- 471
Vladimir Vetrogonsky
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 USD
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Description
- Vladimir Vetrogonsky
- A Collection of Eleven Industrial Images, early 1950s
- each signed in Cyrillic and dated early 1950s
- charcoal, watercolor and gouache on paper
- Average size: 24 1/4 by 19 in.
- 61.6 by 19 cm 10 illustrated
Provenance
purchased directly from the artist by the present owner
Catalogue Note
The 1950s are regarded as the classical period of Socialist Realism, wherein the political pressures of the era resulted in the development of a canon prescribing the "correct" depiction of various themes. Socialist Realist artists were charged with illustrating the mission and accomplishments of the Soviet regime. For the Soviet authorities, whose claim to power was based on an ideology that accorded world-historical significance to the proletariat, it was critically important to establish in public discourse the heroic position and collective identity of the working class, to display to the nation's citizenry positive images of the new worker-heroes of the Soviet state. Therefore, an important area within Soviet official art was the idealized portrayal of the Soviet worker and his industrial achievements.
To fulfill their socializing tasks, many Soviet artists were sent to various factories with the aim of documenting the changes that Soviet power brought to Russian industry. Probably executed during one such factory expedition, eleven works by Vladimir Vetrogonsky exemplify this trend, clearly demonstrating the socialist achievements at the Soviet factory in question, its great expediency, and the functionality of its modern machinery. In these works, Vetrogonsky meticulously translated the Soviet industrial environment into sharply defined compositions of machine-like precision. Recording the Soviet industrial landscape with illusionistic clarity, the artist depicted it as a kind of mythical, albeit rather sterile, modern Eden. Vetrogonsky's images of factories and machines project a mood of ideality and can be viewed as symbols of a new kind of mechanistic beauty, didactic models for the industrial Soviet society in which the machine was supposed to become the rational servant of man.
Vetrogonsky was a prominent Socialist Realist artist who dedicated his career to graphic arts, illustrating and designing books for various publications. Vetrogonsky had more than twenty one-man shows and won many medals and diplomas at both national and international exhibitions. Between 1939 and 1942 he studied at the Secondary Art School affiliated with the Academy of Fine Arts and then continued his studies at the Ilya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from 1946 to 1951. In 1952, Vetrogonsky became a member of the Union of Soviet Artists and started teaching at the Repin Institute. In 1973 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Repin Institute, remaining there in this capacity until his death in 2002.
To fulfill their socializing tasks, many Soviet artists were sent to various factories with the aim of documenting the changes that Soviet power brought to Russian industry. Probably executed during one such factory expedition, eleven works by Vladimir Vetrogonsky exemplify this trend, clearly demonstrating the socialist achievements at the Soviet factory in question, its great expediency, and the functionality of its modern machinery. In these works, Vetrogonsky meticulously translated the Soviet industrial environment into sharply defined compositions of machine-like precision. Recording the Soviet industrial landscape with illusionistic clarity, the artist depicted it as a kind of mythical, albeit rather sterile, modern Eden. Vetrogonsky's images of factories and machines project a mood of ideality and can be viewed as symbols of a new kind of mechanistic beauty, didactic models for the industrial Soviet society in which the machine was supposed to become the rational servant of man.
Vetrogonsky was a prominent Socialist Realist artist who dedicated his career to graphic arts, illustrating and designing books for various publications. Vetrogonsky had more than twenty one-man shows and won many medals and diplomas at both national and international exhibitions. Between 1939 and 1942 he studied at the Secondary Art School affiliated with the Academy of Fine Arts and then continued his studies at the Ilya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from 1946 to 1951. In 1952, Vetrogonsky became a member of the Union of Soviet Artists and started teaching at the Repin Institute. In 1973 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Repin Institute, remaining there in this capacity until his death in 2002.