Gueli Korjev

Geliy Korzhev (1925-2012) was People’s Artist of the USSR, academician, winner of several state prizes, Chairman of the Union of Artists and professor. Today, his paintings Raising the Banner, The International and Communists seem to represent quintessential Soviet realism art.

With compositions seemingly carved out of stone, perfectly sculpted figures, cinematic angles and a complex colour palette, Korzhev’s is a truly distinctive style. The artist managed to achieve a seemingly unattainable, unreal unity of artistic content, aesthetic form and painting style. An indisputable master, Korzhev is a broadly recognized figure in Soviet art.

Psychological still life is a special genre in Korzhev’s art, which he turned to frequently and willingly, solving compositional and semantic challenges of the pictorial art form. Throughout the existence of the USSR, the hammer and the sickle symbolised, respectively, the class of industrial workers and the peasantry. The precise iconography was established during the October Revolution of 1917. 1980s were a milestone period for Russia, when the movement for a renewal of Soviet power led, on the contrary, to its collapse… Still Life with Hammer and Sickle is Korzhev’s attempt to revalidate the overthrown symbols of the Soviet era.