Soviet Art

Old Tomsk. Canvas, tempera. Painting by Alexandr Andreyevich Shumilkin (born January 1, 1935)

Soviet painter Alexandr Andreyevich Shumilkin (born January 1, 1935) – member of the USSR Union of Artists (1967), Honored Artist of Russia (1976), People’s Artist of Russia (1987), Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts (1988). The name of the artist is included in the encyclopedia “Best people of Russia”, and other Encyclopedias and publications. A. Shumilkin – author of many paintings devoted to the Siberian land, and in particular, Tomsk. His works are found in many museums in Russia, including Tomsk Regional Art Museum (19 works), the State Russian Museum, and the State Tretyakov Gallery. The desire to understand the infinity of the universe lives in the artist and his work next to the sonorous space of cosmic unity of earth, water and air, with a note of pantheistic inspiration, with strict and verified construction of the composition, with the laconic color palette and fine decorative. The artist deliberately chooses the point of painting, from a bird’s eye view or the window of an airplane or a helicopter. In most cases, the construction of such a composite space is designed to give the landscape an epic character.
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Woodpecker. Paper-etching. 1981. Soviet graphic artist Stanislav Nikireyev (07.11.1932 – 24.08.2007)

Soviet graphic artist Stanislav Nikireyev (07.11.1932 – 24.08.2007) – People’s Artist of Russia, Member of the Russian Academy of Arts. His works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Union of Artists of Russia, and more than 80 museums in Russia and the former Soviet Union. His virtuoso filigree drawings distinguish a special delicate taste, subtlety of perception of nature – and striking artistic authenticity. The favorite motifs of the artist – a small Russian town, full of peculiar charm of antiquity, memorable places associated with dear to the Russian heart names and events, poetic corners of nature. Into the silver lace of his landscapes as if weaved the living members of the compositions – human, horse, dog, bird, giving the warm breath of real life to the drawing.
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Short Break from War. Oil canvas painting by Soviet artist Viktor Ivanovich Tolochko (1922-2006)

Soviet artist Viktor Ivanovich Tolochko (1922-2006) – Honored Artist of Ukraine, Honorary Academician of Crimean Academy of Sciences, winner of the Prize of Crimea. People’s Artist of Ukraine (1985). Without exaggeration, V. Tolochko is one of the pillars of the Soviet art of XX century and, in particular, Crimean art. Crimea was the main inspiration for his paintings, whether it is a seascape with ragged sea, seagulls cutting the sky, and the coastal cliffs, or a still life with unearthly flame of Crimean flowers. Viktor Tolochko – virtuoso landscape painter, master of thematic paintings and still life. He participated in numerous exhibitions, including 30 solo in Moscow, Kiev, Simferopol (repeatedly), Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Istanbul (Turkey) and others.
Viktor Ivanovich died in 2006 in Yalta, Crimea. His works are in many museums including the Ukrainian National Art Museum, as well as in private collections.
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Forestry (Autumn landscape with the river). 1958. Oil on cardboard. Soviet artist Vladimir Grigorievich Grokhovsky (1 September 1925 – 31 July 1971)

Soviet artist Vladimir Grigorievich Grokhovsky (1 September 1925 – 31 July 1971) – one of the brightest representatives of Soviet art, Soviet realism, member of the USSR Union of Artists (1964). Vladimir Grokhovsky was born in the Siberian village of Kolpashevo and grew up in a remote Siberian village Small Podyelniki in the north of the Tomsk region. Taiga for Grokhovsky became home. He, barefoot, walked through nearby trails up and down. Surrounded from childhood by endless expanses of forest, he absorbs all the mystery and poetry of his native land. It is in this environment was born the desire to become an artist. Vladimir started early, and initial support received from his mother Zinaida Konstantinovna Blaginina, Honored teacher of RSFSR.
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After the war. ‘Little Soldier’ (a boy playing the accordion). Soviet painter Nadezhda Isaakovna Kovtunova (07 March 1916 – 1998)

Soviet painter Nadezhda Isaakovna Kovtunova (07 March 1916 – 1998) – Member of the USSR Artists Union, People’s Artist of the RSFSR, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1977). The true representative of Soviet art, she worked in socialist realism direction of art. The artist painted portraits of heroes of war and labor, milkmaids and shepherds, factory workers and ordinary village grandmothers and did it brilliantly. Kovtunova was indeed a remarkable woman – intelligent, charming and very talented. She was born in Kiev in 1916. And in 1929, her family moved to Odessa, where Nadezhda entered the Art School of Grekov. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the family evacuated to the Urals. Later, Nadezhda arrived in Tula, already with her husband, who was later appointed director of one of the Tula defense plants. After the war, Nadezhda entered the Tula association “Vsekohudozhnik” (All-Russian Union of cooperative associations of Fine Arts, which existed from 1928 to 1953). She naturally became a part of a community of local artists, and with them went into the creative assignment for districts of the region.
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On Red Square. 1964-1965. Soviet artist Konstantin Filatov 1926-2006

Soviet artist Konstantin Filatov 1926-2006 – member of the Artists’ Union of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1960), laureate of the USSR State Prize of Taras Shevchenko (1972), for the painting “Red Square” and “VI Lenin”. Honored Artist of the USSR (1974). Konstantin Filatov was born October 20, 1926 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR. In 1955 he graduated from Odessa Art School of MB Grekov, where his teachers were M. Todorov, L. Muchnik, M. Kordonsky, and A. Veksler. Since 1957, Konstantin Filatov has been a permanent participant in national and international art exhibitions. The artist worked in the field of easel painting and was the author of numerous genre paintings, landscapes, portraits and still lifes.
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Fencers. 1965 thesis work. Soviet painter Alexandr Evgenievich Novgorodsky

Soviet painter Alexandr Evgenievich Novgorodsky (born 20 October 1934) – a member of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (1970), member of the Russian Writers’ Union (1998). Alexander Novgorodsky was born in the village of Korenovskaya of Azov-Black Sea region. In 1953 he entered the Krasnodar Art College. A year later he had his first solo exhibition, and after the third year he entered the Moscow State Art Institute named after VI Surikov, where he successfully worked in the studio D.K. Mochalsky. Novgorodsky graduated in 1965, and his thesis “Fencer” won a bronze medal at the All-Union Exhibition of Economic Achievements in 1966. In 1965 he moved to Tula, where he worked, taught, and wrote poems and songs. The main themes in his work – military, sports and portrait. Alexandr Novgorodsky regularly participates in regional, zonal, Russian, and including the international exhibitions. He also illustrated 20 books of Tula authors. The artist is the author of several collections of poetry, including “The units of the autumn leaf”, “On the brink of light”, “Late Autumn,” “The Wanderer”, “White Bumblebee”, “The Sunset Glow.”
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