He painted ceremonial portraits of Stalin, but became famous for his anti-Soviet paintings. Diverse creativity of Yuri Kugach

Yuri Petrovich Kugach (1917-2013) was a Russian and Soviet artist who painted bombastic paintings in the style of socialist realism, praising Soviet reality, for which he was awarded the Stalin Prize. However, the "court Stalinist painter" as Sergei Gerasimov Kugach was not, he himself quite objectively looked at everything that was happening in the Soviet Union and even wrote a picture, which certainly did not risk to publicize for all to see, because for it could well go to a place not so remote. We will talk about the artist Yuri Kugach and his most truthful painting "From the recent past" in this article.

Before the dance

Yuri Kugach is a native of Suzdal. He started drawing from childhood and gave all his free time to this hobby, even school lessons were just an opportunity for the young draughtsman to capture another drawing on a piece of paper. Of course, he got from his parents and teachers, but Kugach did not retreat from his own. Gradually they decided to just leave him alone, grow up - to come to his senses, especially since his parents were simple laborers and had nothing to do with art. However, Kugach since childhood firmly decided to become an artist and did not imagine for himself a different future.

In an old forge

At the age of 14, he went to Moscow and entered the technical school "Fine Arts", where talented teachers Konstantin Morozov and Nikolai Krymov taught. They taught him many basics of painting, under the influence of Morozov Kugach paid great attention to all kinds of landscapes, which he wrote throughout his life. He sincerely believed that the artist should capture the beauty of native nature to awaken the best feelings in the audience, to make them think about how beautiful it is, and how good it is in general - just to live.

June greenery

And Krymov introduced young Kugach to work on the plein air. "The artist must write what he sees, no theoretical knowledge will not replace visualization" - he said.

In 1936, Kugach entered the Institute. Surikov, where he studied under the famous artists Grabar and Gerasimov, and after his graduation went the usual artistic life - as Kugach wrote himself "from picture to picture and from exhibition to exhibition".

Glory to the Great Stalin

The best Kugachu managed not solemn portraits of Soviet leaders, such as the painting "Glory to the Great Stalin", which now causes bewilderment by its clearly staged pompousness and frank subservience or "correct" scenes showing the happy Soviet life, and chamber domestic sketches, where sincerity and soulfulness was much more.

Country girl

Here and attention to detail, and deep psychology, and authenticity, and impeccable technique - all the components of a good picture. Except that for the portrait of a village girl or weaver Stalin Prize will not get and serious preferences will not achieve, so Kugach sometimes had to write "as it should". However, all famous Soviet artists did so - Gerasimov, Deineka, Plastov, Yuon, but it is always necessary to consider their work in its entire breadth, not limited to only ceremonial paintings.

Weaves a doormat

And it is not by chance that in the 1960s Kugach painted "From the Recent Past", dedicated to the theme of raskulachivaniya.

From the recent past

Everything is very honest here - the responsible comrades came to a strong businessman, whom they had enlisted as a kulak. And it is useless to prove anything to them and show their calloused hands, as the "evil kulak" does - the decision has already been made in advance, and the plan of kulakization must be fulfilled, otherwise they themselves will be sent after the kulak to Siberia for settlement, or even to places not so remote. His elderly old mother is holding on to the samovar - a sign of wealth, was it not because of it that the hard-working peasant was put into the kulak category? The wife is clutching a baby to her breast, older children are crying nearby, and in the distant background is a string of horses going away, the end of which we do not see and it becomes clear at once - this peasant is not the first and not the last. All the horror of the raskulachivanie in one picture, a visual tragedy of thousands of people.

Selkor

There was another picture - "Selkor", showing the peculiarities of class struggle, but rather ordinary criminality, in ordinary life. Two people are waiting for the third around the corner and are ready to take out all their offenses on him. But the victims here are everyone - the victim himself, who may have been too active in the raskulachivaniya in his time, and his tormentors, who obviously decided to take such a desperate step for a reason. No ideology can justify domestic violence, and it is doubly worse if it is pushed to it by various circumstances. So Kugach's work does not seem lifeless and parade-official at all, it faithfully reflected all the peculiarities of that time, you just need to look at all his paintings and not make hasty conclusions only on some of them.

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