Искусство РСФСР

Russian Soviet art of the twenties and early thirties presented a most complicated, interesting and at times contradictory picture of many converging trends, variously interpreted traditions and clashing styles... There were a number of creative associations of artists at this time. The best known were the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia and The Easel Painters’ Society. Despite the great difference in the creative orientation of these associations, the efforts of all the artists were aimed at portraying faithfully the labour and everyday life of the Soviet people. Many artists not only tackled themes utterly new to art but also advanced audacious artistic solutions, created new aesthetics. The finest of the works by the members of the Easel Painters’ Society, in particular the pictures of A.Deyneka, extolled the beauty and joy of free labour. At the same time attempts were made to convey by means of art the position of man in the world of modem technology. The works of the twenties and thirties anticipated much of what was later to become the content, the spirit of the whole of the Soviet multinational art. One of the most important achievements in painting was the true-to-life portrayal of the man of the new socialist society, the portrayal of his spiritual world. A firm place in the history of Soviet art is occupied by portraits of people typical of the early years of socialist construction in our country, among them The Delegate by G.Riazhsky.

In this period, too, a number of works dedicated to Lenin were executed which have now become classics, among them N. Andreyev’s Leniniana sculptures, paintings by I. Brodsky and A. Gerasimov and first outstanding monuments to Lenin.

The twenties marked the emergence of Soviet thematic painting — historico-revolutionary, battle or genre painting. It was in the twenties that M. Grekov, the doyen of Soviet battle painting, created his best canvases, and A.Deyneka produced his world-famous Defence of Petrograd.

Landscape, which had always been of great significance in Russian representative art, occupied a prominent place. Vigour, optimism, a sense of the joy of life—this is the main message of the lyrical landscapes of N.Krymov, V.Baksheyev, K.Yuon, I.Grabar, A.Kuprin, A.Rylov and P. Konchalovsky. In them one can see plastic skill, high technical standards and constructive design — whether of architectural setting or “pure” nature. Optimism and the admiration of the beauty of the material world also imbue many still-life pieces of the period and this is especially noticeable in the still lifes by I. Mashkov.

To the same period belong such classical works of studio sculpture as A. Matveyev’s group The October Revolution, and the composition

The Cobblestone Is the Weapon of the Proletariat by I.Shadr. There appeared the first important works by Vera Mukhina, and the remarkable sculptures by A. Golubkina, the most interesting among which is the portrait of Leo Tolstoy.

It was in the twenties that the wood engravings by V.Favorsky and A.Kravchenko gained world fame. Their traditions are continued today throughout Soviet graphic art, in both easel work and book illustrations. The eminent Russian artists who were earlier associated primarily with the Mir Iskusstva

(World of Art) group — B.Kustodiyev, D.Kardovsky, M.Dobuzhinsky, A.Benois, V. Konashevich and others — took a most active part in the designing and illustration of mass editions of Russian and foreign classics, and also of Soviet literature.

By the beginning of the thirties the attitude of Soviet artists toward the world around them and their role in the life of their society had been clearly determined. All progressive artists were united by a realization of their common cause with the entire people building a socialist state. During this period the creative unions (of artists, architects, etc.) were formed, while separate groups broke up. This historical stage was recognized officially in the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks), of April 23, 1932, “On the Rebuilding of Literary and Artistic Organizations”. The theoretical theses on socialist realism as a creative method uniting artists with a diversity of styles on common ideological and creative positions, which were formulated during that period, were of great importance.