Peter Belov (1929-1988) was officially considered a theater artist, and for many years of work in this field received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. But in addition to the design of performances and the creation of scenery, Belov wrote the famous anti-Stalinist cycle of paintings - of course, not for exhibitions, but at the dictates of the soul. He was too concerned with the theme of Stalinist repression and the cult of personality. However, few people could even see these works - only good friends of the artist, who will definitely not run to report "where it is necessary".
All of life. Self-Portrait.
However, times have changed and in 1988 there was a famous exhibition at the Actor's House, which presented his anti-Stalinist works. Then it caused a huge resonance. People stood in queues to see a different view of Stalin's times, which was much more objective and honest than officially recognized.
Dandelions
Belov's paintings were quite small, although reproductions may give the impression that they are huge. Perhaps this is a consequence of playing with scale - Stalin is the embodiment of evil on them, which simply does not fit on a separate picture - that is why we see his boots trampling a field of dandelions, and a human face peeping through each flower.
41-yr.
And the picture of Stalin in '41 resembles a titan, swiping with a movement of his arm a crowd of infantry, aiming for a suicidal attack on the Germans.
Belomorkanal
But the first painting on the Stalinist theme was "Belomorkanal". With its creation is associated with an interesting story. Once Belov was talking with theater director Yuri Yeremin about what can be considered art in general, and in the heat of the dispute pointed to a pack of Belomorkanal and said: "want to write a picture about it?". And indeed he did. The work turned out to be really memorable - a crowd of cons going to a huge pack of cigarettes, clearly personifying the entire system of Stalin's camps. Except that it's a one-way trip, the camps grind human bodies and souls, individuals with their aspirations and dreams become mere cogs in a soulless state machine, and the result is the same Belomorkanal and other gigantic and often not too justified construction projects built on the bones of convicts.
The Great Lenin
The painting "The Great Lenin" is no less memorable. Once Belov had to create for one of the theater productions a huge poster of Vladimir Lenin. This is what prompted him to come up with the idea for the painting. "Each time colors the posters of the leaders in a new way" - said the artist. The little man standing next to buckets of paint on the giant image of the leader of the world proletariat is Belov himself, and he just has to follow the official ideas, i.e. perform the function of a painter, not an artist, with his own vision.
Commandant of the Special Lodge
People who provide all the functioning of the system of Stalin's camps Belov dedicated the painting "Commandant of the special lodge. It is they and grieved most of all for the dead Stalin, and in that system such commandants, in fact, the guards, was good and free - natural cruelty could be covered by lofty ideological motives, and various preferences in the form of additional food rations and access to the deficit they received correctly. And most importantly, they were feared by everyone, and even an insignificant person in such a position felt his own importance.
Meyerhold
Belov dedicated this picture to the execution of the famous theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold in 1940. In it, the respected man is relegated to the position of an ordinary convict, which can be subjected to abuse and even shot, beforehand ordered to completely undress. By the way, Meyerhold though rehabilitated in 1955, still tried once again not to raise this story, even the exact date of death was not called. Belov recognized it and pointed it out on the skip at the top of the picture, where it says "really before".
Pasternak
There was also a portrait of the writer Pasternak, who wrote in his diaries: "it was as if I had been walled up alive". So any anti-Stalinist paintings by Belov, despite their gloominess, are based on any real dates, events and words, they are not a figment of the artist's pure imagination, although they are infinitely far from the usual and cultivated at the time socialist realism and, according to art historians and artists, they can be attributed to protest socialist art.
Hourglass
But the protest itself is very expressive and memorable for a long time. So, in these small-sized paintings there is a great talent of the artist, who wrote these works on the dictates of his soul, and not on any order, as he usually used to do when working on theater sets, and therefore they are really interesting and relevant - it is always good to know what once led to the cult of personality of Stalin and how many innocent people became its victims.
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