Many Soviet artists were not particularly enthusiastic about some of the negative phenomena that took place in the Soviet Union and dedicated their paintings to them. Of course, at that time they had to write "on the table" without the hope of ever making their creations public, but this did not stop the artists - the opportunity to express their opinions in the most familiar way is worth a lot. Thus, in addition to the standard Socialist Realist paintings that glorify our successes in labor and depict happy and satisfied workers, there were paintings of a completely different kind - reminiscent of bitter mockery and harsh satire, a kind of laughter through tears.
Vasily Kolotev. "Red Day of the calendar"
Especially famous for them, the artist-nonconformist Vasily Kolotev. He lived in a Moscow communal apartment, worked as a mechanic, and found an outlet in the creation of satirical paintings, which he wrote "in the desk". However, in his environment knew about it, the circle of acquaintances Kolotev was large enough, and in addition to colleagues-workers, he communicated with underground Moscow bohemia, with which he was on a friendly foot. But also the life of ordinary working people knew not by hearsay, so his paintings, although gloomy, but credible.
Vasily Kolotev. "Boulevard Scene."
Kolotev simply portrayed his surrounding reality as it was in fact, perhaps only slightly thickening the colors and exaggerating, focusing only on negative phenomena. But about all the good has already been written hundreds of "correct" paintings in the style of socialist realism, and about bored working people, accustomed to relax mainly only vodka and beer, about life in squalid Russian communal houses, about the huge queues in stores and the shortage of the most necessary goods, about depersonalizing crowds of people in the Moscow subway and the endless crowd, when each person becomes only an element of some "mass of people", so boldly in the Soviet Union wrote paintings only Kolotev.
Vasily Kolotev. "Morning of a Neighbor."
And Kolotev's "The Ninth Shaft" leaves no less strong impression than Aivazovsky's painting of the same name, although it is pointless to compare the level of performance and technique of these artists.
Vasily Kolotev. "The Ninth Shaft".
And don't we have such families, where husband and wife drink, and children grow up in absolutely unbearable conditions? This is just our unsightly reality and the educational effect of this picture has a much greater effect than some festive painting about a happy Soviet family.
Alexei Sundukov. "Queue."
But not only one Kolotev wrote anti-Soviet paintings. The artist Alexei Sundukov showed the usual at the end of the 1980s queue and this string of identically dressed women, the end-edge of which is not visible, produces a feeling of some hopelessness. Indeed, how could such a shortage of the most necessary things and foodstuffs be allowed, when one had to stand for hours for some sausage? It is not surprising that a self-respecting artist could not turn a blind eye to such an unsightly phenomenon.
Vladimir Korkodym. "Waiting for the goods".
Vladimir Korkodym in 1989 painted a similar picture, only in a more realistic way. An ordinary rural store. Wretched goods - rows of canned food "Breakfast of a tourist" and apple juice, no one needs in the village. But even for them you have to queue, although everyone goes for bread, matches, cigarettes, and if you are lucky, for a bottle of vodka. It is pointless to even hope to buy ordinary sausage or candy. Scarcity in its most banal and unsightly form, which surely evokes memories for everyone who lived at that time.
Sergei Sherstyuk. "Men of one family. 1941."
And at the end two paintings by artist Sergei Sherstyuk "Men of one family", which are separated by war years.
Sergei Sherstyuk. "Men of one family. 1945."
One depicts them in 1941, the other in 1945. And does anyone else want to repeat it and think that the war can be somehow justified?
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