Soviet Art

Letter. 1971. Oil. Soviet artist Arkady Plastov (1893—1972)

Soviet artist Arkady Plastov (1893 – 1972) – Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947), People’s Artist of the USSR (1962), winner of the Lenin Prize (1966) and the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1946). The main themes of his creativity – rural landscapes, portraits of contemporaries, scenes of peasant life. He has also worked in the field of illustration and easel drawing. During his lifetime, Arkady Plastov was recognized as a classic of Soviet art. His works were published even in school textbooks. Although he painted traditional Soviet pictures depicting Lenin, collective farm holidays, the best of his paintings became classics of Russian art of XX century. He exhibited his works at the exhibitions of the Union of Artists. His works are kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, in Ulyanovsk Regional Art Museum, Samara Regional Art Museum and other major museums of the former USSR. Solo exhibitions of AA Plastov were held in Moscow in 1976, 1983, 1993, 2003 and in Sofia in 1964.
Read more »

Moscow schoolboys, 1963. Soviet photographer Mikhail Ozersky

Soviet photographer Mikhail Ozersky (1898 – 1968) – member of the USSR Union of Journalists (1959), photojournalist of the magazine “Ogonyok” (1929), later – Photochronicles TASS. He worked in the newspaper “Pravda”, during the World War II was a photographer for the same newspaper. Since the 1950s – the photographer of RIA-Novosti. He created a series of reportage portraits of scientists, writers, and artists: Vladimir Mayakovsky, Alexei Tolstoy, Tsiolkovsky, Paul Bazhov, Nikolay Okhlopkov, Dmitry Shostakovitch, Maya Plisetskaya, Marina Semenova and others. The world-famous became his picture “Maxim Gorky seeing off Romain Rolland”.
Read more »

Autumn. Semaphores, 1932. Painting by Soviet artist Georgy Nissky (January 8, 1903 – June 18, 1987)

Soviet artist Georgy Nissky (January 8, 1903 – June 18, 1987) is considered the founder of the so-called severe style, the master of the industrial landscape. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1965), winner of the Stalin Prize of the third degree (1951), Member of the USSR Academy of Arts. His works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, and in most of the major museums of the former USSR.
Read more »

People’s Artist of the USSR Boris Livanov. Painting by Soviet artist Nikolai Zhukov

Soviet artist Nikolai Zhukov (1908-1973) – People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1955), People’s Artist of the USSR (1963), winner of two Stalin Prize of the second degree (1943, 1951), member of the CPSU (b) since 1945, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1949). A large part of the artist’s work is devoted to the life and work of Lenin, Stalin, the Great Patriotic War. He painted beautiful watercolors, children’s portraits. Author of dozens of posters, many of which are marked with the “Grand Prix” at the All-Union and international exhibitions of poster. After the war, the newspaper “Pravda” sent their correspondent Zhukov to The Nuremberg trials, where the International Military Tribunal tried the Nazi war criminals (11/20/45 – 10/01/46). There he made more than 400 drawings.
Read more »

Marx’s head. The model of the monument for the DDR. 1969. Gypsum. Soviet sculptor Lev Kerbel (7 November 1917 – August 14, 2003, Moscow

Soviet sculptor Lev Kerbel was the Professor, Academician, and Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Arts from 1988 to 2003. He was the People’s Artist of the USSR (1977), Hero of Socialist Labor (1985), winner of the Lenin Prize (1961) and the first degree of the Stalin Prize (1950). Member of the CPSU since 1963, Lev Efimovich Kerbel – author of more than 50 monuments and memorials installed in the USSR and overseas. He created a large number of statues of prominent figures of the Communist Party, Soviet politicians, generals, heroes of the Soviet Union and Socialist Labor. Together with the vice-president of the Academy of Arts M. Manizer Kerbel executed death mask of Stalin.
Read more »

Portrait of Vladimir Mayakovsky. 1968-1970. Oil. Soviet artist Nikolai Sokolov (8 July 1903 – April 15, 2000)

Soviet artist Nikolai Sokolov
Rightly called a witness of the twentieth century, he could remember every detail of his meetings with Mayakovsky, Gorky, Ilf and Petrov, Shostakovich … He was the oldest member of the Russian Academy of Arts (1947). People’s Artist of the USSR (1958), Hero of Socialist Labor (1973), winner of the Lenin (1965), five of Stalin (1942, 1947, 1949 1950, 1951) and the USSR State Prize (1975), Sokolov worked in the genre of the portrait, caricature, illustrations in the style of socialist realism. He was one of Kukryniksy, the creative team of Soviet graphic artists and painters, in which, apart from him, were full members of the USSR Academy of Arts, People’s Artist of the USSR, Heroes of Socialist Labor M.V. Kupriyanov (1903-1991), and P.N. Krylov. Nikolai Sokolov until the last days of his life continued to paint and retained an incredible clarity of mind. By his 95th anniversary Sokolov has released a book “Sketches from memory.” He died on the absurd randomness from complications after surgery on a broken leg.
Read more »

Portrait of Tchaikovsky. Marble. 1947. Soviet sculptor Zinovy Vilensky. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Soviet sculptor Zinovy Vilensky (1899-1984) – People’s Artist of the USSR (1980), second-degree Winner of the Stalin Prize (1948), member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1954). Zinovy (Zalman) ​​Moiseevich Vilensky was born October 15, 1899 in the village of Koryukovka of Chernigov region. He studied at the Department of painting of Kiev Art School, graduated from the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops in Moscow (1922-1928). Vilensky worked in the genre of monumental sculptures and sculptural portrait. His work is characterized by the transfer of the individual characteristics of the workshop model, careful modeling, the use of the expressive possibilities of the natural texture of the material.
Read more »