In 2019 an art exhibition of Soviet art was held in the Grand Palais in Paris. The exhibition was called “Art and utopia in the land of Soviets”. For many, this was the first introduction to the progress of intriguing visual arts in the Soviet Union since 1917. Since the exhibition was held, art collectors have again started searching for Soviet paintings to acquire.
The Soviet regime used art to propose an alternative utopia to the world. The different political dispensations since 1917 each have a different influence on art. The art went through periods of contribution to Lenin’s utopia, Stalin’s socialist realism, nonconformist art under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, and artistic liberty in the last days of the Soviet regime.
The online art galleries specializing in reproductions are providing excellent reproductions of most of the works. If reproduction of one of the famous Soviet paintings cannot be found in a gallery’s prospectus, most of them will arrange to make a reproduction for you, if legally allowed by the owner. We’ll discuss a few of these works, painted since 1917.
The Merchants Wife
This painting by Boris Kustodiev is one of his most famous paintings. The masterpiece of Boris Kustodiev, The Merchants Wife, was painted in 1918 just after the Revolution. It depicts life in the new post-revolution Russia.
This work had been painted before Kustodiev joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia in 1923. But it is still a good example of what the Association has advocated in their efforts to please the Leninists.
The Merchant
This is another famous painting by Boris Kustodiev. This other famous work by Kustodiev, The Merchant, was created in 1923. It is also depicting the everyday life of people in the “new” Russia.
Celebration Marking the Opening of the 2nd Congress of the Comintern on Uritsky Square
Kustodiev is such an excellent example of the first revolutionary art in the early 1920s that many of his works have become famous. With this painting of the opening of the 2nd Congress of the Comintern, he associates himself with the ideals of the new utopia.
Portrait of Stalin
Portrait of Stalin, by Isaak Brodsky, is a product of the socialist realism in the Stalin-era from 1924 to 1953. This style of idealized realistic art was considered at the time as the official Soviet art style.
This painting is Brodsky’s most famous painting. As an excellent example of the period, it pictures Stalin realistically as the leader. Brodsky has made sure with this picture where Stalin is depicted in a French buttoned jacket with a formal military look, the viewer of the painting does not doubt that Stalin is a real leader. The speech in the hand and the podium emphasize authority. All these symbols symbolize the success of communism.
Generally, he used warm shades of color in his paintings. The colors in this portrait are sometimes described as more “burning” than warm. This burning effect emphasizes the solemnity of the painting. Isaak Izrailevich Brodsky’s works provided a blueprint for socialist realism. Apart from his portraits of the Stalin elite, he is famous for his paintings of the Russian Civil War and Bolshevik Revolution.
New Moscow
This 1937 painting by Yuri Pimenov gives a poetic image of Moscow in the era of Stalin’s “Great Terror”. Stalin was moving forward with a fundamental reconstruction of the capital city.
In this painting, the city is covered in a golden haze and the viewer of the masterpiece is viewing the city from the back seat of a convertible, driven by a young woman in a pretty beautiful dress. Pimenov sees the young woman as the result of a reconstructed new city and vice versa. The message in the painting is that the renewal of society will lead to a renewal of the environment.The two major themes of a modern city and a contemporary woman were also used in Pimenov’s later works.
Fraternal Kiss
My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love, also known as Fraternal Kiss by Dmitri Vrubel is a graffiti painting on the Berlin Wall showing the Soviet leader kissing the East German leader.
This is an excellent example of the Soviet period of artistic liberty. With the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, artists had the freedom to create without fear. In 1990 Vrubel completed this famous piece. It decorates a section of the Berlin Wall.
Through this work, Vrubel depicts the diminishing control of the Soviet Union over artists and their work.
Conclusion
If you want to acquire reproductions of any of these Soviet paintings or want to buy other reproductions of paintings you love to have in your home, do some further research on a well-established gallery’s site which sells reproductions to find the painting you want.
A good gallery should also be able to commission a reproduction if you want one which is not in their prospectus.
As https://www.1st-art-gallery.com has excellent summaries and photos of works available and provides affordable, high-quality oil reproductions, it is a good place to start. They can also commission a reproduction just for you if it is allowed by the owner.
