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| A. A. Deineka: Textile Workers / Текстильщицы. 1927. Oil on canvas. “The rhythm and peculiar ornamentation lie at the basis of the compositional solution and my other painting,“ Textile Workers, ”the rhythm of continuous circular movement in looms. I almost automatically synchronized the weavers with their flowing, melodious movements. It is possible that this brought about a certain abstraction. The picture is silver-white with spots of warm ocher on the faces and hands of girls. At that time I worked on the surface of the canvas, making it smooth, varnished, vaguely wanting to find unity on the surface of the canvas with the texture of polished, light, still absent walls, for which I dreamed of painting. ” “I think of rhythm. I am convinced that in Textile Workers I accompanied the fluting of the ceiling in the rhythm of spinning machines, in the smooth movement of women workers. ” A.A. Deineka. Photo: The New York Review of Books. Caption: Deineka.ru. |
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| А. А. Deineka: Defense of Petrograd / Оборона Петрограда. 1928. Oil on canvas. Moscow, Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the USSR.. «The ornamental silhouette defines clear limits in my Defense of Petrograd. And if the compositionally closed semantic circle of two plans — at the bottom of the soldiers going to the front, from left to right, and at the top along the bridge of the returning wounded — at first gives the impression of a flat two-tier structure, then a consistent deepening allows us to make sure that the reverse movement technique gives closure to the composition of the canvas. The perception of a horizontal frieze turns into an insight of a circle as the eye captures the inner meaning of the composition. In the center, a transition from the profile to the image of fighters retreating deep into the space of the picture is again designed. These are not abstractions of fighters. The figures are modeled in volume. Color, although used sparingly, conveys the individual characteristics. However, the figures walking in the snow always appear to me in the form of silhouettes. Однако фигуры идущих по снегу мне всегда представляются в виде силуэтов. Возможно, что я излишне заострил подобную трактовку. Но если это снизило цветовое живописное начало, то подчеркнуло динамику, действие в картине, ее смысл и зримость. Мне ничем посторонним не хотелось разбивать ритма, которого я добился, и впечатления воли и тяжелых страданий, поэтому я отказался от всякой лишней бытовщины, которой много в эскизе к картине». «Оборону Петрограда» я написал в течение двух недель. Это предельно короткий срок. Но путь к этим двум неделям был очень долгий. «Обороне Петрограда» предшествовало несколько картин … Для новой картины мне нужен был и более непосредственный конкретный жизненный материал. Я обошел Ленинград, с удовольствием смотрел на путиловских рабочих, но завод мне не понравился, зато знакомство с людьми, их лица позволили найти хороший, выразительный типаж. Картину решил назвать «Оборона Петрограда». И хотя уже были сделаны эскизы, я не находил в них того тематического ключа, который нужен был для нового полотна. Несколько работ, написанных перед «Обороной», были эффектны. В них по-своему нашла воплощение современность. Но для нового полотна мне казалось это недостаточным. Необходимо было довести его до такого состояния, когда картина из чисто декоративной становится произведением большой темы. Это был период трудный, даже мучительный — дать картине духовное дыхание. Сама жизнь, ее героика, яркие характеры людей, с которыми я встречался, открыли путь к решению задачи. Прошло много времени, и теперь, когда я гляжу на это произведение, я узнаю среди его героев своих друзей и знакомых рабочих. Их уже, наверное, давно нет в живых, но для меня они продолжают жить такими, какими видел их тридцать пять лет тому назад. Картина по-прежнему мне очень близка. В ней, думается, я нашел путь к воплощению того, что меня глубоко волнует и по сей день — новое в жизни, выраженное языком новой художественной формы. Может быть, только это и способно дать произведению длительную жизнь». «Свою любимую вещь «Оборона Петрограда» я написал в 1927 году. Для лица и фигуры идущего в центре командира мне позировал настоящий советский командир, один из первых орденоносцев, друг Нетте, с которым он, курьер советской дипломатии, выполнял опасную работу... Но на картине среди своих безымянных товарищей он продолжает шагать к новым боям и дружбе — мой друг Ян Шкурин. А вот «героиня» моей картины «Скука», которую я увидел в Филадельфии, в богатом коттедже, весьма модерном, с самыми левыми картинами на стенах, с самой модной мебелью и сытым бытом. Вероятно, она и сейчас живет и скучает, потому что, кроме холеного, косметического лица, вы ощущаете в ней глубокую пустоту, никчемность, которая не дает личной человеческой радости. Несмотря на видимую обеспеченность быта, несмотря на общепринятые признаки внешней красоты, какая это некрасивая жизнь, какое некрасивое человеческое лицо!» А. А. Дейнека. Photo and caption: Deineka.ru. |
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| А. А. Дейнека: Morning Work-Out / Утренняя зарядка. 1932 год. Холст, масло. Москва, Государственная Третьяковская галерея. Photo and caption: Deineka.ru. |
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| А. А. Дейнека: Mayakovsky at the ROSTA / Маяковский в РОСТА. 1941 год. Photo and caption: Deineka.ru. |
The New York Review of Books: The Art Issue, 14 May 2020.
Corona lockdown art museum visits.
For the first time in the 125-year old history of the cinema, movie theatres are closed worldwide. The same with museums and galleries. In an innovative way, The New York Review of Books has dedicated an issue for art exhibitions that can be visited online. It's not the same thing but better than nothing! I started two weeks ago with my first one, Gerhard Richter: Painting After All (Met Breuer, New York). The visual quality of the museums' digital tours is high. They are worth visiting on a good television screen.
Following the NYRB Art Issue page by page, my next exhibition is Deineka / Samokhvalov, introduced by an essay by Sophie Pinkham: "Realists of the Soviet Fantasy".
Virtual visit: Deineka.ru, a website with a comprehensive collection of Deineka's works.
Virtual visit: Manege Central Exhibition Hall: Deineka / Samokhvalov
Curator: Semyon Mikhailovsky, Rector of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Commissioner of the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Designer: Anton Gorlanov.
The physical exhibition took place 20 November 2019 — 19 January 2020, but a virtual 3D experience is still online.
Manege Central Exhibition Hall: "Dear friends, we have prepared for you a 3D tour for one of the most visited exhibitions at Manege — "Deineka / Samokhvalov". The project featured 300 exhibits created by Soviet artists Alexander Deineka and Alexander Samokhvalov, from 37 museums and 9 private collections. We produced this exhibition in cooperation with the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum and the Kursk Deineka Picture Gallery. The project is co-organized by the Russian Culture Fund. The exhibition was dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Deineka."
"Deineka and Samokhvalov were members of two closely related artistic societies – OST (Obshchestvo khudozhnikov-stankovistov – the Society of Easel Painters) and Krug khudozhnikov (the Artists’ Circle). They worked on similar themes and created works of art which featured as their subjects Red Army soldiers, female athletes, miners and metro construction workers. Both of them were Soviet artists who were open to global trends. Deineka’s links were with Moscow, and Samokhvalov’s – with Leningrad." (Manege Central Exhibition Hall)
AA: I have never seriously attempted to navigate a virtual 3D exhibition before, so this was for me a learning experience in three-dimensional virtual reality. The virtual tour made sense of the exhibition architecture, but it was difficult to examine individual artworks properly. Thus I eked out the project with a complete tour of the Deineka.ru website. Alexander Samokhalov is the other legend of Socialist Realism on display, but I wanted to focus only on Alexander Deineka (1899–1969) from whom I have never before seen a retrospective.
It is an equivocal experience. Deineka is certainly brilliantly talented in the many fields of visual arts: drawing, graphic art, painting, sculpting and mosaics. His line is dynamic, he electrifies the panel. He excels in action: sport, work, fight. He defies gravity. He loves the elements: besides the firm ground he is at home in the water and in the air. He loves aviation. His people are brave and mobile.
Realism this is not. The horrors of the famines, the purges and the prison camps shine in absence. This is a fairy-tale version of Soviet life. But there is also a twist in the images, something jarring that stops Deineka's works from being simple propaganda.
Deineka's works are about people in motion, but the people are not fully human, not fully present, not fully credible. Sophie Finkham in her NYRB essay reflects on the interpretation that Deineka's people are no longer people of the old world and not yet people of a new world. They are busy getting there.
They are idealized figures rather than authentic human beings. There is a magazine cover art affinity in Deineka's people. They remind us of Norman Rockwell in the US and Martta Wendelin in Finland.
The nude belongs to Deineka's great continuities. He draws and paints nudes, male and female, with an infectious appetite. He loves the full-figured woman and the muscular male. Deineka himself loved boxing. His nudes are proud and unconstrained. Like for Finns, the sauna people, nudity is not a big deal. On the contrary, it is the most natural state to be.
But in Deineka's world, everybody is healthy and perfect, and there is a lingering question about where are all those who are invalids or have physical defects. Deineka fails to portray the full spectrum of humanity.
I was even reminded of Adolf Ziegler and his nudes such as Die vier Elemente that I saw in February in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Deineka's nudes are more vivid than Ziegler's, but both have an affinity with glossy pin-up paintings like those by the Peruvian master Alberto Vargas. The difference with Deineka is that while his figures are stylized, they still manage to convey beings of flesh and blood.
Deineka's position in the John Berger question of the male gaze in art history ("men look, women are looked at") is special. Deineka handles male and female nudes equally. His women are not objects. They are amazons, fighters, builders, sportswomen, mothers. They are subjects. We may look at them, but they ignore us, like in the painting The Textile Workers (see above).
List of participants
37 museums
Moscow
— The State Tretyakov Gallery
— The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
— The State Archive of the Russian Federation
— The State Public Historical Library
— The Dal State Museum of the History of Russian Literature
— The Union of artists of Russia
— The State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia
— The Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum
— The Central Armed Forces Museum
— The Schusev State Museum of Architecture
— The Russian State Library
— The Russian State Children's Library
Saint Petersburg
— The State Russian Museum
— The State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg
— The Museum of Political History of Russia
— The National Library of Russia
Kursk
— The Kursk Deineka Picture Gallery
Arkhangelsk
— The State Museum Association “Art Culture of the Russian North”
Barnaul
— The State Art Museum of Altai Krai
Bryansk
— The Bryansk Regional Art Museum and Exhibition Centre
Volgograd
— The Mashkov Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts
Vologda
— The Vologda Regional Art Gallery
Kemerovo
— The Kemerovo Regional Museum of Fine Arts
Kostroma
— The Kostroma State Historical, Architectural & Arts Museum Reserve
Krasnodar
— The Kovalenko Art Museum of Krasnodar
Nizhny Novgorod
— The Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum
Nizhny Tagil
— The Nizhniy Tagil State Museum of Fine Arts
Novokuznetsk
— The Novokuznetsk Art Museum
Oryol
— The Oryol Museum of Fine Arts
Orenburg
— Orenburg Regional Museum of Fine Arts
Perm
— The Perm State Art Gallery
Ryazan
— The Pojalostin Ryazan State Regional Art Museum
Tver
— The Tver Regional Art Gallery
Tula
— The Tula Regionl Art Museum
Chelyabinsk
— The Chelyabinsk State Museum of Fine Arts
Yaroslavl
— The Yaroslavl Art Museum
The Republic of Armenia, Yerevan
— The National Gallery of Armenia
9 private collections
— Dialog Gallery (Moscow)
— Roman Babichev Collection
— Evgeny Gerasimov Collection
— Raymond and Susan Johnson Collection
— G. and N. Ionins Collection
— Alex Lachmann Collection
— V. Levshenkov Collection
— V. Nekrasov Collection
— The Private Collection (Incognito)
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