Soviet Art

USSR Culture

Miss USSR Famous Soviet weaver Dusya Vinogradova

Miss USSR Famous Soviet weaver Dusya Vinogradova

Miss USSR Famous Soviet weaver Dusya Vinogradova (1 August 1914 – 7 September 1962)

Miss USSR Famous Soviet weaver Dusya Vinogradova
The initiator of the Vinogradov movement (Stakhanovite movement in the textile industry), in 1930 she was the symbol of the “new man.” Member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1939.
Despite the fact that Dusya and Marusya Vinogradova installed the labor records together, often in the press and books focused only Dusya. And this is no accident: the whole Soviet country fell in love with this beautiful and charming girl. Besides, Soviet politician and prolific author on revolutionary theory Bukharin admired Dusya Vinogradova, calling her “new woman”. In addition, Parisian Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg was so excited about meeting with Dusya that published a “Letter to Dusya Vinogradova” in Bukharin “News”. However, a week later he had to repent before Stalin. Meanwhile, the foreign press generally presented Dusya Vinogradova as “Miss USSR” (for example: G. Friedrich, «Miss U.S.S.R .: The Story of a Girl Stakhanovite» New York, 1936). More than that, the cult of Dusya Vinogradova reached cinema. In particular, her image of Tanya Morozova depicted famous Soviet actress Lyubov Orlova in the film by Alexandrov “Shining Path” (1940).
Read more »

Soviet Russian sculptor Vyacheslav Malyshkin

Soviet sculptor Vyacheslav Malyshkin. Window. Bronze. 1984

Window. Bronze. 1984. Soviet sculptor Vyacheslav Malyshkin

Soviet Russian sculptor Vyacheslav Malyshkin
Vyacheslav Malyshkin graduated from Moscow State Art Institute named after Surikov, the Faculty of Sculpture. Immediately after graduation the young artist began to work on his own, and became a member of the USSR Union of Artists. In addition, he began teaching. In particular, for many years has been teaching at a children’s art studio in the Sverdlovsk district of Moscow. Demanding from the young pupils serious attitude to work, Malyshkin himself is a hard working and responsible. For a whole year he can create no more than one or two sculptures. As before, the direct implementation of the plan anticipates the full-scale laborious work with pencil and paper. As a result, his works decorate the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery.
Read more »

Soviet painter Mikhail Platunov 1987-1972

Soviet painter Mikhail Platunov (February 22, 1887 - June 18, 1972)

Zyryan Woman (Komi people). Village of Ust-Usa. 1925. Soviet painter Mikhail Platunov (February 22, 1887 – June 18, 1972)

Soviet painter Mikhail Platunov
Born in the village of Cheremis-Turek of Vyatka Province, Mikhail Platunov began to paint under the guidance of his father – a talented self-taught icon painter. In 1906 he graduated from art school in Kazan and entered the Higher Art School of the Imperial Academy of Arts, where his teachers were professors P. Chistyakov and V. Savinsky. After graduation from the Academy in 1914, just the year when the First World War began, he had to serve as the front-line artist. And already after the revolution, he taught at the Petrograd workers’ clubs and schools. In addition, participated in exhibitions of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, and performed a series of portraits of famous artists. Noteworthy, Soviet painter Mikhail Platunov actively participated in the construction of the young Soviet State. In particular, in the 1925-1931 traveled as part of the All-Union geological expeditions to distant and little-investigated regions of the Polar Urals, Abkhazia, Turkestan, Pechora and Kamchatka. Also, in 1937, by the icebreaker “Sadko” traveled to the Arctic. The accumulated experience, as well as sketches while traveling, formed the basis of subsequent works.
Read more »

Soviet portrait painter Valery Habarov

Soviet portrait painter Valery Habarov

Antiques shop. 1976. Gesso, tempera. Soviet portrait painter Valery Habarov (born August 4, 1944)

Soviet portrait painter Valery Habarov
Bright representative of Soviet art, member of the USSR Union of Artists since 1982, Valery Habarov is a silver medalist of the USSR Academy of Arts (1977 and 1982), and winner of the Prize of Lenin Komsomol (1977).
Valery was born on August 4, 1944 in Michurinsk. While his mother Zinaida Dmitrievna comprehended the profession of medical assistant-obstetrician, the Great Patriotic War began. So, she went to front and worked in a field hospital. Fortunately, she stayed alive, but at war she lost her husband, father of Valery, when he was still a baby. Meanwhile, for some time grandparents looked after the boy. But after the war ended, his mother and stepfather took the boy with them. Fortunately, the boy grew up in a creative family, where his parents loved him and tried to develop his creative abilities. And very soon they noticed his incredible interest in drawing.
Read more »

Soviet Russian artist Pyotr Konchalovsky 1876-1956

Soviet Russian artist Pyotr Konchalovsky. 1952, Still life with lilac

1952, Still life with lilac. Soviet Russian artist Pyotr Konchalovsky (February 21, 1876 – February 2, 1956)

Soviet Russian artist Pyotr Konchalovsky – Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1946), and Winner of the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1943).
But first of all, Konchalovsky was the famous avant-garde artist, creator and later the head of “The Jack of Diamonds” society of avant-garde painters. And now, he is one of the most expensive Russian artists in the world. Also, he is the founder of the famous Russian-Soviet artistic dynasty of Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky.
Meanwhile, in 1902 he married Olga Surikova, daughter of the artist Vasily Surikov, who highly appreciated the talent and creativity of Petr Konchalovsky. However, when Vasily Surikov first learned that his daughter Olga was going to marry a student of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts Pyotr Konchalovsky, he was cursing and crying all night. Moreover, he even broke furniture and demanded the impossible: to cancel the wedding. But Olga was adamant, because she could not break the oath. Olga and Pyotr vowed to each other to create an extraordinary family. And they did.
Read more »

Socialist realism painter Fyodor Stukoshin 1914-1974

Socialist realism painter Fyodor Stukoshin 1914-1974

5 March 1953 (on the death of Josef Stalin). Socialist realism painter Fyodor Stukoshin (February 18, 1914 – February 3, 1974)

Socialist realism painter Fyodor Stukoshin was a bright representative of Soviet art, and most of his creative life he spent in Kyrgyzstan. Painter and teacher, he was a Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1949) and veteran of Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).
Born in the village of Razrytoe of Smolensk Province, Fyodor Stukoshin spent his childhood in Siberia. In 1936 he graduated from the Painting Department of the Omsk Pedagogical College of Art of Mikhail Vrubel, where he studied in the workshops of V. Trofimova and S. Feldman. After graduation he worked as an artist in the Omsk theater, engaged in registration of performances, creating costumes and scenery for the dramatic productions. However, In 1940 he moved to Frunze, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, where later moved his entire family.
Read more »

Soviet artist Nikolay Prokofyevich Karacharskov

Soviet artist Nikolay Prokofyevich Karacharskov

Lenin at the meeting. 1988. Oil on canvas, painting by Soviet artist Nikolay Prokofyevich Karacharskov

Soviet artist Nikolay Prokofyevich Karacharskov – a member of the USSR Union of Artists, and a member of the Union of artists of Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1967).
He was born February 14, 1935 in the village of Shadrikha of Poretsky district of Chuvash region. Aged five, the boy could count, read and write quite well, and studying in school was easy. Also, everybody noticed his exceptional talent in drawing, when the boy copied pictures from magazines, or photographs. Meanwhile, childhood of Nikolay coincided with the years of the Great Patriotic War, when the children had to work early and grew up before becoming a real adult. This time has left an indelible mark on the soul of a sensitive boy and largely determined the nature and direction of future creativity of the artist.
In 1950, when Nikolai graduated from the seven-year school, there was a question about the choice of profession. After reading ad in the newspaper “Red Chuvashia” about Cheboksary art school, 15-year-old Nikolay immediately declared of his desire to go to Cheboksary.
Read more »