Soviet Art

The Bread field. 1979 (Silver medal of the Academy of Arts of the USSR). Painting by Soviet Artist Nikolay Pavlovich Yeryshev (15 June 1936- 31 July 2004

Soviet Artist Nikolay Pavlovich Yeryshev

According to art critics, the work of Nikolai Pavlovich Yeryshev is a most valuable contribution to the artistic history of the USSR. A wonderful master of the subject-thematic picture, Yeryshev managed to rise the history of his country and era to a high philosophical understanding. The artist’s paintings created in 1970-1980, put his name on a par with the classics of Soviet art. In particular, “The Collective Farm Market”, “Carnival in Venice”, “Defense of Orenburg”, “On the grain stock”, “Refugees” and many others.
An artist-monumentalist by profession, he was looking for great, epoch-making themes for his works. Meanwhile, after his first participation in the zonal exhibition, he became the member of the USSR Union of Artists (1965). And in 1967, for the painting “On his land” the artist received the highest award of the All-Union Exhibition of Young Artists. Also, the first personal exhibition of Nikolai Eryshev took place in Moscow in 1973.
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The Moscow yard. Big hockey. 1961. Soviet artist Viktor Nikolaevich Chulovich 1922-1994

Soviet artist Viktor Nikolaevich Chulovich
An outstanding master, from the legendary “sixties”, Viktor Nikolaevich Chulovich (July 5, 1922 – 1994) possessed a mighty, courageous and temperamental brush. It’s not even the power of talent, not the integrity and completeness of creativity, but the ability to convey the charm of the past era.
Viktor Nikolaevich Chulovich studied at the Moscow Art School of Memory of 1905 (workshop of P. Petrovichev). However, like most of his contemporaries, he had to defend his Motherland during the WWII. So, in 1941 he fought as a machine gunner on the Kalinin and Stalingrad fronts. Demobilized because of a serious wound (August 1942), Chulovich continued his education. In particular, at the painting department of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. His teachers were F.S. Bogorodsky and KM. Morozov. After graduation (1951) he worked as an artist at the Moscow Film Studio.
Chulovich – veteran of Great Patriotic war, awarded the Order of the Patriotic War I degree, medals “For courage”, “For the defense of Stalingrad”, and “For victory over Germany”.
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Bird cherry blossoms. Oil. 1971. Painting by Soviet artist Victor Konstantinovich Dmitrievsky (1923-2006)

Soviet artist Victor Konstantinovich Dmitrievsky

Born October 5, 1923 in Zaraysk, Moscow province, Victor Dmitrievsky was a prominent Soviet painter. Member of the Studio of Military Artists of Mitrofan Grekov (1944), he was a veteran of Great Patriotic war.
He began studying art in the art studio (1937-1939). Soon after, in 1939 entered the Moscow Secondary Art School. During war time (1941-1942), with a group of teachers and students was in the evacuation in the village of Voskresensk of Bashkir ASSR. The same as many of his contemporaries, Victor entered the Soviet army (1942) and ended it as a platoon commander of the Moscow Military Engineering School. Besides, as part of the creative group of the Studio of Military Artists of Grekov, Dmitrievsky was on the Belarusian fronts. Victor Dmitrievsky was also a participant in the battles for the liberation of Czechoslovakia (1945). Veteran of Great Patriotic war, he received several awards. In particular, the Order of “Red Star”, and medals “For Military Merit”. Noteworthy, in 1951, without a break from work at the Studio of Grekov, he graduated from the Moscow State Art Institute of V.I. Surikov.
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Great sorrow, 1953. Painting by Soviet artist Vladimir Semenovich Zakharkin

Soviet artist Vladimir Semenovich Zakharkin
Born October 6, 1923 in the village of Avdotino of Ryazan province, Vladimir Semenovich Zakharkin – a famous Soviet painter. In 1944-50 Zakharkin studied at the Moscow Art Institute of V.I. Surikov. His teachers were famous Soviet masters of painting, in particular, AA. Osmyorkin, H. Maximov, Yu.P. Kugach, and P.I. Kotov. After graduation, in 1950-1953 he taught at the Secondary Art School in Moscow. Vladimir Semenovich Zakharkin became a regular participant of exhibitions of Soviet art since 1950, and the first one in Moscow. In addition, he was a participant in exhibitions and sales of works by Soviet artists in England, Poland, Austria, Germany, Holland, and France. A talented artist, Zakharkin became a member of the USSR Union of Artists after his first exhibition (1951). Meanwhile, in his many-sided creativity, we can trace the adherence to the thematic picture – a genre that presupposes a particularly thorough semantic and artistic elaboration. All this fully found its expression in the genre paintings of the artist. In them he gave the images of his contemporaries with great love and skill, touching with their simplicity and sincerity.
His works are in collections of art museums of Barnaul, Cheboksary, Taganrog, Rostov-on-Don, Yaroslavl, Krasnodar, as well as in many private collections in Russia and abroad.
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Perestroika. Poster artist O. Ulanov. Soviet social poster of Perestroika time

Soviet social poster of Perestroika time
In the period of social change, there is a growing need to create generalized, intelligible and at the same time profound in content symbols. In fact, Perestroika proclaimed a new way of thinking. Accordingly, the content of the posters has changed a lot. Meanwhile, the head of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev himself introduced a lot of neologisms. In particular, “glasnost”, “acceleration”, “democracy”, and “perestroika” itself. It was these words that appeared on most posters. However, in the majority the form of a poster has remained former. For example, an excess of red color, workers with happy courageous faces, patterns of sickles and hammers. Thus, the posters of the perestroika demonstrate to us a kind of transitional form of visual agitation – from the Soviet to the modern Russian.
However, the ideas of that troubled time are condemned by most modern people now. And the very time of perestroika with its leaders people now consider a time of betrayal and destruction.
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Generous Earth. 1976. Painting by Soviet Russian artist Georgy Ivanovich Popov (member of the USSR Union of Artists, born 15 September 1939)

Soviet Russian artist Georgy Ivanovich Popov
The peak of popularity of talented artist Georgy (George) Popov in the Soviet Union fell on the 1970 – 1980s. In particular, his works became participants of numerous personal and group exhibitions in museums of the USSR and abroad. For example, his famous still-life “Generous Earth” (Vologda Regional Picture Gallery), which appeared in a variety of publications, became a textbook. In fact, the painting became a kind of symbol of the entire Vologda region. Nowadays, reproductions of this picture are in the school textbooks of the series “Origins”. Interestingly, Georgy Popov is a self-taught artist, as he did not finish any art school.
However, Georgiy Ivanovich began his creative life as a poet. Once, Russian poet Nikolai Rubtsov, after reading his “Poem of Love,” said: “Talentedly written!”
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Geologists, 1963 (diploma work). Oil on canvas. Painting by Soviet Russian artist Oleg Gadalov (29 August 1935 – 11 June 2016)

Soviet Russian artist Oleg Gadalov

Born 29 August 1935 in the city of Ordzhonikidze, Chechen-Ingush autonomous region, Oleg Sergeevich Gadalov belonged to the Gadalov family, one of the most famous merchant families in the Yenisei province of Siberia. Aged 14 the boy entered the Central Art School at the Academy of Arts of the USSR. After graduation from the art school, in 1956, he entered the painting faculty of the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. I.E. Repin of the USSR Art Academy. There he studied in the workshop of a prominent Soviet artist Yuri Neprintsev (1956-1963). Created by Oleg Gadalov diploma painting “Geologists” received an excellent evaluation. In particular, awarded the Diploma of the first degree at the All-Russian exhibition of diploma papers in Moscow.
Member of the USSR Union of Artists (since the 1960s), he was a permanent participant of numerous exhibitions of Soviet art. In the period of 1973-1977 he worked in the studio of the seamen of the Navy at the Central Naval Museum in Leningrad. The artist visited the Barents Sea, the city of Severomorsk, and even participated in a hike to Italy on the training ship “Smolny.” The result of the missions were sketches, created on the basis of direct observations.
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