Soviet Art

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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Collective farm chairman, 1984. Soviet Ukrainian painter Yuri Balikov (b. 1924)

Soviet Ukrainian painter Yuri Balikov
First of all, known Kiev painter Yuri Yevdokimovich Balikov belongs to a generation of artists whose youth fell on the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War. That’s why the biography of wizard is typical for his generation. It reflected the characteristics of the life and career of an entire galaxy of Soviet artists, who in their youth had to defend their homeland.
The master of genre painting, a landscape painter, and portraitist Yuri Balikov was born 17 April 1924, in the village of Pliska of Vinnitsa region. He graduated from the Kiev State Art Institute, workshops of O. Shovkunenko and V. Puzyrkov (1958). His major works include “Trio of bandura players” (1967), “Winners” (1985), “Portrait of People’s Artist of Ukraine D. Narbut”, “Soldier Destiny” (1997), and “The Dream”, dedicated to T. Shevchenko. Member of the Union of Artists of Soviet Ukraine (1965), awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, and medals. Balikov took part in exhibitions of Soviet Art since 1960. His works are in private collections in Ukraine and Russia.
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Theory and practice. Caricature by Soviet graphic artist Ivan Semyonov (30 August 1906-1982)

Soviet cartoonist and graphic artist Ivan Semyonov (1906 – 1982) was People’s Artist of the USSR (1974). Also, he was vice-president of the International Association of Literature and Art for Children. Besides, he was a chairman of the section at the Cartoonists of the USSR Union of Artists and a board member of the Union of Artists.
Ivan Maksimovich Semyonov was born into the family of the Don Cossacks in Rostov-on-Don. Even in secondary school, Ivan studied drawing and painting at the workshop of SK Gambartsumov. At the same time, he had to earn as a loader and a seller, as well as newspaper artist. In addition, he worked in amateur theater “Eldorado”.
Meanwhile, in 1925 he even entered the Medical Institute. However, the love for art forced him to leave the institute (after one year of study) and enter the Rostov Art College (1926-1928). And already in 1926, the regional newspaper “Hammer” published his first cartoon “Cooperation classes” (on the miners strike in Britain). Since that time, the newspaper regularly published his works and Semyonov became a full-time employee.
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Voronezh region. Landscape at the river. Soviet painter and graphic artist Vasily Losev (born March 4, 1934)

Soviet painter and graphic artist Vasily Losev

The son of a forester, Vasily Timofeyevich Losev was born March 4, 1934 (Biryuchiy village, Central Black Earth region). Future graphic artist and painter, he attended art studio of Soviet artist L. Bednov at Borisoglebsk Railway Club (1949). In addition, he graduated from the Painting Department of the Penza Art College of K. Savitsky, workshops of M. Bumchin and M. Valukin (1957). Immediately after school worked as an artist of the Voronezh urban design (1958-1961). At the same time, he participated in the urban thematic, regional, zonal, national and all-union exhibitions of Soviet Art. As a result, already in 1967 he became a member of the USSR Union of Artists, and then Chairman of the Board of the Voronezh branch of the Union of Artists (1972-1974). In 1982 Losev received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. Solo exhibitions of paintings by Losev took place in Voronezh Exhibition Hall of Artists Union (1984 and 1999). Incidentally, his son, Andrei Losev (b. 1963) is also an artist.
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Sailor. 1930. Sketch from the series’ October in Petrograd.’ Canvas, oil. State Tretyakov Gallery. Soviet avant-garde artist Alexander Labas 1900-1983

Soviet avant-garde artist Alexander Labas entered the history of Soviet art as a romantic, praising the wonders of machinery of the young state. Indeed, everything at the time seemed marvelous, illuminated by bright sunshine and subservient to the power of the mind. Thus appeared the progress in the paintings of the artist, and in the best Soviet poetry. Undoubtedly, the main themes in the paintings of Labas – speed, movement and technical perfection.
According to biography of Alexander Labas, he studied at the Imperial Stroganov School of Industrial Art in the studio of F. Rerberg, then in the studio of I. Mashkov. Since 1917 he continued his studies at the State Art Studios (VHUTEMAS) in the workshops of F. Malyavin, Konchalovsky, Kazimir Malevich, Kandinsky, P. Kuznetsov, K. Istomin, and A. Lentulov. However, the same as many of his colleagues of the time, served as the artist of the 3rd Army of the Eastern Front (1919). Then, at the invitation of V. Favorsky taught painting and chromatics in the All-Union State art workshops (since 1924). In 1920 – 1930-ies engaged in stage design of performances at the Theater of the Revolution, named after VF Komissarzhevskaya and the State Jewish Theater (GOSET). In addition, Alexander Labas made panoramas and dioramas for the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris (1937), and the World’s Fair in New York (1939), as well as for the Main Pavilion of All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (1938-1941). Alexander Labas – one of the founding members of the OST (Society of Easel Artists).
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