Soviet Art

Detail. “Arrival to the fleet of the first Komsomol replenishment in 1922”. 1932. Painting by Soviet Russian artist Ivan Georgievich Drozdov (22 August 1880 – 26 November 1939)

Soviet Russian artist Ivan Georgievich Drozdov
Born August 22, 1880 in the village of Vvedenskoe, Moscow Province, Ivan Georgievich Drozdov – Russian painter, and artist of decorative and applied art. Drozdov painted portraits, landscapes, and everyday scenes. After 1917 he created paintings on the themes of revolutionary history and Soviet life. Member of the Union of Artists (1918), the Association of Artists (1916, 1922), the Society of Artists of AI Kuindzhi (1917-27, with interruptions), Association of Artists of revolutionary Russia (1923-29, in 1924-26 – chairman of the Leningrad branch). Ivan Georgievich Drozdov became the member of the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1932.
He received his original art education in the 1890’s in the icon painting workshop of M. Molov and the Moscow art school of A.P. Bolshakov. Besides, Drozdov studied in Penza art college, workshop of KA Savitsky (1900-1904). In addition, he studied at the Higher Art School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, workshops of famous Russian artists VE Makovsky, IE Repin, and VE Savinsky (1904-1910).
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Hourglass. 1987. Soviet theater artist Pyotr Alekseyevich Belov (October 17, 1929 – January 30, 1988)

Soviet theater artist Pyotr Alekseyevich Belov

Since the beginning of perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has become fashionable to scold the Soviet past in newspapers, from television screens, theater scenes and paintings of artists. The wave of “denunciation and condemnation” swept over Pyotr Alekseyevich Belov as well. So, according to his friends, he seemed to burst out of creating, and one by one began to appear canvases – small in size, but grandiose in their philosophical content and fullness of thought”. However, it is easy to see that all of the artist’s paintings, which metaphorically portrayed Stalin’s repressions, he created in the period 1985-1988. In total, there were 23 paintings in the “anti-Stalin cycle. Of course, they were up to date, on the wave of popularity and used as illustrations to anti-soviet and anti-Stalin articles. Interestingly, in the early 1990s, took place the premiere of the American film “Stalin” in Moscow. The film began with a panorama of the works of Pyotr Alekseyevich Belov.
Meanwhile, Pyotr Alekseyevich Belov (October 17, 1929 – January 30, 1988), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1978), member of the USSR Union of artists (1974-1988) was mainly a theater artist.
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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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