected materials. In 1970 he painted “The Earth is listening”, it was on the show in Moscow, later was sold at auction for $ 72,063.
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