Soviet Art

Iconic Portrait of Vladimir Lenin. Work by Soviet artist Noe Nestorovich Gedenidze (1914-2002)

Soviet artist Noe Nestorovich Gedenidze
The famous portrait of V.I. Lenin, printed in millions of copies, hung in every office of each party worker. However, very few people knew at that time that this well-known image belongs to the artist Noah Gedenidze.
Born July 14, 1914 in Matkhodzi village of Georgia, the future Member of the USSR Union of Artists Noe Gedenidze was one of the most original artists of the Soviet epoque. Before the WWII he studied at the Tbilisi Academy of Arts. Then 2 years fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Seriously wounded he was in a hospital in Moscow. In his mature years, in 1962 he graduated from Surikov Moscow State Art Institute.

Along with A. Laktionov, he painted portraits of party and government leaders. Meanwhile, his real art life passed in a two-story studio in a silent Olkhovsky Lane, where he painted for his own pleasure, his own way, not even expecting to participate in any exhibitions. At that time he created colorful symphonies full of complex symbolism and individual mythology. Indeed, during Gedenidze’s lifetime the only small exhibition of his works took place in 1987 in Khimki, a Moscow suburb. We are just starting to discover this artist now.
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The last payment. 1960s. Soviet artist Vasily Andreevich Neyasov (July 14, 1926 – October 7, 1984)

Soviet artist Vasily Andreevich Neyasov (July 14, 1926 – October 7, 1984) – Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1948).
Born July 14, 1926 in Makarovka village of Penza province, Vasily Andreevich Neyasov grew up in a peasant Mordvinian family. From the age of 12 he began regular art classes – in the studio of Mordovian artists (1938-1940), at the children’s art school in Saransk. His teachers were MV Levitina, Boris Yermilov, MA Zernina, and MA Faichin (1940-1943). During the war years (1941-1943) he worked as an artist-designer of the Mordovian Music and Drama Theater under the leadership of MA Zernin and B.I. Roslenko-Ridzenko. Also, during hard years of WWII he managed to work as an assistant to the machinist of Ruzaevka railway station.
After the war ended, he decided to continue his art education and entered the Moscow Art College in memory of 1905, workshops of V.N. Baksheev, N.N. Nikonov, and N.S.Kozochkin (1945-1947). However, due to definite circumstances, he was not able to finish it, and returned to Saransk, and later moved to Chelyabinsk (1951).
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Rest after the battle. (Vasiliy Tyorkin), 1951. Fragment. Soviet artist Yuri Mikhailovich Neprintsev (1909-1996)

Soviet artist Yuri Mikhailovich Neprintsev
His most famous work is the painting “Rest after the battle,” for which he was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree in 1952. After the war began, the artist volunteered for the front, served in the fighter battalion and active units of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, and participated in the defense of Leningrad. Therefore, the picture reflects his personal observations and experiences. In addition, the famous poem by A. Tvardovsky “Vasily Turkin” influenced Neprintsev. Meanwhile, Soviet authorities presented the original of the painting “Rest after the battle” to the head of the People’s Republic of China Mao Zedong. And one of the versions, also created by Neprintsev, is in the Tretyakov Gallery.
Soviet painter, graphic artist, teacher, professor, Academician of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, People’s Artist of the USSR, Yuri Mikhailovich Neprintsev was a laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree.
In the post-war years, Yuri Neprintsev created a series of paintings dedicated to the heroic struggle of the Soviet people against fascist Germany: The Last Grenade (1948), Liza Chaikina (1949), Rest after the Battle (1951), and The Story of the Father (1955).
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Before the thunderstorm. 1960. Fragment. Soviet artist Leonid Andreyevich Fokin (July 9, 1930 – 1985)

Soviet artist Leonid Andreyevich Fokin

Born July 9, 1930 in Pavlograd, Dnepropetrovsk region, Ukrainian SSR, Leonid Andreevich Fokin studied at the Kishinev Art College. And then followed six years of studying at the Faculty of Painting of the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of Ilya Repin of Academy of Art of the USSR (1950-56). His teachers were prominent Soviet artists A. Debler, E. Tabakova, A. Mylnikov, and V. Anisovich. He graduated from the workshop of Professor V.M. Oreshnikov, the diploma painting – “In the Evening”.
The professionalism that he acquired, having passed all the stages of the Repin school, organically combined with his natural talent. A virtuosic draftsman and sensitive colorist, Leonid Fokin managed to create energetically powerful and simultaneously lyrically filled works, which, in addition to undoubted artistic and visual merits, distinguish a sense of the accuracy of the nature of time and place.
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To the son for help. 1957. Soviet Russian artist Alexandr Burak (July 10, 1921 – April 29, 1997)

Soviet Russian artist Alexandr Burak (July 10, 1921 – April 29, 1997) – Ural painter, Professor of the Sverdlovsk Architectural Institute (1968-1989). Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1951) and Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1964). A real “singer of the Urals”, the artist created a whole series of epic, lyrical and industrial landscapes. Working on the Ural landscapes, he seemed to dissolve into a majestic nature, merged with it, and it confidently revealed to him the secrets of the unique combination of colors. Also widely known as a master of genre painting, he raised the importance of the domestic genre in the period when it was in a certain decline. In the genre picture, Alexander Filippovich showed himself as a subtle psychologist.
Born July 10, 1921 in the village of Efremovka in the Barabinsky district of the Novosibirsk region, in 1930 the family moved to the city of Kemerovo. His epic paintings were always full of love and admiration for his homeland. In 1938 he entered the architecture faculty of Novosibirsk Institute of Civil Engineering. Simultaneously, he worked as an artist-animator at the Novosibirsk studio of popular science films.
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In the workshop. 1980. Soviet Georgian sculptor Elgudzha Amashukeli (22 April 1928 – 10 March 2002)

Soviet Georgian sculptor Elgudzha Amashukeli (22 April 1928 – 10 March 2002). People’s artist of the USSR (1988). Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1982).
Once, as a winner of the drawing competition, the sixth-grade student Amashukeli arrived in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The week spent in Tbilisi – deeply imprinted in his memory. There he first heard the opera “Aida”, first visited the exhibition of works of professional artists in the Georgian Picture Gallery. A huge impression on him made a picture of one of the founders of modern Georgian painting, Soviet artist Moisei Toidze, “Gifts for front-line friends.” The decanter, full of water on this picture, long remained mysterious to him, like an illusionist’s trick. He could not unravel the visual mystery of painting.
At the age of twelve he took part in the republican exhibition of children’s drawings and won the first victory. Maybe then his subconscious fantastical love of painting appeared. Anyway, but from that day he even more believed in his calling and never in his life changed it.
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T.A. Ivanova. 1925. Soviet Russian sculptor Anna Golubkina (1864-1927)

Soviet Russian sculptor Anna Golubkina – the largest sculptor of the late XIX – early XX century. The creativity of this genuine representative of the revolutionary-minded Russian intelligentsia served the noble cause of liberating the people from tsarist oppression. An outstanding master of portrait, she also created a number of remarkable works on social, revolutionary and philosophical themes.
The art of Anna Semyonovna Golubkina did not leave anyone indifferent. Her creativity developed at the turn of two centuries, two historical eras. Anna Semenovna Golubkina was born on January 28, 1864 in the provincial town of Zaraisk, Ryazan province. The granddaughter of the fortress peasant of the princes Golitsyn, she lost her father early, and had no opportunity to study at school. However, the natural mind and the tremendous thirst for knowledge allowed her to eventually become an educated person.
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