Lot 32
  • 32

Yuri Ivanovich Pimenov

Estimate
500,000 - 700,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Yuri Ivanovich Pimenov
  • Memories of Bread Rationing during the War
  • signed in Cyrillic and indistinctly dated 63 l.r.; further inscribed and titled in Cyrillic and bearing various inventory labels on the stretcher
  • oil on canvas
  • 89 by 89.5cm, 35 by 35 1/4 in.
  • Executed in 1962-1963

Provenance

Acquired directly from the artist in 1965

Exhibited

Moscow, VII Exhibition of Works by Members of the USSR Academy of Arts, 1965
Moscow, Exhibition in Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Nazi Defeat outside Moscow, 1966
Leningrad, Yuri Pimenov, 1986
Magnitogorsk, Khudozhestvennaya vystavka, posvyashchennaya pyatidesyatiletiyu Magnitogorska, 1979
Moscow, Central House of Artists, 60 let Pobedy, 2005
Moscow, Central House of Artists, 65 let Pobedy, 2010

Literature

Y.Pimenov, Novie kvartaly, Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1968, p.17 illustrated
Exhibition catalogue Khudozhestvennaya vystavka, posvyashchennaya pyatidesyatiletiyu Magnitogorska, Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1979, listed
A.Sidorov, Yuri Ivanovich Pimenov, Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1986, no.98 illustrated

Condition

Original canvas. There is a layer of surface dirt and an uneven layer of discoloured varnish. The canvas is slightly slack in places and buckling in the top right and lower left corners. There is a missing crossbar. There are small areas of paint shrinkage, craquelure and flecks of paint loss in places. There is a scratch with associated paint loss to the left side below the shelf and a few surface scratches to the lower half of the painting. Under UV small spots of pigment fluoresce in several areas, including in the sketch of the woman's face at right edge, and several other small areas throughout. Varnish prevents a conclusive analysis. Held in a simple wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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Catalogue Note

By the 1960s, Yuri Pimenov had established a reputation as one of the most important artists in the Soviet Union. His autobiography was published in 1964, and he was the subject of a documentary released the following year. While his early works from the 1920s and 1930s are characterized by more severe, German-Expressionist influences, his later paintings are optimistic in nature, driven by the Soviet regime’s push for idealism in art. Pimenov wrote, 'Art must open the observer’s eyes to the profound meaning of each passing day; it must bring out and assert the growing beauty of new things' (as quoted in N.Barabanova, Yuri Pimenov, Leningrad: Aurora, 1972, p.10).

Memories of Bread Rationing during the War was painted in 1962-63 and is part of his series 'New Districts' (Novye kvartaly). This cycle of paintings from the late 1950s and early 1960s depicts the country’s bright future and continuous progress. 'I love these new districts of large towns', Pimenov wrote, 'whatever their untidiness and disorder, they breathe a spirit of youth and novelty. Life in the suburbs, which cease to be suburbs before you are aware of the change, is full of both joy and sadness, happiness and tragedy. This life is the theme of my series of pictures of New Districts' (as quoted in N.Barabanova, Yuri Pimenov, p.11). This cycle, along with other series from this period such as 'Roads', 'Goodbye', and 'Things, People', depict scenes from everyday contemporary life mixed with vivid, sometimes poignant memories of the artist. In these works, Pimenov subtly folds references to the past in with images of present-day modern life. Occasionally this is achieved by depicting old black and white photographs tacked to a wall behind a bright, abundant still life, as in The Golden Wedding, 1957 (fig.3). In the present lot, however, the reference to the past is more obvious and heartbreaking - a large painting sits on an easel at the centre of the composition, depicting weary Soviet citizens waiting in line for bread during the rationing during the war. The painting is at distinct odds with the bright scene around it, a large loaf of bread filled with fish sits on the windowsill with a bottle of wine.