Jan. 2020
galleryrussia.com presents:
Paintings from Soviet Masters
Paintings from Soviet Masters We are making a commitment to showcase a new virtual show of Gallery Russia paintings each month. To start 2021, we have selected a group of works by some very well-known Soviet painters. Such artists were not only naturally gifted, but they also received some of the finest classical/academic training of any artists in history. We encourage you to do your own research on each painter and enjoy a broader representation of their talent. If you look hard enough, you may even find a few publications on them! Soviet art continues to be popular worldwide. With the softness of the Russian economy and the fact that many “first generation collectors” are putting works on the secondary market due to age, this is a great time to find some of the best quality Soviet art to ever leave the former Soviet Union - all at reasonable prices! Enjoy!
Paul, Scott, Kay and Brandon Scottsdale
On the Cover: “In the Country” Aleksander Romanychev (1919 - 1989) 39 1/4” x 55” oil 1988
Aleksandr Romanychev was an elite painter from St. Petersburg, Russia during the Soviet period. He is well-known for his painting, “By the Window.” Romanychev’s works are in the permanent collections of several Russian museums.
Yuri Skorikov was a graduate of the Repin Institute in St. Petersburg and an Honored Artist of Russia. While he painted many subjects, he spent over 20 years painting “Tamansky Cossacks”, a 3 meter by 5 meter master work pictured below. This painting is in a private collection in Russia.
upper left: “Man with Burden” Yuri Skorikov (1924 - 1994) 22” x 17 1/2” oil right: “Tamansky Cossacks” Yuri Skorikov (1924 - 1994) 29 3/4” x 23 3/4” oil 1959
“Tamansky Cossacks” private collection in Russia
Yuri Kugach was part of Soviet art royalty. He was a graduate of the Surikov Institute in Moscow and the founder of the Moscow River School. He was a full a member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (less than 1% of artists,) a Gold Medal recipient (1966) of the Academy of Arts, winner of the Stalin Prize, the Repin Prize and the USSR Prize and a National Artist of Russia. His works are in numerous museums. “Warm Evening” Yuri Kugach (1917 - 2013) 13 1/8” x 15” oil 1992
“Factory (Moscow)” Vsevolod Brodsky (1909 - 1982) 9 3/8” x 11 3/4” oil 1945
Vsevolod Brodsky at the Kremlin in 1955
Vsevolod Brodsky was an early Soviet painter and illustrator who became well-known during the Soviet century.
His early professional years were spent in Turkmenistan where he played a pivotal role in documenting the people and land of the new Soviet Republic. Today, many of his works are in the State Art Museum of Turkmenistan and the Turkmenistan Central Museum of Ethnography and Native Arts as well as the Ethnographical Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was a well known professor in Moscow. In 1946, Brodsky co-painted, “Zhukov Receiving the Victory Parade,” with Boris Pinkhasovich. This painting sold at auction within the last 10 years for $100,000+. “Monastery” Vsevolod Brodsky (1909 - 1982) 6 7/8” x 11” oil 1940’s
Viktor Shatalin was one of the most important Ukrainian painters in the second half of the 20th Century. He became an important professor at the Kiev Art Institute where he influenced many great painters. Shatalin was a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR and a People’s Artist of Ukraine. His large Cossack painting, “Across the Valley and Hills (1957),” is hanging in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
“Etude” Viktor Shatalin (1926 - 2003) 27 1/4” x 19 3/8” oil 1970
“After the Rain 2” Evgeni Chuikov (1924 - 2000) 19 1/4” x 26 3/4” oil 1961
“Noon” Evgeni Chuikov (1924 - 2000) 20” x 28” oil 1960’s
Evgeni Chuikov was one of the founders of a unique school of Soviet painting in Zaporozhe, Ukraine. He and his friend, Georgi Kolosovski, started the school that was marked by colorful, “lyrical impressionism.” Even when the subject matter was more socialist in nature, Chuikov’s painting style was still unabashedly impressionist. For instance, most of his large factory paintings are very colorful and playfully impressionist with most in the permanent collection of the Zaporozhe Art Museum.
Aleksei Borodin was an important Russian painter from Volgograd, Russia. Borodin is best remembered for his series of paintings based on Russian collective farm works around 1963-1964. What is also noteworthy is that most of the works were openly western, post impressionist in style. Borodin has works in multiple Russian museums including the Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts.
“Kazak Woman” Aleksei Borodin (1915 - 2004) 19 3/4” x 17 3/4” oil 1964 upper right: “Self-Portrait” Aleksei Borodin (1915 - 2004) 15 5/8” x 19 1/4” oil
Nikolai Timkov has become one of the best known Soviet landscape painters. His masterful compositions and complex palettes are widely popular today with collectors of all schools of art. Timkov was a graduate of the Repin Institute in St. Petersburg and has works in many museums across the globe.
“Clear River in the Urals” Nikolai Timkov (1912 - 1993) 22 1/4” x 28” oil 1968
Andrei Tutunov loved to paint life in the Soviet Union. He often painted idyllic Russian villages and architecture. Tutunov was a Silver Medal Recipient of the Russian Academy of Arts, a member of the Academy of Arts, a member of the Artists’ Union of the USSR and an Honored Artist of the Russian Federation. “Noon in Pereslavl” Andrei Tutunov (1928 - ) 27 1/2” x 35 1/8” oil 1960
Viktor Reikhet was a People’s Artist of Russia and was the President of the Creative Workshop of the Academy of Arts and Culture of Russia. He was a graduate of the Repin Institute in St. Petersburg. Today, Reikhet’s paintings are much sought after in Russia.
“Electro-Welder, Nina Sevruk” Viktor Reikhet (1922 - 2000) 23 3/4” x 17” oil 1970
Mikhail Turovsky was educated at both the Kiev Art Institute and the Moscow Academy of Art (until 1968.) After immigrating to New York in 1978, Turovsky’s career rapidly took off. He has since exhibited all over the world and has works in numerous museums including the National Art Museum of Ukraine (Kiev,) the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the Yad Vashem Memorial Art Museum in Jerusalem, the Herbert Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, the Notre Dame University Art Museum as well as in many private collections.
“Venice Capriccio #31” Mikhail Turovsky (1933 - ) 19 5/8” x 19 3/4” oil 1998
“Winter Motif” Vasily Gurin (1939 - 2018) 27 1/2” x 31 1/2” oil 2005
Vasily Gurin was an important Ukrainian painter right up to his death in 2018. He was a professor at the Kiev Art Institute, an Academician of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, a People's Artist of Ukraine, a Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine and the Chairman of the Kiev Organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.
In March of 2019, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Cherkassy Regional Art Museum gave Gurin a posthumous exhibition to celebrate his life.
“Morning on the River” Vasily Gurin (1939 - 2018) 23 1/2” x 27 5/8” oil 2005
“Happy Workers” Evdokiya Usikova (1913 - 1996) 38 1/2” x 58 1/4” oil 1969
Evdokiya Usikova was a socialist realist from Kiev, Ukraine and a 1940 graduate of the Kiev Art Institute. “Happy Workers” is a strong example of large format socialist realist works painted in Ukraine in the late 1960’s--bright colors, broad brushwork and an optimistic depiction of everyday life.
Tatyana Kopnina was an influential painter from St. Petersburg and a graduate of the Repin Institute in 1950. Kopnina painted a variety of subjects and spent many years as a professor at the secondary school attached to the Repin Institute.
Below, her well-known painting, “Girls,” is pictured on exhibition at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This painting was sold by Gallery Russia.
“Watermelons” Tatyana Kopnina (1922 - 2009) 19 5/8” x 27 5/8” oil
Sergei Besedin was an early graduate of the newly formed Kharkov Art Academy in 1929. From the 1930’s, Besedin was an influential painter. Many of his wellknown works were produced from 1941-1943 when he and other “important” artists were evacuated to Kazakhstan during the war.
His paintings are in the National Museum of Art in Kiev as well as others. He was honored with a one-man exhibit at the Kharkov Art Museum in 1971.
“Young Woman” Sergei Besedin (1901 - 1993) 15 1/8” x 12 5/8” oil
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