Alexander Deyneka (1899-1969) - Soviet artist, who wrote quite usual for that time paintings praising the Soviet reality, successes in labor and building communism, youthful dreams, and later the feat of our soldiers during World War II. However, Deyneka's work is much more interesting than many ordinary artists who wrote simple subjects in the spirit of socialist realism, he had his own style, his own manner of painting, perhaps because later, in the XXI century, his paintings began to refer to the sharp modern art nouveau.
Ode to Spring
He surprisingly managed to combine posterism, asexuality of models - this technique is certainly quite in the spirit of our time, monumentality of images, elements of typification, when the individuality of individual people in the picture dissolves in the general type of Soviet man - a young, energetic athlete, ready for work and feats. And that was the whole Deyneka, he created sincerely, because he sincerely accepted the revolution of 1917, believed in a happy Soviet future, in the happiness of all these Soviet people, ready to work on the huge construction sites of the 30-ies, plow in the field, go down into the mines and build socialism. All the enthusiasm of the post-revolutionary time is embodied in Deyneka's paintings.
Sprawl
Deyneka was also a leader by nature, he did not want to write no one needed paintings, all sorts of impressionist landscapes and still lifes, unclaimed by the Soviet authorities, he needed recognition, success, scale, belonging to some great cause. All this, and embodied in his paintings, which is why he wrote so much, charging the Soviet citizens of 20-30 years with his enthusiasm and faith in the only correct, socialist way of development of society.
Alexander Deyneka. Self-portrait.
And there is no need to think that Deyneka was an ideologist of the Soviet power and fully served its interests. It is enough to look at some elements of his biography to realize that the artist is not as simple as it seems. According to the official version, his parents worked on the railroad, were illiterate and were at the bottom of the social ladder, that is, they were true proletarian workers. For the Soviet era, everything is perfect and correct. But in the painting “Portrait of Mother” we see an intelligent, probably educated woman in clean, festive peasant clothes.
Portrait of the mother.
Well, she does not look like a worker broken by hard life and hard labor. However, it is still not quite right to judge the true image of his mother from the picture - Deyneka probably loved her sincerely, that's why he embellished her image, portrayed her in the most favorable way.
Deyneka graduated from the Kharkov Art School - it is unlikely that completely illiterate and poor parents could arrange it for their son, after the revolution he worked in the criminal investigation of Kursk - photographed crime scenes and detainees. Then he began to work as a graphic artist - drew all sorts of propaganda posters and theater scenery. During the Civil War two years fought on the side of the Reds, and when he returned from the front, well aware that for great deeds and accomplishments art education is enough for him, began to study at VKhUTEMAS.
There was at this time and acquaintance with Mayakovsky, by the way, despite the fact that they created in different spheres, some similarity in the understanding of creative tasks they are traced clearly enough. Deyneka is Mayakovsky in painting, his paintings are freed from everything superfluous, unnecessary, there rules the ball clear drawing, monumentality and conciseness.
By the Sea
In the 20's Deyneka was a member of many artistic societies that proliferated like mushrooms after the rain: “Group of Three”, OST, “October”, RAPH, but he did not stay anywhere for long. Perhaps his creative ego was cramped within one artistic association, he was an individualist looking for his way in painting like Arkhip Kuindzhi. In those years, he wrote a lot of all kinds of posters, that's why critics, especially those who were especially set against Deyneka, who appeared in the 90s, considered him a “poster craftsman”. But to evaluate Deyneka only by his posters, which he painted to earn money and loyalty of the authorities and ignore his magnificent paintings - too picky and subjective approach.
The most fruitful years for Deyneka are the 1930s. He is young, full of energy and desire to prove himself as an artist, but also gained considerable experience in art and design activities. There was no shortage of large orders, but soon he was entrusted to make a decorative panel in the Red Army Theater and paint the metro station “Mayakovskaya”. And he was also in the United States and Europe - rarely anyone in the Soviet Union was able to go to capstrans, it was a kind of recognition of merit and evidence of reliability. There he painted wonderful pictures illustrating life in Rome, views of the city, exquisite portraits of Parisian women.
Parisienne.
Where is the Soviet poster style here? Deyneka is different, as a true artist and a great master he is not stuck on one theme, is not only a propagandist, but, like many other outstanding Soviet artists, such as Yuri Pimenov or Konstantin Yuon writes excellent paintings for themselves, and for the soul, which are examples of pure art, free from ideological husks. It is not by chance that Deyneka's paintings are still in demand in the West.
Defense of Sevastopol
And during the Second World War Deyneka wrote an impressive canvas “Defense of Sevastopol”, where his artistic style is particularly bright. There was a surprisingly tragic painting “Downed Ace” and frivolous “Bathers”.
The downed ace
Nude Deyneka in general wrote quite boldly, there was a certain challenge to the conventions of pre-revolutionary Russia, and in the 30-early 40-ies on such liberties Soviet officials turned a blind eye - the artist, what can you take from him, the main thing Nude there on the case and without unnecessary vulgarity. And indeed, in Deyneka's works, everything is natural, even the strictest Soviet censorship could not pick on it, something like this ability to paint nudes is similar to the artwork of Arkady Plastov.
Bathers
In the post-war years, the clouds over Deyneka began to thicken. On his modernist manner of painting began to look askew - the usual socialist realism was declared the only true artistic direction and to write was supposed to be exclusively in a realistic way, without any creative experiments. However, it did not come to disgrace, and no one prevented Deyneka from working.
Weekend day
Alexander Deyneka also had a lot of paintings that do not fit into the classical poster socialist realist painting, lyrical landscapes and even Nude on the verge, such as the painting “Behind the Curtain” - unfortunately, we can not show it for obvious reasons. Deyneka is multifaceted, versatile, sincerely admired youth, enthusiasm, energy and pressure, they are felt in almost every of his paintings. He lived a good life, wrote many excellent paintings and most importantly - he always believed in what he was doing, because without sincerity it is impossible to create like this.
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