Soviet Art

Artist’s wife. Oil on canvas portrait. Work by Soviet Ukrainian artist Leonty Koshtelyanchuk (14 April, 1914 – 1984)

Soviet Ukrainian artist Leonty Koshtelyanchuk ((14 April, 1914 – 1984) – member of the USSR Union of artists. Born in Zhitomir, he studied in the Kiev State Art Institute, workshop of Soviet artist Alexey Alexeyevich Shovkunenko. After graduation, he taught at the Kiev Art Institute, Associate Professor. Talented Soviet artist mostly worked in the genre of portrait. He took part in many Ukrainian, all-Union and international exhibitions of Soviet Art (1950, 1955) in Moscow.
Leonty Filippovich died in 1984. His works decorate museums of the republics of the former USSR, as well as foreign museums. Lots of his works are in private collections in Russia, Ukraine, and abroad.
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Turksib (Turkestan–Siberia Railway). 1969. Soviet Kazakh artist Abylkhan Kasteyev (1904-1973)

Soviet Kazakh artist Abylkhan Kasteyev – an outstanding painter and the founder of Kazakh fine arts. Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1940), Kasteyev is an original artist, distinguished by his own style and ability to convey his love for his native land on canvases.
People’s Artist of the Kazakh SSR, laureate of the State Prize of the Kazakh SSR A. Kasteev was born on January 10, 1904 in the village of Chizhin, Panfilov district of the Taldy-Kurgan region. He studied at the N. Khludov Art Studio in Verny (Alma-Ata, 1929-1931). Participated in exhibitions since 1934.
Kasteyev painted more than a thousand paintings in oil and watercolors. Some of his works are on display in the State Tretyakov Gallery, in the State Museum of East Nations Art, in the Central Museum of USSR Revolution by Lenin Order in Moscow, and in the State Museum of Fine Arts of Kazakhstan (renamed after Kasteev), and in the other museums of the country
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Interior of Frunzenskaya metro station, St. Petersburg (Leningrad). Soviet Russian sculptor Vladimir Sychev (1917-1995)

Soviet Russian sculptor Vladimir Sychev

The station, opened on April 29, 1961, was named in honor of the revolutionary and Soviet state and military figure Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze. Decorated with a bas-relief of aluminum and red smalt the panel depicts Mikhail Frunze on horseback, surrounded by Red Army soldiers and against the backdrop of battle banners. This is a remarkable work of the Soviet sculptor, member of the USSR Union of Artists (1948) Vladimir Sychev.
Born in 1917 in Ukraine, Vladimir Isakovich Sychev from an early age showed interest in art. In 1940, after the Odessa Art School, Sychev moved to Leningrad, where he entered the All-Russian Academy of Arts, and studied in the studio of the outstanding Soviet artist A.T. Matveyev. In 1941, after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, he took part in defense works, and was a fighter of the Moscow Military District. In 1942, all students and faculty of the Academy of Arts evacuated to Samarkand. However, the heaviest blockade winter influenced all the further work of Vladimir Sychev.
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Village landscape. 1980. Soviet Landscape painter Vladimir Yukin (1920-2000)

Soviet Landscape painter Vladimir Yukin

The founder of the Vladimir School of Painting, Vladimir Yakovlevich Yukin (1920-2000) lived most of his life in Vladimir and the Vladimir region. Born in the family of a paramedic, in the village of Mstera in the Vladimir region, since the XIX century known for its iconography and restoration school. First of all, the genus from which Yukin originated was famous for hereditary artists of almost three centuries. And mostly icon painters, then restorers.
Yukin graduated from the Ivanovo Art College (1940) and attended two courses at the Lvov Art Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts. Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Yukin was a member of the USSR Union of Artists (1952), People’s Artist of Russia (1995) and Laureate of the State Prize of the RSFSR (1992).
On his canvases the clear, open colors sparkle in full force. Each stroke is bulky, weighing. If you stand close to his painting, it is like a rough plowed field. However, when you take a step backward – the tension of the colorful spot develops into a visible image of the native land. And here they are – deserted autumn fields, rest after harvest, meadow motley grass, waving in the summer breezes, sparkling snow in the birch copses, and forest spills.
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USSR by Danish cartoonist Herluf Bidstrup

USSR by Danish cartoonist Herluf Bidstrup

This post is a continuation of the previous article – “What Herluf Bidstrup saw in USSR”, based on the book of Danish communist Herluf Bidstrup (September 10, 1912 – December 26, 1988). The book includes lots of cartoons which capture everyday life of the Soviet people. An honorary member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, laureate of International Lenin Peace Prize (1964) visited the Soviet Union many times. So, the presented gallery of selected images from his book reconstructs the impressions of the author. According to Bidstrup, his cartoons – fleeting, sometimes casual impressions, but they can be interesting for those who want to know more about the world’s first socialist country. “I deeply respect the Soviet people and I bow before them more than before anyone. For 50 years they have created a society which was utopian before, under difficult conditions and thanks to selfless labor and heroic struggle”. Bidstrup, Herluf
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What Herluf Bidstrup saw in USSR

“What Herluf Bidstrup saw in USSR” – the title of the book of cartoons published in 1970s in Moscow. Noteworthy, Danish cartoonist Herluf Bidstrup (September 10, 1912 – December 26, 1988) was a Danish communist, who drew cartoons on foreign policy and social themes. In particular, his work “What Bidstrup saw in the USSR” captures and presents everyday life of the Soviet people in humour genre. The life, which he saw with his own eyes after he had travelled to the Soviet Union. By the way, Herluf Bidstrup, an honorary member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, received the International Lenin Peace Prize in 1964. Books with drawings by Bidstrup published in the USSR in huge editions and were very popular. Bidstrup was a convinced communist and considered in the USSR as a “progressive artist” because in his cartoons he exposed the ulcers and vices of a capitalist society, which in fact are relevant even in today’s state of world capitalism.
Since 1945 he worked in the newspaper of the Communist Party of Denmark “Land og Folk”. Meanwhile, the gallery of selected images from his book reconstructs the most important events of the time, according to the author.
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Walkers to Lenin. 1950. Oil. Soviet artist Vladimir Alexandrovich Serov (1910-1968)

Soviet artist Vladimir Alexandrovich Serov was an apologist for the art of socialist realism. Among his titles and honors – member of the USSR Union of Artists, member of the Academy of Fine Arts (since 1954), People’s Artist of the USSR (1958), and Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR. Besides, he was twice winner of the Stalin Prize (1948 and 1951). In addition, he was the first Secretary of the Board of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (1960-1968) and President of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1962-1968). And also the member of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (since 1958).
Born in the village of Emmaus, Tver province, he lived in the years of total devastation that occurred after the Civil War. However, he was able to develop his artistic abilities since childhood. In the town of Tver he visited the studio of the artist Savyly Yakovlevich Shleifer, who had fled from the famine of Petrograd. Later, in 1924, the future artist moved to Petrograd and three years later became a student of the Academy of Fine Arts (Leningrad Institute of Proletarian Fine Arts, 1927-1931). He studied in the workshops of prominent representatives of Soviet art V.E. Savinsky and I. I. Brodsky.
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