Искусство РСФСР - Лидия Ильинична Акимова

Siberia, to the toil of spidermen, geologists, the fishermen of the North and the geological prospectors of the Arctic. In the paintings of P. Nikonov, V. Popkov, A. and P.Smolin, and P.Ossovsky, and in graphic series we see the romanticism of daily work. The creations of these artists have some points in common — monumentality of pictorial and compositional manner and austerity of colour range.

Many canvases devoted to history, to the early years of the revolutionary movement in Russia and to the Civil War also have an atmosphere of romanticism. In E.Moiseenko’s paintings, original and complex, one feels the breath of the stormy events of the past.

Genre pictures which reveal the people’s conceptions of beauty, the dignity of human personality and the value of life have lately acquired importance. Among Soviet genre painters are V. Ivanov, V. Popkov, D.Zhilinsky, A. and S.Tkachiov and Yu.Kugach, each of whom has his own specific approach.

All the artists of the Russian Federation show an unfading interest in traditional lyrical landscape. Sergey Gerasimov whose works in this particular genre have invariably attracted attention thanks to their lucid lyricism, their love of nature, their ability to convey precisely and delicately the unique quality of those parts of Russia which are near and dear to him, has been responsible for the development of an entire galaxy of landscape painters. Daring colour solutions and heightened emotional expressiveness are to be found in the landscapes of V.Stozharov, I. Sorokin, and A.Tutunov. The landscapes of B.Domashnikov, V.Yukin and S.Yuntunen are always pleasing to the eye.

Work on the portrayal of Lenin has always occupied a place of its own in Soviet art, and the artists of the RSFSR have made a considerable contribution to Soviet Leniniana. Today artists are seeking solutions in which the great leader is seen with the people, with his comrades of the revolution, in the thick of events. The common tasks and aspirations do not rule out a variety of creative solutions. On the one hand, there are the works of V. Serov, who chose to treat his subject as genre scenes (for example, his Peasant Delegates with Lenin), on the other, the monumental canvas 1918 by G.Mosin and M.Brusilovsky; poles apart in pictorial and compositional characteristics and emotional impact is the expressive and dynamic series of linocuts of D.Bisti for V.Mayakovsky’s poem V.I.Lenin; or the compositionally complex, lively etchings done by V. Petrova and L. Petrov, striking in their graphic effects and profound as portrayals of individual characters — from the series of illustrations for John Reed’s Ten Days That Shook the World to the 1917 series. A.Mylnikov has created a large-scale panel-curtain with a portrait of Lenin for the Kremlin Palace of Congresses.

The centenary of Lenin’s birth inspired many sculptors to create a number of monuments to the leader of the proletariat — monuments that have been erected in the Soviet Union and abroad (among them one in Leningrad, designed by M. Anikushin, and the other in Berlin, designed by N.Tomsky).

The large-scale plastic art has attained extraordinarily wide scope lately. Memorials and monumental sculptures have appeared in many cities in Russia and abroad, devoted to outstanding statesmen, scientists and artists, to heroes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, to victims of nazism and the events of the Civil War.The solution of the problem of the large-scale complex, of a synthesis of fine arts in monumental ensembles is of great importance.

A number of monumental sculptures have been created by N.Tomsky, Ye. Vuchetich, V.Tsigal, L.Kerbel, A.Faydysh, V. Isayeva, L.Golovnitsky, etc. Studio sculpture continues to develop. Some of the finest examples in this field have been executed by M. Anikushin, L.Lankinen, Yu. Alexandrov, T.Sokolova and V.Tsigal. The sculptures of L.Kremneva, Yu.Chernov and the typically lyrical compositions of Ye. Belashova, A.Pologova and O.Komov are devoted to the working people.

A breadth of conception and a striving for a poetic vision of life distinguish the genre of easel graphic works. In 1961 V.Favorsky created the propaganda engraving We Must Secure Disarmament, and shortly before that Birds in Flight, one of the most poetic pieces in Russian graphic art. This approach to life, to the problems of our time symbolizes the many-faceted view of the world, of the tasks of art, which is characteristic of the Russian graphic school.

At the end of the fifties and the sixties prints gained great popularity. The flourishing of this genre is above all connected with the work of the pupils and followers of Favorsky, among them the Moscow artists: I. Golitsyn, G. Zakharov, A. Borodin, and K. Nazarov; the Leningraders A. Ushin and V. Vetrogonsky; and artists from the autonomous republics, including A.Sakharovskaya and D.Briukhanov. Their works show certain common stylistic features: an abundance of sharply outlined silhouettes, of dramatic contrasts of black and white and striking compositional schemes. The thematic series of these artists are not merely examples of graphic skill, they are portrayals of life, always seen from an individual point of view, with the stress on the depth, profundity and richness of life. They depict landscapes of the Far North and such regions as Buryatia, Yakutia and the Chuckchee peninsula, and also the life of Moscow, the life of intelligentsia, the life of peasants and workers.

Over the last few years the etching has become as popular as the linocut. Many artists also remain faithful to such techniques as drawing, water-colour and gouache. Water-colours by N. Volkov, V. Alfeyevsky, and A. Kokorin show lyrical townscapes of Moscow, its new and old districts, and other cities or towns of the Soviet Union.

The graphic series by L.Soyfertis devoted to sporting events and the Moscow Metro are notable for their original manner of execution which combines light sophistication with a sharp, almost grotesque element.

The series of easel graphic works by V.Tsigal and N.Ponomariov reflect the artists’ meditations about the people, their work, and their links with nature. Ponomariov’s Vietnam series is interesting not only because of his “discovery” of new motifs, but primarily because