UKRAINEART.COM
- A collection of socialist realist painting from the former Ukrainian SSR 1949-1991
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UKRAINEART.COM
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Welcome to the ukraineart.com web site!
This site has been specially designed to promote and cater for the growing interest in socialist realist paintings from the former Soviet Union. You are invited to browse through this selection of around 100 Ukrainian realist paintings, all of which are for sale at reasonable prices. The price category A-F is described below. In addition on the Socialist Realism page there is a more detailed analysis of the genre as well as biographical data on the artists themselves on the Information on the Artists page. The paintings can be viewed at my office in Mayfair, London. All are on stretchers but most are unframed. I have indicated whether a painting is framed or not, and whether it has been sold. I will donate 5% of all sales to the Children of Chornobyl Charity which cares for the younger victims of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster and generally provides relief for sick and injured children all over Ukraine. The canvases exhibited here represent the various trends in realism and socialist realism of Ukrainian artists during soviet rule in Ukraine. The majority of the paintings were executed between 1950 and 1980 and provide a fascinating insight into a way of life and a political system which has been extinct in Europe for over a decade. With a few exceptions, all the paintings are by Ukrainian artists who were well-known and influential figures in the artistic life of the Soviet Union: Sergei Grigoriev, Viktor Zaretski, Anatoli Plamenitski, Yuri Lutskevich, Zoya Lerman, Petr Slyota, Galina Zorya, Mikhail Kravtsov, Moisei Vainstein, Yuri Zorko, Grigori Tischkevich. Following the break up of the Soviet Union this form of art quickly fell victim to indifference and cynicism and was considered an anachronism in newly independent Ukraine. In their daily struggle to cope with the momentous uncertainties of life and their addiction to all things "western", Ukrainians discarded these wholesome and nostalgic representations of a former way of life, consigning the genre to temporary oblivion. Western critics have tended to view socialist realism in geopolitical terms, labelling it as fascist or totalitarian, and it is surprising how few scholarly works exist on the subject. To begin the Gallery Tour now click here otherwise read on. My own collecting began early in 1997 when in Baku, Azerbaijan I spotted a couple of canvases in the window of a gallery within the walls of the old city. The first was a huge and superbly executed canvas of Lenin relaxing in a railway station waiting room. My personal feelings towards this great "Satan" got in the way of my artistic sensibilities and I left it to gather dust. Instead I walked away with a receipt for two canvases: one of two mounted soviet border guards patrolling the River Araz on the frontier with Iran, the other of a sad-faced labourer posing in classical portrait style at the end of a long day's work. Two weeks later the paintings arrived in my London office and I was hooked. Since then I have spent all my spare dollars on paintings which I purchase during regular visits to Kyiv either from galleries or direct from the families of the artists themselves (most of the artists are deceased or retired). I hope you enjoy looking at these pictures as much as I have enjoyed collecting them. I would also be grateful for any feed-back you may have so please e-mail me at w.graham@ventura.org.uk Prices:
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