HYMN TO THE LABOUR. Soviet Art from the Collection of the Russian Museum

The exposition includes about 200 art works from the collection of the Russian Museum. There are presented the paintings, graphic works and the works of applied art of the 1910–1970’s connected with the industrial theme. The most part of the works is presented for the first time.

The industrial theme had the great ideological significance and was one of the mayors in the Soviet art. The exposition gives viewers the opportunity to feel the atmosphere of the Soviet epoch, to walk along the improvised alley of the labour heroes and to see the works having the monumental sonority and civic inspiration. The heroes of these works are showed in the course of the labour on the metallurgical plants, factories, oil-extracting fields or on the industrial building projects. The basic ways of development of the Soviet art in the 1920-1930’s are reflected in the industrial landscapes by K. Bogayevsky, A. Kuprin, V. Rozhdestvensky and in the paintings by A. Deineka, K. Petrov-Vodkin. A. Samokhvalov, V. Pakulin and the other masters.

The special section presents the paintings and sculptural portraits of the Heroes of the Labour that may be regarded as the classical examples of the Socialist realism of the after the II World War period. Alongside with these works there are presented the paintings by the masters of the “Severe style” with the new plastic and image interpretation of the industrial theme. The dynamic atmosphere of the labour had been represented also in the posters by G. Klucis and N. Kochergin, in the works by the classic of the Leningrad graphic V. Vetrogonsky, in the porcelain articles and in the unique examples of the artistic textile of the 1920’s.