Exhibition of paintings "The Great Patriotic War" of the association "Irida"

MOSCOW. On April 27, in the white hall of the Central House of Journalists in Moscow on Suvorovsky Boulevard 8, an exhibition of paintings "The Great Patriotic War" opened.

At the opening of the exhibition, the artists of the Irida creative association and the widows of the artists gathered at the oval table and recalled what they had heard in the family about those terrible years.

Surzhina Diana , a member of the Creative Union of Professional Artists, spoke about her grandmother Rina Alexandrovna, who during the war lived and worked first in a children’s hospital, and then in a hospital. Her son, a preschooler, spoke to the wounded with verses, read letters and helped look after the sick. When he grew up, he decided to publish diary notes of his father and mother. To family memoirs, granddaughter Diana made illustrations. She showed these pictures at the exhibition.

Surzhina Diana, illustrations for the memoirs “Diaries of Grandfather”, “Signalman and Motorcyclist”

Surzhina Diana, illustrations for the memoirs “Diaries of Grandfather”, “Export of a wounded dog sled”

Alekseeva Natalia , a member of the Moscow Union of Artists and the Irida Society, spoke about I.M. Pikalova, the head of the station "Velikiye Luki", whose portrait she presented at the exhibition:

Natalya Alekseeva, Portrait of I.M. Pikalova, head of the station "Great Luke"

- Ivan Mitrofanovich Pikalov (1903-1980) during the years of World War II worked as the head of the railway station of Velikiye Luki. The inhabitants of Velikiye Luki were already evacuated, and the railway workers, led by Ivan Mitrofanovich, ensured the uninterrupted operation of the transport hub under bombing. After the war, Ivan Mitrofanovich Pikalov worked for more than forty years as the head of the Novosokolniki and Velikiye Luki stations. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, and many others. The granddaughter of Ivan Mitrofanovich, Elena Tropynina, lives with her family in the city of Rybinsk and keeps the memory and awards of her legendary grandfather.

And my family, ”the artist Natalya Alekseeva continued noticeably excited,“ When the war broke out, she lived near Mozhaisk. Uncle Leonid Nikiforovich Baranov was only 17 years old and he worked as a foreman at a weaving factory. But Leonid asked to record him as a volunteer, because I wanted to immediately get to the front with my older comrades. The mobilization was very fast, and he did not even have time to call in to say goodbye to his family. They managed to get them in trains only to Yelny, where bloody battles were already underway. Almost all of these untrained boys, including our Leonid, died in the first battle. This was later told by one of his friends who had miraculously survived in that meat grinder, having specially visited our grandmother.

Leonid’s elder sister, Lyubov Nikiforovna, my aunt, worked as a teacher before the war. When the Germans managed to capture Mozhaysk, Aunt Lyuba was away in one of the nearby villages and did not know about the warning that all party workers and teachers should have left the city. The Nazis identified and dealt with this category of people. But she was lucky: already when the Germans entered the village, the locals took her to the forest with vegetable gardens. So she got into the partisan detachment and until the liberation of Mozhaisk fought in this partisan detachment.

Being a very young girl, she had with orders to ride a horse in the winter forest in the night forest, and icy bodies of German soldiers without clothes lay around. And she admitted after the war that it was one of the worst trials for her. After the war, Aunt Luba continued to work as a teacher and principal of the school.

My grandfather, Nikifor Ilyich Baranov, was sent to the Urals to the factory: by the beginning of the war he was no longer “conscripted” by age. But soon his legs began to swell from hunger, and he asked for the front line. In the battles he was wounded, but still came to Keninsberg. He survived only because he had the experience of previous wars.

The echo of the war echoed in our family even after it ended. The youngest son, born after the war, was blown up by a shell found by the boys in the field. Those who had gone through the war did not like to talk about it, and only when the family was going on holidays, grandfather asked him to sing his favorite song, "The Fire Beats in a Cramped Stove."

Magnificent illustrations by Gennady Dmitrievich Novozhilov to the novel by Yu. Semenov “17 Moments of Spring” were brought to the exhibition by the widow of the artist Aida Novozhilov . Graceful delicate and lively graphic works adorned the exhibition at the House of Journalists.

The widow of the artist Novozhilova G.D. (Novozhilova Aida) with his illustrations

Piven (Kachalova) Olga Olegovna , a member of the Professional Union of Artists, experimented in various techniques and styles from surrealism and abstraction on paper to the classic depiction of architectural objects in oil on canvas. For the exhibition, Olga Piven prepared illustrations for the events of World War II.

At the opening day, a talented artist, director and poet Elena Skorokhodova performed her poems and songs with a guitar.

The exhibition of paintings dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the victory of the "Great Patriotic War" of the Irida Association is held from April 27 to May 15, 2015.

Surzhina Diana © Gallerix.ru