IDEOLOGICAL-STYLISTIC REALITIES OF THE SOVIET ART THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1930s AND PORTRAIT PAINTING OF N. A. RUSAKOV (1888—1941)

Abstract

The author refers to the period of formation the program of socialist realism as a
method and style of art in the second half of the 1930s. A close relationship with the party
ideology, its power over the art, however, did not prevent the birth along with officious
of valuable art works that reflected the face of time. The main interest for the study in
this article is the regional peripheral art of socialist realism, namely paintings by talented
artist of the South Ural Nicholaу Rusakov. Research is based on a broad background
representative for social realism phenomena and events, involving documentary sources,
including previously unpublished and little-known body of works by Rusakov. The author
draws to material that complements and clarifies contradictory picture of problematic
periods of Russian art — socialist realism of the Stalin era of the 1930s.