Soviet Art

Penguin with baby. 1960 Wood sculpture. The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Work by Soviet sculptor Vasily Alekseevich Vatagin (1883-1969)

Soviet sculptor Vasily Alekseevich Vatagin

Born in Moscow in 1883, Vasily Alekseevich Vatagin – Russian animal painter, sculptor and scientist-zoologist. The founder of the Darwin Museum, Alexander Fedorovich Kotts, was one of the first to draw attention to the talent of the young artist. Practically from the very foundation of the museum in 1907, the collaboration of the painter and sculptor V.A. Vatagin and director of the museum A. F. Kotts began. Vatagin, rightfully considered co-founder of the Darwin Museum has created more than 400 paintings, as well as about 100 sculptural works for 40 years of work.
Since childhood he was fond of drawing, and aged 15 he attended the studio of watercolor artist NA Martynov. In 1902, Vasily entered the natural department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University. Also, he studied at the studio of the painter K. Yuon.
After graduating from the university, the artist made several trips to the zoological gardens of Western Europe, visited Central Asia, India, and northern Russia. There he performed a large number of sketches of animals and birds, which later became indispensable helpers in various works. Among them – zoological illustration, easel painting, book illustration and sculpture.
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I.V. Stalin. 1936. Painting by Soviet Russian avant-garde artist Pavel Filonov (January 8, 1883, Moscow – December 3, 1941, Leningrad)

Soviet Russian avant-garde artist Pavel Filonov – a genius of the Soviet avant-garde. The famous, mysterious and largely unknown yet artist and man. December 3, 2018 was exactly 77 years since the day of his death. Filonov died in the most difficult winter of 1941 in Leningrad. Exhausted to the extreme, he guarded his house, and most importantly, his work – the work of all life, from the “lighters” on the icy attic of the house. Once fell down, and the next day he could not get up any more. He died of pneumonia and dystrophy.
What was he like? Tall, big, with “cherry eyes and pale cheekbones …” – wrote a friend of Filonov poet Velimir Khlebnikov, with whom they made friends in 1910. He also told about his friend: “I met an artist and asked if he would go to war. He replied: “I, too, am at war, not for space, but for time. I’m sitting in the trench and taking a scrap of time from the past. My duty is equally heavy, as the troops for space … “.
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Soviet Russian actress Galina Polskikh

Soviet Russian actress Galina Polskikh
“… I think that I became an actress not accidentally,” says Galina Polskikh, “when I was playing, I filled a terrible emptiness in my life, I lived in an imaginary world.”
Born in Moscow on November 27, 1939, Galina Polskikh Soviet Russian theater and film actress.
Galina practically does not remember her parents: during the war, when she was only three years old, her father was killed at the front, and in 1947 her mother died from anemia. Therefore, at the age of 8, Galina was in the orphanage. However, she didn’t stay there for long. Soon her maternal grandmother, Efrosinia Andrianovna, moved to Moscow from Kaunas and took care of her grandchildren. They settled in the former parental 9-meter basement room in Sretenka. Their house was opposite the store “Mushrooms-berries”, where the grandmother got a job as a cleaner.
After graduating from school in 1956, Galina Polskikh decided to go to All Union Institute of Cinematography. According to Polskikh, at first, she even did not understand that acting was not just a game, but a profession, work. She entered the course to famous Soviet film director Mikhail Ilyich Romm.
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At the old apple tree. 1977. Oil, canvas. Painting by Soviet Russian artist Mikhail Davidovich Natarevich (September 29, 1907 – February 23, 1979)

Soviet Russian artist Mikhail Davidovich Natarevich
Born September 29, 1907 in Vitebsk, Natarevich received his first art education in Vitebsk, in the studio of Yu. Peng, a painter and teacher who graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Natarevich – Russian Soviet artist, painter, member of the Leningrad organization of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR. In 1932 he came to Leningrad and entered the preparatory classes at the All-Russian Academy of Arts. And two years later he became a student of the painting faculty of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I. Repin. His teachers in drawing were M. Bernstein and S. Abugov, and teacher in painting – Alexander Savinov.
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Altayka (Altay woman) in Chegedek, 1911. Oil on canvas. Painting by Soviet Russian artist Grigory Ivanovich Gurkin (12 January 1870 – 11 October 1937)

Soviet Russian artist Grigory Ivanovich Gurkin
Born in 1870 in the village of Ulala (now Gorno-Altaisk), Grigory Gurkin was an Altai artist, a student of Ivan Shishkin. By origin he was Altaian, a descendant of Telenget khan Konnay. Aged 8, Gurkin attended the icon-painting class of the Altai spiritual mission school. After graduating from the missionary school, he worked as a teacher for a while, but soon turned to icon painting. In 1896 Gurkin got acquainted with the collector of Altai folklore, AV Anokhin, who discovered the world of contemporary painting to a young artist.
The first picture, with which he tried to get to the Academy (“Night of the victim”), full of mystery and naivety. Orthodox by birth and education, the artist very vaguely depicted the life and religion of the Altaians. Only later, during the creative dawn, the author became seriously engaged in the study of the Altai way of life. Noteworthy, he left thousands of drawings, which also have an ethnographic value.
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Triple portrait. From the collection of the Belgorod State Museum. On the canvas – the composer V. Zaveschevsky, the actor of Drama Theater Valery Matveev and the artist A. Alekseev. Painting by Soviet Russian artist Anatoly Fedorovich Alekseyev (born 3 November, 1951)

Soviet Russian artist Anatoly Fedorovich Alekseyev
Born 3 November 1951 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Alekseyev is a member of the USSR Union of Artists (since 1978). According to his biography, he received his first art education in the secondary Art school where he studied from 1963 to 1970. Next, Anatoly Alekseyev entered the art faculty of the Institute of painting, sculpture and architecture named after I. E. Repin, from which he graduated in 1976.
He began participating in the exhibitions of Soviet Art in 1977, and two years later received an award of the USSR Academy of Arts for the best work of art. Also, the artist actively participated in art exhibitions abroad. In particular, in Italy, USA, Germany, France, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Luxembourg.
The works of Alekseyev are in the Ministry of culture of Russia and museums and private collections in Russia, Italy, USA, Germany and Japan. He currently lives and works in St. Petersburg.
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Duel of Peresvet with Chelubey on Kulikovo field. 1943 (Fragment). Stalin prize of first degree (1946). Painting by Soviet Russian artist Mikhail Ivanovich Avilov (6 September 1882 – 14 April 1954)

Soviet Russian artist Mikhail Ivanovich Avilov
Great Russian artist, a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, People’s Artist of the RSFSR and a laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree. Considered one of the best Soviet battle-painters, master of historical scenes. Distinguished by a special dynamism of the scenes, attention to detail and the heat of events. He created one of the most famous battle works, which is called “The Duel of Chelubey with Peresvet”. This picture depicts the legendary battle between the two heroes, which shows the invincible spirit of the Russian people, who overthrew the Tatar-Mongol yoke. Noteworthy, created during the Great Patriotic War, it aimed to exalt the self-consciousness of the Soviet people, who fought against the fascist invaders. This picture to date remains a classic battle-historical genre.
Mikhail Ivanovich Avilov began his education at the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, then studied at the studio of L.E. Dmitriev-Kavkazsky, after graduating from the Imperial Academy of Arts. From 1922 to 1930 he was a lecturer at the Leningrad Art and Industrial Technical School. Since 1947 he taught at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of I.E. Repin in Leningrad. Currently, his paintings are in the most famous museums in Russia, including the Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery and many others.
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