Fyodor Pavlovich Reshetnikov (; – 13 December 1988) was a prominent

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. A preeminent practitioner of socialist realism, Reshetnikov was recognized by the government for his work and was a member for three and a half decades of the Soviet Academy of Arts. His creations are held in

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's finest collections, including the

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world. The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Muscovite merchant Pavel ...

(

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), the

Russian Museum The State Russian Museum (), formerly known as the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (), on Arts Square in Saint Petersburg, is the world's largest depository of Russian fine art. It is also one of the largest art museums in ...

(

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), the

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(Moscow), and others.

Early life

Reshetnikov was born in Sursko-Lytovske village, Russian Empire in what is now

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, Ukraine, into a family of

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

painters. Orphaned at an early age, Reshetnikov was raised by his brother, who painted church

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es and icons for a living, and who employed Reshetnikov as an apprentice. Having never attended

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

, Reshetnikov enrolled in a remedial " Rabfak" institution as preparation for attending Moscow's elite art college VKHUTEIN.

Arctic expeditions

While still an art student, Reshetnikov's prowess in realist representation procured him a position as resident "artistic reporter" on two arctic expeditions in 1932–34: the first, with famous explorer

Otto Schmidt Otto Yulyevich Shmidt (born Otto Friedrich Julius Schmidt; – 7 September 1956), better known as Otto Schmidt, was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesman, and academician. Biography He was born in the town of ...

on the '' Sibiryakov''; the other, on the doomed ''Chelyuskin'' which sank in 1934. Reshetnikov was one of the people rescued from the ice after the ''Chelyuskin'' sank.

Artistic career

Beginning in the late 1940s, Reshetnikov emerged as one of the Soviet Union's best known socialist realists. He specialized in two types of paintings: depictions of Soviet leadership (his several drawings of Stalin were favored by the dictator) and of ordinary lives. Children were particularly common in his paintings. The most famous of his works depicting children is '' Arrived on vacation'' (''Прибыл на каникулы'') (1948), '' Low Marks Again'' (''Опять двойка'') (1952), ''

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'' (''Переэкзаменовка'') (1954). Throughout his life, Reshetnikov opposed formalism in art, exposing it wherever he found it since he believed it was part of imperialist ideology. In 1963, Reshetnikov published illustrated book “The Secrets of Abstract art”, which caricatured and exposed it.Fyodor Pavlovich Reshetnikov. “The Secrets of Abstract art” («Тайны абстракционизма»). Moscow, 1963. His views were popular with the authorities and he became an appointed member of the Academy of Arts in 1953 and its vice-president in 1974. Reshetnikov received many prestigious governmental awards for his contributions to Soviet culture, including the Stalin Prize. Reshetnikov taught art in two Moscow colleges from 1953 until 1962. In 1963, he authored a book (''Secrets of Abstractionism'', ''Тайны абстракционизма''), in which he expounded his negative views of "bourgeois" artistic movements. Reshetnikov died in Moscow in 1988, aged 82.

Literature

* L. Yevgrafova (Евграфова Л.), ''Fyodor Pavlovich Reshetnikov'' (''Федор Павлович Решетников''), Perm, 1961 * ''Fyodor Reshetnikov'' (album), "Izobrazitelnoe iskusstvo" pub., Moscow, 1982

External sources

Biography from the Ministry of Education website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reshetnikov, Fyodor 1906 births 1988 deaths 20th-century Russian painters People from Yekaterinoslavsky Uyezd Academic staff of Moscow State Pedagogical University Full Members of the USSR Academy of Arts Communist Party of the Soviet Union members People's Artists of the RSFSR (visual arts) People's Artists of the USSR (visual arts) Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the October Revolution Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Recipients of the Stalin Prize Socialist realist artists Russian caricaturists Russian genre painters Russian landscape painters Russian male painters Russian portrait painters Russian printmakers Soviet caricaturists Soviet painters Soviet printmakers Burials at Vagankovo Cemetery