Mysterious Soviet German artist Hans Preuss (1904 Germany – 1984 USSR). Self-portrait. Paper, oil. 1939. Kemerovo Art Gallery

The Kemerovo Art Gallery stores paintings of Mysterious Soviet German artist Hans Preuss, a man of strange and mysterious fate. He was born on 1 September 1904 in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Hans studied at the Königsberg Academy of Visual Arts in 1920-1923. His teachers were Professor R. Pfeiffer and A. Degner. While studying in the Academy, he participated in numerous group exhibitions and training courses in Berlin, Dresden, Nuremberg, Munich. In 1933 Hans Preuss emigrated from Germany and visited Austria, France, Switzerland, Poland, Sweden, Finland, and finally – the USSR. Here, he got the Soviet citizenship in 1939. The World War II began. In 1942 he was evacuated to the western Siberia – the city of Novosibirsk, later moved to Tomsk (1943–1956). In 1946 he became the member of the Union of artists of the USSR. Since 1956 he lived and worked in Kemerovo. With his paintings he traveled all over Siberia – Tomsk, Omsk, Irkutsk, Barnaul. Once, in 1964 he visited his native Germany with the exhibition of his paintings in Berlin, but returned back to Siberia. Hans Preuss died at the age of 80, 2 February 1984, in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. German by nationality, communist by belief, he lived all his life in Siberia, and was the Soviet citizen.
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April smog, 1992. Soviet artist Pyotr Fomin

Art must be profoundly national, for only in this way it becomes international. Soviet artist Pyotr Fomin. The art lovers know Pyotr Fomin primarily as a poet of Russian nature, the singer of the Northern Territory. It is said that the artist is often similar to his works. With regard to the work of Fomin this statement is true. The simplicity and openness, kindness and naturalness are the features of his art and nature. These qualities Professor Fomin, rector of the oldest artistic institution of the Soviet Union – the Repin Leningrad Institute educated his students. Peter Timofeyevich Fomin (1919-1996) – Russian Soviet painter and teacher, People’s Artist of the USSR (1991), Member of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists (before 1992 – the Leningrad branch of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR). Participant of Great Patriotic War, Pyotr Fomin was awarded Order of the Patriotic War II degree (1985), medal “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”, medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”.
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Soviet children painting Space. Natasha Ishaeva, 12 years old. In the Star World. Gouache. Moscow, USSR, 1986

Soviet children painting Space

These Space exploration inspired drawings were published in 1986 April issue of magazine “Young Artist” published in the USSR. It should be noted that since 1961, it has become such a good tradition to dedicate every April issue to the achievements of the Space exploration theme. Indeed, Yuri Gagarin’s flight inspired a generation of Soviet children. Many of the boys (and even girls, after the flight of Valentina Tereshkova) dreamed about space, to the question of who you want to be, the answer was simple – an astronaut. Research of the universe inspired young artists, the best drawings were published in a magazine just to Cosmonautics Day in the Soviet Union – on 12 April. Editors of the magazine “Young Artist” in conjunction with the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences organized the contest “Space and children” for all lovers of fine art. The most striking works were sent for exhibition in Japan.
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Long live the Komsomol!. Poster. 1924. Soviet artist Alexander Samokhvalov (1894-1971), Honored Arts Worker of the RSFSR, a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists of Russian Federation

By the seventh anniversary of the October Revolution, the artist AN Samokhvalov created the poster “Long live the Komsomol!”. Gusty movement of the figures, marching rhythm of the composition creates an emotional image, close to the lines of Komsomol poet- song writer A. Bezymenski:
Go forward. Along the sunny roads,
To the factories, the mines, the court!
To all countries and Oceans we’ll spread the scarlet banner of labor!

This poster symbolized a purposeful movement forward, romantic and daring youth, abruptly and rapidly moving to the goal.
By studying the artistic heritage of the famous Soviet artist Alexander Samokhvalov, one may be surprised at his ability to vividly respond to the most important events of the time, immediate and enthusiastic he had witnessed. It seems quite natural that Lenin theme in the works of master got deeply felt incarnation. It appeared in his work back in the mid 20-ies in the posters, then put into a number of paintings, united in a kind of a series on which the artist has worked long and hard, turning to it again and again. Samokhvalov gave this series code name “Lenin and the people of the revolution”, stipulating at the same time that in his plan would be more appropriate the name of “Lenin and the people”, as the “people of the revolution are actively involved in the revolution, in the case of Leninist principles. ”
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Goalkeeper. 1949. Soviet painter Sergei Grigoriev. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Soviet painter Sergei Grigoriev (1910 – 1988), People’s Artist of the Soviet Union and member of the USSR Academy of Arts, has played a major role in the formation of the Soviet Ukraine school of art as an outstanding painter and teacher. Grigoriev embarked on his artistic career in the late 1920s — early 1930s. He started as a graphic artist, working hard as a book illustrator, designer of posters and murals, and interior decorator. Beginning in the late 1930s, he gradually emerged as a lyrical painter. In his portraits, genres pictures, and landscapes, he created images filled with humaneness and harmony with the surrounding world. Ten years later, in the late 1940s, he established himself in Soviet painting as a mature master of multi figural, complex compositions.
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Soviet painter Victor Shatalin – ‘Squads of young fighters were gathering’. 1969-1970. canvas, oil

Russian Soviet painter Victor Shatalin (1926 – 2003) was a master of genre painting on the military, revolutionary and patriotic themes. Victor was born in a village of Saratov region. From the age of 13 he studied at the Leningrad Art School at the Academy of Arts of the USSR. In 1941, 15-year-old boy went to the front, and became the “son of regiment” of the 1st Ukrainian Front. After the end of World War II, in 1945, Victor attended the Kiev Art School named after Shevchenko, after which he entered the Kiev Art Institute.
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Woman – Proletarian, master aviation technology … Soviet poster artist Maria Bri-Bein. 1931

The author of this poster – Soviet poster artist Maria Bri-Bein. Her statement was “for the successful implementation of the historic tasks artist should maintain his two main development tools – clarity and mass.” Maria’s posters are clear, specific, dynamic, expressive, not overloaded with details, and are interesting to contemporaries not only with the plot, but that they were made by the woman – artist. The struggle of the Soviet state for the “liberation” of women, the approval of the idea of ​​the necessity of her participation in the creative work is reflected in the paintings of many painters. The Soviet era heroine in artworks by Bri-Bein is stately, beautiful, confident in her work, mission, and her future.
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