Soviet Art

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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Chinese revolutionary woman. 1960. Soviet portrait artist Tatyana Oranskaya (1914-1982)

Soviet portrait artist Tatyana Oranskaya
Born 22 January 1914 in Moscow, Tatyana Alexandrovna Oranskaya studied in the workshops of F.I. Ferberg (1931-1934). Then, in 1936 – 1937 she improved her skills in the Institute for Advanced Training of Artists. Besides, in 1940s she studied in the workshop of Aristarkh Lentulov, Soviet avant-garde artist.
Working in Moscow, Oranskaya has participated in exhibitions of Soviet Art since 1942. Also, she became a member of Moscow branch of the USSR Union of artists. In total, for 40 years of her creative life, she mainly worked in the genre of portraits, as well as still lifes.
The images created by Oranskaya are picturesque and are in full harmonic unity with the environment surrounding them. This picturesque wholeness gives vitality and naturalness to the portrait images. However, in each of her coloristically complex pictorial image, also participates poetry of light. Particularly, that special illumination that emphasizes the character and state of mind of the model.
Meanwhile, the personal exhibition held in 1976 in Moscow became the last creative report of the artist. Tatyana Alexandrovna passed away in 1982 (Moscow). Her works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, as well as in many Moscow and regional museums, and private collections in Russia and abroad.
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Soviet Russian sculptor Sarra Lebedeva (23 December 1892 – 7 March 1967)

Soviet Russian sculptor Sarra Lebedeva
Bright representative of Soviet art, Sarra Lebedeva was an Honored Artist of Russia (1945), Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1958), and Member of the USSR Union of Artists. Master of portrait sculpture, she is the author of numerous sculptural portraits of public figures, the country’s heroes, artists and writers.
Born Sarra Dmitrievna Darmolatova 23 December 1892 in St. Petersburg, she was the daughter of wealthy official and nobleman. Besides, her elder sister was a poet and translator Anna Radlova. Sarra Lebedeva studied at the School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, workshops of Mikhail Bernstein and Leonid Sherwood (1910-1914), and also worked in the sculpture studio of Vasily Kuznetsov (1914).
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New Uniform, 1953. Oil on canvas. Soviet artist Nikolai Ponomarev (17 February 1918 – 1997)

Soviet artist Nikolai Ponomarev (17 February 1918 – 1997) – Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1946), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1963), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1968). He was a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts (1966), a member of the Academy of Arts (1973), and member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Arts, and in 1992-1997 – its President. In addition, he was a Chairman of the USSR Union of Artists (1973-1988). Noteworthy, in 1945, in the group of art experts participated in the rescue of the collection of the Dresden Gallery (the photo below). He was the winner of the third degree of the Stalin Prize in 1951, for a series of etchings “The miners of Donbass” (1949-1950). In 1957, was awarded the Gold Medal of the Ministry of Culture. Besides, for a series of graphic works “In India” he received the International Prize of Jawaharlal Nehru.
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