From time to time, I reintroduce my friend Allan Gamborg. He's Danish by birth, a longtime resident of Moscow, and truly a citizen of the planet.
Allan has enjoyed much success in his "second" (third? fifth?) career as a purveyor and advocate of Soviet-era art and artists. You can use the handy Blogger search here at NAC, use "Gamborg" as the search term, and see previous postings. These days, the website is called Masters of Soviet Art, and it's always worth a few minutes to peruse the art. You need not be a Commie to enjoy the links to Allan's on-line galleries.
As in the past, permit me to thank Allan for his boundless hospitality and for allowing me to share his latest links.
Dear Friends,
We have a series of new exhibitions on the on the web:
THEMES
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS IN SOVIET POSTERS
In the early days of the Soviet Union, each social or political innovation by the Soviet government gave rise to new linguistic multisyllabic slogans - one longer and more awkward than the other - and thus the Russian language was losing the elegance and lightness of the pre-revolution Russian language.
The Russian language evolved in step with the Soviet man. Some examples of acronyms have become generally recognizable, for example Kolkhoz (collective farm - колхоз) and Кomsomol (Young communists' league, комсомол - ВЛКСМ).
ARTISTS
VADIM TROFIMOV (1912-1981)
Vadim Vadimovich Trofimov was born in the city of Ulyanovsk and moved to Moscow in 1920. He started taking art classes in 1928 with the artist Vatagin, studying both drawing and sculpture - a combination that remained with him through his whole career. His first job a an artist was at the Moscow Darwin museum, where he found his passion for depicting animals. In the 1930 he started working as a book illustrator, for the publishing houses Detskaya Literatura and Prosveshenie. During the war he worked as a poster artist for the famous studio Okna TASS (Tass Windows). He served in WW2 on the Bryansk and the Belorussian fronts, and was awarded several medals. He traveled many times to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), drawing and making lithographs of the daily life on the island. Also, he traveled extensively in the Russian North, depicting Northern animals and Northern landscapes. In his later years he mainly worked in sculpture, plaster, concrete, metal, creating life-size animals and compositions. The State Tretyakov museum in Moscow has a large collection of his works on permanent exhibition, and so does the Moscow Darwin museum. Vadim Vadimovich's daughter Irina Trofimova is a famous textile designer and batik artist, and member of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts.
VLADIMIR FAVORSKY (1886-1964)
Vladimir Andreevich Favorsky is by many considered the most influential artist and teacher in the disciplines of book illustrations, woodcut and linocut. He became a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1962, and a People's Artist (Народный художник СССР) of the USSR in 1963. He studied under Konstantin Yuon in 1903-05, and then in Munich 1903-1907. From 1907-1913 he studied at Moscow art schools. As an artist, Vladimir Favorsky created an impressive amount of book illustrations in the woodcut and linocut media during the 1920s and 1930s. As a teacher, Vladimir Favorsky was active in VKHUTEMAS 1920-1930, where he taught and inspired a whole generation of Soviet graphic artists, including Deineka and Pimenov. He taught at the Polygraphic institute from 1930-34, and at the Institute of Fine Arts 1934-38. He also developed a theory - still used today - of how to design and illustrate books.
BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS
ABOUT THE GIRL NASTYA AND THE MALICIOUS INVISIBLE GIRL (YURY VYAZEMSKY) - MARINA USPENSKAYA, 1986
ПРО ДЕВОЧКУ НАСТЮ И ЗЛУЮ НЕВИДИМКУ (ЮРИЙ ВЯЗЕМСКИЙ)
The children's book was Issued by the publishing house Malysh. Printed in 175.000 copies, price was 25 kopecks.
Enjoy the shows !
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