Soviet Art

Detail of Decorative figure. The gardener. 1975. Chamotte, salt, glaze. Directorate of exhibitions of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Soviet Russian ceramic artist Mikhail Kopylkov

Soviet Russian ceramic artist Mikhail Kopylkov
Born in 1946 in Leningrad, Mikhail Kopylkov graduated from Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School named after Vera Mukhina (1969). He joined the USSR Union of Artists in 1975.
Annual exhibitions “One Composition” were of great importance for the history of Soviet Leningrad ceramics, the first of which took place in 1977. According to the charter, the artist could put out only one work, which he chooses himself. A month later, a large exposition “Ceramics of Leningrad” became the first serious review of Leningrad ceramics in the last five years. Criticism rated it as one of the most interesting phenomena in decorative art. The notion of “school of Leningrad ceramics” appeared.
Meanwhile, since the beginning of the 1970s, a group of young artists-ceramists, graduates of the Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School has been actively working in the city on the Neva. In particular, A. Zadorin, N. Savinova, V. Gorislavtsev, V. Tsyvin, L. Solodkov, N. Gushchina, O. Nekrasov-Karateeva and others. Among them one of the brightest figures was Mikhail Kopylkov.
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Portrait of Hero of Socialist Labor Nazarali Niyazov. Oil. 1949. Painting by Soviet Uzbek artist Abdulkhak Abdullayev (30 December 1918 – 29 October 2001)

Soviet Uzbek artist Abdulkhak Abdullayev

Honored Art Worker of the Uzbek SSR Abdulkhak Abdullayev was born in 1918 in the city of Turkestan. The boy showed his art abilities very early. “I was very fond of animals,” recalls the artist. He watched them with interest, recognized their habits, character, and then tried to depict them. Sometimes molded them out of ordinary clay or painted them on the wall of the house. Such were the first steps of the future artist in the art. In 1928, the boy entered the school of K. Liebknecht in the village of Lunacharsky, located near Tashkent.
Pupils of this school, along with other subjects, got acquainted with the basics of drawing. The artist recalls that these lessons were for him the most fascinating. Abdulhak spent his free time after school drawing. The successes of the young artist in this subject attracted the attention of the teachers of the school. And, first of all, AP Grintsevich, who in every possible way strove to support Abdulhak’s desire to “study as an artist”.
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Soviet opera singer Zara Dolukhanova (15 March 1918, Moscow, Russia – 4 December 2007 Moscow, Russia)

Soviet opera singer Zara Dolukhanova

Active during the 1940s through the 1960s Zara Aleksandrovna Dolukhanova (15 March 1918, Moscow, Russia – 4 December 2007 Moscow, Russia) was fairly recognized as one of the leading representatives of the Russian Soviet school of chamber music. And this, of course, is fair. In her art, many of the characteristic features of the Russian vocal school, which originated, as we know, from Glinka, have concentrated. It is no coincidence that his romances invariably enter the concert programs of the singer. As an independent creative direction, the Russian school of chamber singing finally emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, when the performers presented a detailed panorama of the Russian romance, beginning with Glinka and ending with Rachmaninoff. With honed, filigree skill, the singer transmits the unique originality of Baroque music, the works of ancient Italian masters, Viennese classics, romantic composers, French impressionists, Soviet and foreign composers.
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Portrait of Shota Rustaveli. Cloisonne enamel. 1962. Soviet Dagestan goldsmith Manaba Magomedova (November 5, 1928, Kubachi – March 10, 2013, Makhachkala)

Soviet Dagestan goldsmith Manaba Magomedova

The range of works created by Manaba Omarovna Magomedova (November 5, 1928, Kubachi – March 10, 2013, Makhachkala) is unusually wide. In particular, decorations (bracelets, rings, necklaces), book salvage, utensils (pitchers, dishes, cups, cups), weapons, decorative chandeliers of large and small forms. Magomedova- a well-known metal artist. Member of the Union of Artists of the USSR and Russia (1960), People’s Artist of Dagestan (1978), and Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (2003). The first woman in Dagestan is a goldsmith, laureate of numerous republican, all-Union and foreign exhibitions and competitions, Honored Artist of Russia, People’s Artist of Georgia and Dagestan, Chevalier of the Order of Honor of Georgia. Her works participated in more than one hundred prestigious exhibitions. Besides, she represented the country at international symposiums and seminars. Personal exhibitions of the artist took place in Moscow, Makhachkala, Tbilisi, Jablonec nad Nisou (Czech Republic), Rangoon, Algiers, Budapest, Székesfehérvár (Hungary), and Istanbul. Her works received awards of different countries, and gold, silver and bronze medals of the Exhibition of Economic Achievements of the USSR.
Meanwhile, admiring the artist’s work, poet Rasul Gamzatov wrote about her: “It is impossible to imagine that her almost childish hands were forging and burning metal. In the works she created, I see a poetic dream of perfect beauty.”
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Hero of Socialist Labor, Stalin Prize winner (1942, 1946, 1948, 1951), the People’s Artist of the USSR (1949), Soviet actress Vera Petrovna Maretskaya (31 July 1906 – 17 August 1978)

Soviet actress Vera Petrovna Maretskaya

For real actresses there is no age, as if there is no flow of days. They are always dazzling, always young, always full of fire, charm, fervor, life, such a thing, speaking in Gogol’s language, “damn it”, which burns in the blood, excites, beckons hearts.
And all this more than anyone else relates to Soviet actress Vera Petrovna Maretskaya. The beautiful woman of Soviet theater, combined the rare natural data and the almost cybernetic (the age of the scientific and technological revolution) technique, the features of a national character and the internationalism. She started at the Studio School at the Theater named after Evgeny Vakhtangov, having learned the harmonious sharpness of the form, understanding the theater as a hot joy, as a generous, noble storyteller telling the truth. It was always fun to look at Vera Petrovna Maretskaya, because she herself had never been boring, dull, upset and confused.
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Chinese and Soviet workers under the banners with Marx-Lenin. Soviet Ukrainian graphic artist Vasily Kasiyan (1 January 1896 – 24 June 1976)

Soviet Ukrainian graphic artist Vasily Kasiyan

Awarded honorary titles and distinctions of the Soviet state, about Kasiyan, published many books, albums, and art articles. With high dignity he carried the people’s trust: three times in a row – elected to the Supreme Council of Ukraine. The art of Kasiyan is a world of exciting images, seen in life and inspired by the historical past, books by Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrainka and Olga Kobylianska. Images of the past, images of the Soviet era … In the work of Kasiyan lives a memory of the past of Ukraine, and the life-affirming spirit of the Soviet days.
Soviet Ukrainian graphic artist Vasily Kasiyan said: “Creative inspiration feeds on vital, earthly sources, it does not fall from heaven at all. Only during intense, tireless work does inspiration appear as a result of the development of the conceived business.” According to him, the basis of inspiration is, first of all, the artist’s connection with life, with the people.
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Amedeo Modigliani in the cafe Rotonda. Painting by Soviet Georgian artist Lado Gudiashvili (18 March 1896 – 20 July 1980)

Soviet Georgian artist Lado Gudiashvili

– A lot of sun … Since the morning he’s running away from it. The sun prevents the artist. Exaggerating colors, deceives the eye. But all his art is full of the sun, and he can not do without the sun.
Lado Gudiashvili, People’s Artist of the USSR, laureate of the Rustaveli Prize has lived long life with convenient, well-established concepts. Even with his youthful appearance, slender, with vivacious eyes and greed for work, this eighty-year-old man claimed the favorite idea that wisdom is the ability and in his old age to maintain the immediacy of the perception of the world.
Meanwhile, back in the 1920s, he appeared in Paris, this “mecca” of the artistic world, this capricious sea, which absorbed more than one talent. The young artist stayed true to himself even after the meeting with the eminent maestros. And after the noisy coronation and the abundance of artistic trends, the bohemian life of creative youth, who brought their claims to Paris and bury them there.
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