Exhibitions of works by A. Deineka from the Tretyakov Gallery collection

One of the largest artists of Soviet art in the first half of the twentieth century, a representative of socialist realism who reflected the spirit of the era, was Alexander Deineka. On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the birth of A. Deineka, which is celebrated this year, the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts are presenting an exhibition of his paintings, graphics and sculptures.

Alexander Aleksandrovich Deineka (1899-1969) is a master of the realistic movement, who had great artistic individuality and a pronounced authorial signature, manifested in many types of creativity.

While still a student, A. Deineka began collaborating with propaganda magazines as a magazine graphic artist. The main theme of the artist’s drawings, which since the mid-1920s. has already been published in a number of publications, there was social satire. In them, he attacked the class enemies of the proletariat, the Nepmans and kulaks, and scathingly ridiculed philistinism, bigotry and consumerism. A. Deineka’s graphic works are built on the contrast of strong, elastic lines, saturated spots of several local colors and the white space of the sheet, and are extremely expressive. In them, literally with the help of a couple of features, well-aimed gestures or details of clothing, the artist manages to succinctly convey the personal characteristics of the ridiculed characters and emphasize the sarcastic orientation of the work.

A. Deineka began his career as a painter with sports themes. Quite seriously interested in sports from his youth - running, swimming, gymnastics, volleyball and boxing, the master emphasized: “It always seemed to me that sport ennobles a person, like everything beautiful. I like the athlete’s will, which he controls.” His passion for sports became the leitmotif of his work and inspired A. Deineka to create a series of paintings and graphic works, monumental paintings, mosaics and sculptures.

The sense of modernity and the ease with which A. Deineka subordinates to his tasks the features of the material used, bronze, are characteristic of the master’s sculptural works. A keen vision of nature, through which the artist penetrates into the essence of the surrounding world, allows him to convey the inner world of his heroes through the forms of their visible appearance. The will to win, the courage to overcome, the range of human experiences, the tension of sports wrestling are immediately read in these lively plastic compositions.

The legacy of A. Deineka, this great innovative artist, is recognized not only as a classic of Soviet art, but also as a significant phenomenon in world artistic culture. The master became one of the most recognizable Russian artists of the first half of the twentieth century, whose works, full of inner content on the themes of work, sports, motherhood, human courage and heroism, are artistic examples of the spiritual and personal principles of man, his moral strength and optimistic faith in the future.