So here is the final verdict on your preferences in art:
Style: socialist realism
Genre: battle and historical painting
Socialist realism became a style due to its historical and social message rather than the distinct artistic peculiarities. The postwar life was far from magnificent. People in the USSR lived the lives literally unbearable and unimaginable for a modern viewer – and yet they managed to find the optimism, the face and the power…
to build whole cities from the scratch, to recover the industry and to look forward to the future with unbelievable hopes grounded on nothing whatsoever. This energy came from the tragic war they all witnessed and the victory they earned, it was the time our grandparents realized what gigantic power they possessed. This accounts for the fact that historical and battle pieces defined the style. Only those who consider this historical context can truly appreciate the ascetic beauty of these still lifes, the austere and determined look of the portraits, the landscapes devoid of any sentiment and the genre paintings vibrant with energy and desperate effort so characteristic of socialist realism.
A person who chooses battle and historical pieces of socialist realism did grasp the essence, the purpose of the style. It is most definitely a person born in the USSR, who charishes the memory of his forefathers’ endeavors, and who remembers the USSR not by the cost of sausages and ice-cream, but by the magnificent idea, the one urge and vision shared by millions of people whose moral and spiritual courage empowered them to fight armies, the nature itelf, and on top of that – to overcome their own ego.
Must See for you:
Maitres: I.A. Vladimirov, M.I. Avilov, A.P. Bubnov, P.A. Krivonogov, M. Grekov, N.I. Belov (Russia), M.I. Khmelko, V.D. Kravchenko, K.D. Trokhimenko (Ukraine)
Modern artists: socialist realism developed in the USSR and the countries of the communist block; today artists hardly follow these aesthetic principles to the letter.
Paintings currently available in online galleries:
