Athletes and metro workers: "New women" of socialism in the works of Alexander Samokhvalov
Athletes and metro workers: "New women" of socialism in the works of Alexander Samokhvalov

Video: Athletes and metro workers: "New women" of socialism in the works of Alexander Samokhvalov

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His "Girl in a Striped T-shirt" was compared to Gioconda - and this comparison only annoyed him. Alexander Samokhvalov was engaged in book illustration, and posters, and porcelain painting … But he entered the history of fine art thanks to numerous canvases dedicated to Soviet women - strong and beautiful, like the goddesses of antiquity.

Girl with a ball. University
Girl with a ball. University

The artist was born in 1894 in Bezhetsk near Tver, in the family of a poor merchant. At the age of twelve, he entered the Kalyazin Mechanical and Technical School, where his exceptional talent for drawing was revealed. However, it is not known whether Samokhvalov would have chosen the path of a painter for himself, if he … had not been expelled from the school for participating in street riots. Every cloud has a silver lining, and now the future "singer of Soviet workers" comprehends the secrets of artistic craft at the Bezhetsk Real School of Painting, and then moves to St. Petersburg, where he continues his studies at the Academy of Arts. In St. Petersburg, he finds himself in the very center of the artistic life of Russia, spends all his free time in museums, actively participates in exhibitions and … studies the ancient Russian icon - conventionality, monumentality, expression of icon painting inexplicably attracts him.

Metro construction at the concrete floor. Osoaviakhimovka
Metro construction at the concrete floor. Osoaviakhimovka

For some time Samokhvalov was a member of the "World of Art" association - yes, he worked together with refined aesthetes and decadents, who very ambiguously accepted revolutionary trends and sought to forget themselves in the exquisite ornaments of bygone times. After the closure of the Academy of Arts, Samokhvalov became a student of Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. During this period, he made an expedition to Samarkand, where he studied oriental architecture and arts and crafts. In 1923, the artist graduated from VKHUTEMAS, where innovative methods triumphed, and the main goal of training was to instill in students a passion for creative experimentation.

Conductress. Worker
Conductress. Worker

Samokhvalov's independent artistic activity was not limited to the depiction of the “new Soviet women”, although it all began with them - with the avant-garde painting “Golovomoyka”, where the stairs and the ceiling sank into a whirlwind dance, and the conventional, almost faceless female figure bent over the fragile figure of a child - then whether a plot from the harsh Soviet life, or an archaic ritual. In the 1920s, Alexander Samokhvalov, however, was engaged in tasks of propaganda and applied rather than pure painting - and quite succeeded in this. He drew several propaganda posters for the Russian Telegraph Agency and even received a gold medal for one of them at the International Exhibition in Paris. At the same time, he got a job as an artist at the State (Leningrad) Porcelain Factory, where he drew sketches for decorative plates on the theme of peasant life. Subsequently, he worked a lot as an illustrator, collaborating with the publishing houses "Detgiz" and "Rainbow", worked as a theater artist, and tried his hand at writing. And, of course, he regularly participated in exhibitions of many art unions and associations, in which he was a member. There, for the first time, he showed the public canvases, where, inspired by archaic art, and antiquity, and the achievements of modernism, he conveyed the images of working Soviet women.

With a shovel. Metro construction with a drill
With a shovel. Metro construction with a drill
Metro construction, bearing reinforcement. At the winch
Metro construction, bearing reinforcement. At the winch

His "Conductor" walked along the car like a Nemesis, numerous "Workers" did not so much create something material as they created a new world. He painted a series of watercolors "Metrostroyevki", where he captured women who worked on the construction of the Moscow metro, traveled to Ivanovo-Voznesensk to paint the workers of a weaving factory …

Weaving shop
Weaving shop

He liked to portray athletes. In the 30s, a special attitude to corporeality was formed in Soviet culture, reminiscent of the ancient - the glorification of physical strength, physical culture parades, the beauty of naked muscles … Women no longer needed to remain weak and fragile. Both the female workers and the female athletes of Samokhvalov appear full of boundless strength - both physical and spiritual.

Girl in a T-shirt. Soviet physical education
Girl in a T-shirt. Soviet physical education

Today we do not see anything unusual in his painting "Girl in a T-shirt", but in 1937 it was revolutionary and told the viewer about the woman of the present - and even the woman of the future. A short haircut without any styling marks, clothes, simple and inexpensive, tight-fitting strong body, a posture filled with an impulse to move, a strict facial expression. No coquetry or embarrassment - simplicity, confidence, determination … At the exhibition in Paris she was immediately dubbed "Soviet Gioconda", but the artist was disappointed with such a comparison. In Gioconda, he saw latent irony, she seemed to him mocking, secretive - not such is his heroine. “My girlfriend hasn’t had a smile yet, but if it did appear, it would be completely different - a smile of readiness for action” - this is how he described his “Girl in a T-shirt”.

CM. Kirov takes a parade of athletes
CM. Kirov takes a parade of athletes

Samokhvalov with all his creative impulses fit perfectly into the requirements of socialist realism. After the assassination of Kirov, he created several works dedicated to him. And here you can accusingly shout: "The opportunist!" - however, according to the artist, he drew inspiration for the composition from old church frescoes …

Delegates. At a construction site
Delegates. At a construction site

He was married twice. After the death of his first wife Catherine, who gave him two daughters, the artist married a nurse Maria Kleschar, who posed for him to illustrate the novel by Chaplygin "Stepan Razin". It was love - Samokhvalov dedicated poetry to his wife, taught her painting … She not only posed for him, but also helped to work on many illustrations. In the 50s, Kleschar began her own career as an artist, presenting her work at several exhibitions. Until the end of his life, Alexander Samokhvalov worked on paintings dedicated to the ideals of socialism, illustrated domestic and foreign classics, and taught. He wrote several autobiographical books, where he revealed many of his creative ideas, talked about the creation of many of his works. Samokhvalov's canvases are kept in museums and private collections in Russia and several European countries.

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