Exhibition of a painting by I.Z. Pushkaryov’s "Portrait of a Doctor" at the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts

Starting from April 1, 2015, within the framework of the Artistic Chronograph-2015 project, the main exposition of the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts will host an exhibition of a painting by I. Z. Pushkaryov, “Portrait of a Doctor,” thematically related to the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory.

Painter Ivan Zakharovich Pushkarev (1904-1991) - a native of Smolensk. It was in this city that his childhood and youth passed. It was here that he studied art craft - in the studio of the local Proletkult under V.F. Shtranikh, beloved student of Konstantin Korovin. In the early twenties, even at the time of “war communism”, fate threw Pushkarev to Moscow, then he ended up in Rostov-on-Don, where he began his professional artistic activity. Pushkarev joined the Rostov Association of Artists, his paintings of expressionist style attracted the attention of the public and experts, were acquired by the local art museum. But already in 1934, fleeing from the terrible famine that swept the south of Russia, Pushkarev returned to his native Smolensk. And not only joins the Association of Artists of Smolensk, but soon becomes one of the organizers of the local branch of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (together with G.I. Skolimovsky and P.A. Shmatikov).

I. Pushkarev himself was a direct participant in the Great Patriotic War. In the early days of the war he was called up for service. He served in the medical unit. In the fall of 1941, he was surrounded, captured. Only at the very end of the war, having spent a lot of time in the Soviet filtration camp, was able to return to their homeland, to Smolensk. But not for long: the city was completely destroyed, it was impossible to establish any acceptable way of life. And Pushkarev moved to Kaluga, which suffered from the war to a much lesser extent than Smolensk. Here he paints not only numerous landscapes, sharp-pictorial and poetic, but also portraits, thematic paintings. Participates in zonal, metropolitan, foreign exhibitions. Several of his works at this time acquire our museum.

Undoubtedly, one of Pushkarev’s best paintings is “Portrait of a Doctor”. Amazingly, courage, virtuosity of painting and in-depth, wise psychologism are combined here. Wide strokes are dynamic, the sounds of colors are complex and harmonious. The artist intentionally gives the image a sketchy warehouse, preserving the freshness of colors, the emotional tension of a direct impression.

Before us is the image of a man of great soul, who has experienced a lot, has understood a lot. That was exactly Savva Ivanovich Vinogradov depicted on this canvas. A veteran of the Patriotic War, a wonderful doctor, in the postwar period he was known to almost every Kaluga citizen (by the way, his only daughter, M.S. Vinogradova, was the first head of the exhibition hall in the Kaluga House of Artists).

At the same time, “Portrait of a Doctor” is one of the finest examples of Kaluga painting from the middle of the last century. The time when the Kaluga art life became more and more diverse from year to year, more and more vibrant. At that time, when the Kaluga branch of the Union of Artists of Russia, which is now 60 years old, was just beginning its activity.

The exhibition will run from April 1 to May 31, 2015.

Age limit: 0+

Museum opening hours: daily from 10:00 to 18:00, except Monday,
on Thursdays from 11:00 to 19:00.

Address: Kaluga, st. Lenin, 104, tel. for reference: 56-28-30.