Soviet Art

Soviet Latvian sculptor Teodor Zalkaln 1876-1972

The art of Soviet Latvian sculptor Teodor Zalkaln, Hero of Socialist Labor, member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, People’s Artist of the USSR, belongs to the bright pages of Latvian culture, its truly national values. In one of his speeches the artist said: “I am a sculptor, I have subordinated all my life to the tasks of a sculptor, this was my joy, and the reason for my worries.” As a sculptor I looked at life as an artist trying to understand and convey in my images our Latvian life, in which I see the essence of our people.”
The search for a monumental image, the desire to embody the beauty, strength and integrity of the national character were the basis of the work of Teodor Eduardovich Zalkaln. The images of his mother, who had borne the calamities of the First World War, the monuments built according to the plan of monumental propaganda, and the majestic portraits show that the artist has always understood the life, hopes and aspirations of the people.
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Red Army soldier figure. Work by Soviet Tuvan folk master Dongak Okaanchik 1896-1972. Photo – tuvaonline.ru

Soviet Tuvan folk master Dongak Okaanchik 1896-1972

One of the original Tuvan folk masters, the name of Dongak Okaanchik stands alongside such celebrated carvers and stone-cutters who glorified Tuva far beyond Russia, like Hertec Toybuhaa, Mongush Cherzy, Raisa Arakchaa, Kogel Saaya, and others.
Okaanchik lived a long life (1896-1972). Born in a country that was part of China, he saw the formation of the young state of the People’s Republic of China, and witnessed how a small republic became part of the vast country of the USSR. His works – a sculpture of small form of wood and traditional musical instruments – are well known to serious connoisseurs of applied art in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and other large cities of Russia. And one of the works of the Tuvan master, “Devig” is in the Kunstkammer in St. Petersburg.
In fact, in the 1960s, during the heyday of culture in the Tuva ASSR, his works repeatedly participated at major all-Union exhibitions of Soviet Art in Moscow and Leningrad. At present, the largest collection of works by the master Okaanchik is in the funds of National museum of Tuva.
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The image of Stalin in painting “Triumph of the masses”. 1930s. Soviet artist Georgy Alekseev 1881-1951

Soviet artist Georgy Alekseev
Famous Soviet sculptor, painter and graphic artist, Georgy Dmitrievich Alekseev (1881-1951) was one of the most passionate and talented propagandists of the Marxist-Leninist ideas of the 1920s-1930s. He was not only a witness, but also a living participant of the Russian revolution. Alekseev graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he studied in the workshops of I. Repin, S. Korovin, and N. Kasatkin. In 1907 he became the creator of one of his first busts of Karl Marx, commissioned by the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). In 1924 he became the author of his most famous work – “The Calling Leader”, replicated in hundreds of copies in the squares, railway stations, museums and squares of many cities of the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, in the early 1920s he collaborated with V.V. Mayakovsky and M.M. Cheremnykh in the “Windows of Satire ROSTA”. Noteworthy, in 1923 he created the poster “Ultimatum”, mentioned by N. Ostrovsky in the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered”.
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Herbs of summer. 1987. Painting by Soviet artist Mikhail Abakumov (1948-2010)

Soviet artist Mikhail Abakumov was a deep patriot of his country, his “small homeland” – Kolomna, delicately felt the history of the region, sang its beauty and uniqueness. The master defines his “creative credo” as follows: “Painting is a way of life. It gives strength to live and stay in a good mood. Painting comes from the word “alive” (in Russian). My credo in painting: to sing the world of God in its beauty, in its harmony, and in its light. If I can get the light of God, then it will be a great happiness … The main thing in life is not to get depressed. Optimism will save us.”
Born in 1948 in Kolomna, Abakumov studied at the Moscow Art and Industrial School named after Kalinin. Then, in 1977, he graduated from the art faculty of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography, the studio of professors I.A. Shpinel and G.A. Myasnikov.
In 1983 he worked in the creative workshops of the Academy of Arts of the USSR under the leadership of famous Soviet artists academicians AP. And S.P. Tkachev and A.M. Gritsai.
Member of the Union of Artists of Russia since 1980. In 1985 and 1987 he received diplomas of the Academy of Arts of the USSR.
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The monument to three times Hero of the Soviet Union, Air Marshal Alexander Pokryshkin on Karl Marx Square in Novosibirsk. Work by Soviet Russian sculptor Mikhail Pereyaslavets (born March 30, 1949 in Moscow, USSR)

Soviet Russian sculptor Mikhail Pereyaslavets
Born March 30, 1949 in Moscow, USSR, Mikhail Vladimirovich is a Soviet and Russian sculptor, teacher, professor, painter of the Grekov studio of military artists since 1976. Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts (1997; Corresponding Member, 1992). People’s Artist of Russia (1995). He is a laureate of the RSFSR State Prize named after I. Repin (1984) and the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1976). The author of many monuments of military-patriotic significance.
One of the sculptures created by Pereyaslavets depicts so-called “Stalin’s falcon”, Stepan Pavlovich Suprun (August 2, 1907 – July 4, 1941) – Soviet test pilot, military pilot fighter and Member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Suprun was the first twice Hero of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War (the second time – posthumously). Killed in an air battle near Vitebsk July 4, 1941.
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Village girl. Soviet Russian artist Alexandr Moravov 1878-1951

Soviet Russian artist Alexandr Moravov
Alexander Viktorovich Moravov was one of the artists who brought in the Russian painting of the XX century the tradition of “peasant genre”, going from the Wanderers. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1946). Full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1949). Alexander Moravov was born in the village of Velikaya Motovilovka in the former province of Kiev. His father, a well-educated man, was fond of art, and he was friends with such famous artists as N.N. Ge and M.A. Vrubel.
Surrounded by the creative atmosphere, the boy started drawing very early. Since 1888, he studied at the Kiev Art School, headed by N.I. Murashko. In 1897-1902 he studied at the Moscow University of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, workshops of N.A. Kasatkin, K.A. Korovin, A.M. Korin and A.E. Arkhipov, who had a particularly great influence on the young man.
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Friends. 1950’s. Electroplating, plasticine, pedestal – wood. Work by Soviet sculptor Alexandr Deineka (1999-1969)

Soviet sculptor Alexandr Deineka
In addition to painting, monumental works, mosaics and decorative-applied art, Deineka is a well known as a sculptor. Today, one can not say definitely about the reasons, or the exact time of Deineka’s conversion to sculpture. Except for a brief episode of the first years of his artistic biography, when in 1920 in Kursk, at an emergency meeting of teachers at the Proletarian Art Studio, it was decided that in addition to Deineka’s painting classes, he would lead a course in sculpture. However, there is no evidence that in 1920 – 1930s, the artist showed interest in this art form. In exhibition catalogs, the artist invariably dated his first sculptures in 1939.
In any case, it is interesting to note that in the late 1930s the artist was fond of the idea of ​​three-dimensional space in art, that is, just at a time when the reaction to the appearance of his new monumental works is by no means always positive.
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