Soviet Art

Soviet sculptor Dmitry Ryabichev in his workshop. 1980s

Soviet sculptor Dmitry Ryabichev (1926-1995) was Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, member of the USSR Union of artists (1954), People’s Artist of the RSFSR, laureate of the State Prize of the USSR, laureate of the UNESCO Prize, and laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize. Famous Russian sculptor – author of monuments, portraits, monumental compositions, and sculptural and architectural ensembles in Russia and in the world.
During the period of 1946 – 1954 he studied at the Leningrad Civil Engineering Institute, Faculty of Architecture, then at the Moscow Art and Industrial School, the Faculty of Sculpture. One of the brightest representatives of modernity, Dmitry Ryabichev entered art in the mid-sixties, just at the time when Soviet masters gained special freedom of expression, when bright trends in all kinds of art appeared.
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Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. Bas-relief (1917). Soviet Russian sculptor Vladimir Domogatsky (1876 – 1939)

Soviet Russian sculptor Vladimir Domogatsky (1876 – 1939) – the teacher, professor of Moscow State Art Institute (since 1937), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1937). Born into the family of a wealthy landowner, a doctor, he spent his childhood in Switzerland. In 1897-1902 he studied law at Moscow University and took private lessons in sculpture from SM Volnukhin, and later, the painter S.V. Ivanov.
At the beginning of the 20th century he visited Paris and Italy several times, where he studied European art. A special influence on his work had the sculptors Paolo Trubetskoy and Rodin. In 1907 in Paris he studied the technique of working in marble.
After returning to Russia in 1908-1910 – he taught at the Stroganov School in Moscow. Since 1937 – Professor of the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts, Dean of the Faculty of Sculpture. Among his students were prominent Soviet sculptors Lev Kerbel, Vladimir Tsigal, and D. Mitlyansky. Meanwhile, he worked in genre of animalistic and portrait sculpture.
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Admission to the pioneers. Ya. V. Titov. Pioneers in paintings of Soviet artists

Pioneers in paintings of Soviet artists
The pioneer organization was not a “sect of young communists”, as Western propaganda represented it, but a children’s and youth association that cultivated positive qualities and a spirit of camaraderie, which today is so lacking for modern children. It is from the absence of pioneers and Komsomol that young people today are trying to unite in military-patriotic clubs, football games and other associations of varying degrees of legality. In Soviet times, everything that modern youth is looking for was given by the Pioneer and the Komsomol.
For those who were pioneers, this time meant hikes, campfires, sports competitions, exciting games, developing clubs and other pleasant memories. Pioneers were almost all who managed to live in the USSR at the age of over 10 years. At the dawn of the pioneer organization, only the best ones were accepted there, but then the criteria were reduced, and by the 1970s and 1980s they began to accept everyone.

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Self-portrait. 1981. Interpreting USSR kitsch Soviet artist Arkady Petrov (born 1940)

Interpreting USSR kitsch Soviet artist Arkady Petrov (born 1940). His art, as well as many of his contemporaries, actually fell into the category of “forbidden” in Soviet times. His paintings almost never appeared on official exhibitions, although in the artistic environment his authority was quite high. Born in 1940 in the village near Gorlovka in the Donbass (and then Stalin) region, he spent his childhood in the miner’s province. Meanwhile, aged 17, he moved to Moscow (1957). After graduating from the Art School “In Memory of 1905”, in 1963-1969, he studied at the Moscow State Art Institute of Surikov. During the Soviet era, authorities hardly allowed his works, and in Soviet times he had only one solo exhibition. However, The Russian Museum became the first museum that acquired the artist’s canvases as far back as the 1970s. Besides, he gained fame in perestroika as the author of one of the individual versions of social art.
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Worker embroidering Soviet Red banner. Soviet sculptor-ceramist Natalya Danko (1892-1942)

Soviet sculptor-ceramist Natalya Danko (1892-1942) entered the history of Soviet propaganda porcelain as one of the most remarkable sculptors. For twenty-five years of creative work she has created more than three hundred figures and compositions. In particular, thematic sculptures, satirical, portrait and decorative, not counting options made in bronze, terracotta, wax and earthenware. Also, Natalia was one of the first Soviet sculptors to use porcelain in architecture. Noteworthy are 14 bas-reliefs on the theme “Dances of the Peoples of the USSR” for the metro station “Sverdlov Square”. In addition, under her leadership, a team of sculptors and artists of Leningrad porcelain factory performed porcelain bas-reliefs for the Khimki river station in Moscow (1937-1938).
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Lenin on Subbotnik. Red square. 1986. Soviet painter Mikhail Kornetsky (March 15, 1926, Moscow – September 10, 2005, Riga)

Soviet painter Mikhail Kornetsky (March 15, 1926, Moscow – September 10, 2005, Riga) – member of the USSR Union of Artists (1961), Honored Artist of the Latvian SSR. Kornetsky was born on March 15, 1926 in Moscow. His father, Vladimir Kornetsky, after the revolution participated in the Civil War and from 1922 until his death in 1947 worked in the Soviet state security organizations. His mother, Venilia Indrikovna Liepa, also worked there. Since 1943, the mother of the future artist moved to Riga work in the prosecutor’s office and on the liberation of Latvia from the Nazi invaders.
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Great Painter, 1915. Self-portrait. Soviet Russian avant-garde artist Aristarkh Lentulov (January 16, 1882 – April 15, 1943)

Soviet Russian avant-garde artist Aristarkh Lentulov (January 16, 1882 – April 15, 1943) – an outstanding painter and stage designer. Born in the village of Nizhny Lomovo, Penza province, in the family of a village priest. So, studying in the spiritual school and the theological seminary became a natural continuation of the family tradition. And, apparently, Lentulov would become a priest as well as his father. However, the gift given by God intervened in the fate of the young man. Beginning to draw from early childhood, along with his brother Boris, he entered the newly created art school of Seliverstov (1898). Noteworthy, Lentulov received the most elementary skills of the craft from his teachers – in Penza from the Wanderer Savitsky and illustrator Afanasyev. Besides, here, in Penza in 1908 was his first solo exhibition. Fifteen works of Lentulov, stored in the Penza gallery relating to different periods of his creative activity, allow us to clearly trace the evolution of the master.
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