After the thaw. Art of the 1970s - 1980s (from the funds of the Pushkin Museum of the RT)

The art of the "post-heating" era is the seventies and eighties of the last century - an important stage in the development of Russian art, when the artistic life in Russia was distinguished by great stylistic diversity and increased activity. The short period of “thaw” in art yielded amazing results: from the mid-60s, false pathetic, narrative-naturalistic works gradually began to disappear from exhibitions. Socialist realism has ceased to be the dominant method, retreating under the onslaught of renewed "thaw" art. And although excessive regulation, control, ideological framework hindered the development of Soviet art, but processes that quite strongly changed the cultural landscape of the era of “stagnation” took place in it.

The collection of paintings of the second half of the twentieth century at the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan included an extensive collection of works by artists of the former Soviet Union, including the TASSR, from the ROSIZO funds, which created a very diverse collection in stylistic terms. In 2016, the museum’s collection was strengthened by the gift of the Timchenko Foundation, which donated about a hundred works that showcase the most vivid names of the artistic environment of the post-war period.

For the first time, works from the museum’s funds that have never been exhibited will be presented to the audience. The title picture of the exhibition is a work of the Soviet artist Yuri Korolev, a widely known author of space art themes, 1981 Portrait of L. I. Brezhnev. The "creator" of the era of "stagnation" is depicted in the style of pop art - the leader’s large head seems to soar in the heavenly space, and the unchanged tribune and microphones are its surroundings. The socially pointed image told the viewer a lot about the essence of the party leader.

Also for the first time cartoons will be shown on the famous Soviet Tatarstan artists of the most "severe" master of military themes Alexander Rodionov. Caustic, accurate satire, unexpectedly funny, will show the inside relationships of artists of the TASSR.

For the first time, the works of famous Soviet unofficial masters, whose works are quite rare in museums of Russia - A. Sitnikov, A. Vasnetsov, E. Strulev, A. Dyukov, Yu. Rysukhin and others — were “taken out of stock” for the first time. It was their work that created the art world parallel to officialdom.

The atmosphere of the time will be created by records, magazines, books of that time from private collections and video chronicles of Soviet Tatarstan.

A feature of the exhibition “After the Thaw” is the exposure of Tatarstan painting in conjunction with all-Union art. The late Soviet art of Tatarstan was never shown in our museum exhibition in this context. This allows the viewer to compare the art of the Tatarstan region against the general background, and to understand its features, advantages and disadvantages.

The exhibition runs until September 2, 2018.