Soviet Art

Crossing. 1975. Humanus series. Soviet Latvian photographer Vilgelm Mikhailovsky

Soviet Latvian photographer Vilgelm Mikhailovsky (Vilhelms Mihailovskis) was Laureate of the State Prize of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (1989). Noteworthy, he was the first of Soviet photographers received the honorary title of an outstanding artist of the International Federation of Photographic Art (Excellence FIAP, 1979). Meanwhile, he has more than a hundred different international awards. His author’s collections are in the French Museum of Photography (Musee Francais de la Photographie), the Musee de L’Elysee in Lausanne and in other European collections.
Born October 2, 1942 in the city of Konstantinovka, Donetsk region, Mikhailovsky graduated from the Konstantinovka Technical Institute (1966). Then he moved to Latvia. He started photography in 1969, and began working as a photographer in the magazine “Māksla” (1976-1996), the newspaper “Literatūra un māksla” (1980-1982), and as an art editor in the Baltic Newspaper (1991-1995).
Mikhailovsky became known for his series “Portraits” (1985), “Invitation to the Execution” (1988), and “Non-stop Photography” (1996-2003). He is the author of many photo albums, including: “Revelation” (1982), “Tribute to Riga” (1992), “The Face of the Epoch” (1998) “Flight 2000” (2000) “Centuries Look at Us” (2002).
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Smile. Artists Kaleria and Boris Kukuliev. Yuri Gagarin in Soviet Palekh lacquer miniatures

Yuri Gagarin in Soviet Palekh lacquer miniatures
The world’s first cosmonaut – the man who left the Earth’s atmosphere and ventured into outer space Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. Не is а hero whose name has gone down in history ..
The hero’s life resembles а lens which focuses the fate of а people, а thorny way of science, the voice of poetry and strivings of the human intellect. These beautiful lacquer miniatures explain the essence of the Russian man, in particular Yuri Gagarin. His soul, woven of many threads – fairy tales of childhood, dreams, heroes and ideals. None of the miniatures has a specific name, but the plots of these miniatures clearly show the history of the Russian people, whose glorious son was Yuri Gagarin.
Gagarin’s history is inseparable from the history of the country and his great compatriots Lomonosov, Pushkin, Tsiolkovsky, and Chkalov. His fate is inseparable from the conquest of the revolution, the young Soviet country and its achievements in the fields of energy, construction, and engineering. Without the first five-year plans and hard work, there would be no success in cosmonautics.
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Lyucia, 1986. Oil on cardboard. Soviet artist Margarita Dmitrievna Ruban (May 1, 1934 – October 21, 2011)

Soviet artist Margarita Dmitrievna Ruban was a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Born May 1, 1934 in Yanaul, Bashkortostan, she grew up in Leningrad (since 1937). She showed her ability to draw very early. Accordingly, in 1953-1961 she studied at the Tavrichesky Art College. After graduation from the college she entered the Faculty of Painting at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of I.E. Repin of Academy of Arts of the USSR. She studied in the workshops of prominent Soviet artists Yuri Neprintsev and A.D. Romanichev (1961-1967). The diploma painting “Attack repulsed” was dedicated to the difficult tense years of the Great Patriotic War, witnessed by Ruban herself, having experienced all the 900 days of the blockade.
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The monument to Musa Jalil erected May 1 1966 in Kazan in memory of the Hero of the Soviet Union, laureate of the Lenin Prize, participant in the anti-fascist underground, executed in Nazi prison in 1944. Work by Soviet sculptor Vladimir Efimovich Tsigal 1917-2013

Soviet sculptor Vladimir Efimovich Tsigal (17 September, 1917- 4 July, 2013) was Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts (1978, Corresponding Member 1964). People’s Artist of the USSR (1978), awarded the Lenin Prize (1984), the Stalin Prize of the First Degree (1950) and the RSFSR State Prize of the Repin (1966). Member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1952.

Born on 17 September 1917 in Odessa, in the 1920s he lived in Penza, where he graduated from high school. In 1937-1942 he studied at the State Art Institute named after VI Surikov in Moscow. Being a graduate student, in 1942 Vladimir volunteered to the front. Until 1944 he served in the Navy as a military artist. Participated in the landing in Novorossiysk and Kerch, as well as in other combat operations of the Black Sea and Baltic fleets. In 1945, the Committee for the Arts sent him with the famous sculptor Kerbel to Berlin. Their task was to build monuments to the soldiers of the Red Army in Berlin, Zeelow, and Kiistrin.
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Portrait of E.M. Bebutova. 1922. Soviet Russian painter Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov (17 November, 1878, Saratov – 21 February, 1968, Moscow)

Soviet Russian painter Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov (17 November, 1878, Saratov – 21 February, 1968, Moscow) quickly and unconditionally accepted the revolution. He genuinely believed in the slogans it proclaimed. And believed that, just after the victory of the October Revolution, art should have been assigned one of the most crucial roles in the grandiose plans for building a new life. He actively participated in the design of public holidays, and was an initiative member of the Department of Fine Arts Commission and the protection of monuments of art and antiquities of the Moscow Soviet of Workers’ and Red Army deputies.
Simultaneously, the artist worked in the College of Fine Arts, and even before the October days, in July 1917, he became an art editor of the magazine “The Way of Liberation”, combining it with teaching at the Stroganov School of Monumental Painting. In 1918 he became elected professor at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In both educational institutions, Kuznetsov directed the workshops, and when the two free art workshops merged, Kuznetsov headed the united monumental workshop up until the end of 1929.
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To the light. Triptych. Central part. Oil. 1970. Soviet Turkmen artist Chary Amangeldyev (born July 5, 1933)

Soviet Turkmen artist Chary Amangeldyev – member of the USSR Union of artists, People’s Artist of the Republic of Turkmenistan.
Born on July 5, 1933 in Ashgabat, he graduated from the Ashkhabad Art College in 1951 and the Moscow State Art Institute named after VI Surikov in 1965. His thesis work was “Turkmen carpet-weavers” (led by famous Soviet artist D.K. Mochalsky). Meanwhile, in the Moscow State Art Institute Chary Amangeldyev first received a diploma of a restorer, and then graduated from painting department.
Amangeldyev was a permanent participant of All-Union, republican, and international exhibitions of Soviet Art since 1957. And his personal exhibitions took place in 1974, 1983 in Turkmen State Museum of Fine Arts, Ashgabat. Besides, he was a participant of the 2nd Tashkent Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2002. His creativity no longer fit into the borders of Turkmenistan and the entire Soviet Union and went beyond them.
Associate Professor of the Turkmen Academy of Arts (1998-2004), Chary Amangeldyev made creative trips to Argentina, Bulgaria, Iran, Mongolia, Turkey, and Japan. His works are in the Turkmen State Museum of Fine Arts in Ashgabat, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow, and in private collections in the former USSR and abroad.
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Tonya, portrait. Oil on cardboard. Painting by Soviet artist Boris Ivanovich Vagin (1920-2002)

Soviet artist Boris Ivanovich Vagin – talented Russian painter born in Tula. In his childhood, he studied in the Tula art school. Later, in 1936, he moved to Leningrad to study at the Leningrad Art Studio. After having graduated from the studio, in 1939, he returned to his native Tula, where he lived and worked till his last days. Since 1941, he took an active part in the city, regional and zonal exhibitions of Soviet Art, including Moscow region. In addition, his personal exhibition took place in Tula in 1979. Works by Boris Ivanovich Vagin are in the State art museum in Tula, many regional museums, the Art Fund of the Russian Federation, as well as in private collections, sold at Western, Russian and Ukrainian auctions.
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