Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Deyneka (russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Дейне́ка; May 20, 1899 – June 12, 1969) was a Soviet and Russian painter, graphic artist and sculptor, regarded as one of the most important Russian modernist figurative painters of the first half of the 20th century. His ''Collective Farmer on a Bicycle'' (1935) has been described as exemplifying the
socialist realist
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ...
style.
[Left out in the cold]
by Alastair Smart in ''The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'' 8 November 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
Life and career
Deyneka was born in
Kursk
Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...
and studied at
Kharkov Art College (pupil of
Alexander Lubimov
Alexander Mikhailovich Lyubimov (russian: link=no, Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Люби́мов, ; February 25, 1879, a village of Paltsevo, Kursk Province, Russian Empire – 1955, Leningrad, USSR) was a Russian Soviet reali ...
) and at
VKhUTEMAS. He was a founding member of groups such as ''OST'' and ''Oktyabr'', and his work gained wide exposure in major exhibitions. His paintings and drawings (the earliest are often
monochrome
A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...
due to the shortage of art supplies) depict genre scenes as well as labour and often sports. Deyneka later began painting monumental works, such as ''The Defense of
Petrograd'' in 1928, which remains his most iconic painting, and ''The
Battle of Sevastopol
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
'' in 1942, ''The Outskirts of Moscow. November 1941'' and ''The Shot-Down Ace''. His
mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
s are a feature of Mayakovskaya (Moscow Metro), Mayakovskaya metro station in Moscow. He is in the highest category "1A - a world famous artist" in "United Art Rating".
Deyneka is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Legacy
The title from one of Deyneka's works, "Work, Build and Don’t Whine", was used as the title for a 2016 exhibition of Socialist Realist art at London's Gallery for Russian Arts and Design. One modern critic, however, suggested that Deyneka's posters are less radical than his fore-bearers like Alexander Rodchenko, and as a result, less interesting.
Honours and awards
* Hero of Socialist Labour (1969)
* People's Artist of the USSR, People's Painter of the USSR (1963)
* Order of Lenin
* Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Selected works
* ''Three Women's Figures'', 1920s
* ''The Cabaret'', 1921
* ''Перед спуском в шахту'', 1924
* ''Football'', 1924
* ''After the Rain. Kursk'', 1925
* ''Springtime'', 1925
* ''The Skiers'', 1926
* ''Tennis'', 1926
* ''На стройке новых цехов'', 1926
''Textile Workers'' 1927
* ''The Ode to the Spring'', 1927
''The Defense of Petrograd'' 1928, Central Museum of the Defense Forces of the USSR, Moscow
* ''Механизируем Донбасс!'' (poster), 1930
* ''Китай на пути освобождения от империализма'' (poster), 1930
* ''Надо стать самим специалистами'' (poster), 1930
* ''Book Cover'', 1931
* ''The Interventionists' Mercenary'', 1931
''On the Balcony'' 1931
* ''Crosscountry Race'', 1931
* ''A Girl at the Window. Winter'', 1931
* ''Mother'', 1932
''Soccer Game'' 1932
''The Sleeping Boy With Cornflowers'' 1932
* ''Noon'', 1932
* ''The Football Player'', 1932
''Кто кого?'' 1932
* ''In the Airs'', 1932
* ''The Night Landscape with Horses and Dry Grasses'', 1933
* ''Girls Swimming'', 1933
* ''Dry Leaves'', 1933
* ''Resting Children'', 1933
* ''Communists at Interrogation'', 1933
* ''Физкультурница'' / ''Работать, строить и не ныть!'' (poster), 1933
* ''Without Work in Berlin'', 1933
* ''The Pier'', 1933
* ''The Race'', 1933
''Runners'' 1934
* ''Skiers'', 1934
* ''Landscape with a Herd'', 1934
''Goalkeeper'' 1934
''A Pioneer. Kursk'' 1934
* ''Crimean Pioneers'', 1934
* ''A Parachuter above the Sea'', 1934
* ''Quirinal Place, Rome'', 1934
* ''Spanish Stairways'', 1934
''A Street in Rome''''Monks'' 1935
* ''An Italian motif'', 1935
* ''The Park'', 1935
* ''The Portrait of S.I.L. with the Straw Hat'', 1935
* ''Tuileries'', 1935
* ''Quai de la Seine'', 1935
''Paris. In a Café'' 1935
''Une parisienne'' 1935
* ''Негритянский концерт'', 1935
* ''The Boredom'', 1935
''The Road to Mount-Vernon'' 1935
* , 1935
[
* ''A Lunch Break in Donbass'', 1935
* ''Первая пятилетка'', 1936
* ''The Model'', 1936
]
''The Future Pilots''
1937
* ''The Stakhanovites'', 1937
* ''Woman in Red'', 1939
* ''The Lilacs''
* ''Nikitka – The First Russian Pilot'', 1940
* ''The Left March'', 1941
* ''The Outskirts of Moscow. November 1941''
* ''Sverdlov Place in December 1941''
* ''Evening. The Patriarch Ponds, 1941''
* ''A Burned down Village'', 1942
* ''Эвакуация колхозного скота''
* ''Колхозницы роют противотанковые рвы на подступах к Москве''
* ''Ремонт танков на прифронтовом заводе''
* ''Танки идут на фронт''
* ''Наступление началось''
* ''The Defense of Sebastopol'', 1942
* ''The Knocked down Ace'', 1943
* ''Nude Woman Sitting'', 1943
* ''Under Occupation'', 1944
* ''Expanse'', 1944
* ''Above the Devastated Berlin'', 1944
* ''Berlin. The Day of the Declaration'', 1945
* ''A Stadium in Berlin'', 1945
* ''Near Kursk. Tuskor' River'', 1945
* ''Relay Race'' (sculpture), 1945
* ''A Boxer'' (sculpture), 1947
* ''100-meter Race'' (sculpture), 1947
''The Relay Race on the Ring B''
1947
''Donbass''
1947
* ''The Studio Window'', 1947
* ''In Sebastopol'', 1947
* ''Self-portrait'', 1948
* ''The Space of Building Sites under Moscow'', 1949
* ''The Skiers'' (mosaic)], 1950
* ''Football Players'' (sculpture), 1950
* ''Перед забегом'' (sculpture), 1951
* ''A Nude Girl'', 1951
* ''Дачный поселок Кратово'', 1951
* ''In Sebastopol'', 1947
* ''On the Skating Rink in Kratovo'', 1951
* ''The Snow Maiden'', 1954
* ''The Laying Woman with a Ball'', 1954
* ''Still Life. Strawberries'', 1955
* ''A Nude Model'', 1955
* ''Football players'' (sculpture), 1955
* ''The Tractor Driver'', 1956
* ''In Sebastopol'', 1956
''Near the Sea''
1956–1957
* ''Putting the Shot'' (sculpture), 1957
* ''Голова парашютиста'' (mosaic), 1957
* ''A Nice Morning'' (mosaic)], 1959–1960
* ''Hockey Players'' (mosaic)], 1959–1960
* ''October Slogans of Peace by the Narvsky Gate'', 1960
* ''A Milker'' (mosaic), 1962
* ''The Red Guardsman'' (mosaic), 1962
* ''A Villa in Rome'', 1965
* ''The Young Designer'', 1966
* ''In the South'' (detail), 1966
''Владимир Маяковский в РОСТА''
* ''Летнее приволье''
* ''Running Sportswoman'' (sculpture)
* ''The Cat and the Cook''
See also
* List of Russian artists
References
External links
Biography and works of Alexander Deineka (Deyneka)10
notable works of Deyneka
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deyneka, Alexander
1899 births
1969 deaths
20th-century Russian painters
20th-century Russian sculptors
People from Kursk
Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
Full Members of the USSR Academy of Arts
Vkhutemas alumni
Heroes of Socialist Labour
People's Artists of the USSR (visual arts)
Lenin Prize winners
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Mosaic artists
Socialist realist artists
Russian caricaturists
Russian educational theorists
Russian genre painters
Russian illustrators
Russian landscape painters
Russian male painters
Russian male sculptors
Russian portrait painters
Russian printmakers
Russian stained glass artists and manufacturers
Russian war artists
Russian watercolorists
Soviet educators
Soviet painters
Soviet printmakers
Soviet sculptors
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery
Soviet educational theorists