Village Portrait Series c1955
Oil on board26 x 19 cmSignedProvenance: John Barkes, London, bought from the artist in the artist's stuido, St. Petersburg $900.....
At the end of the Soviet system the professional artists were left high and dry. They were given ownership of their apartments, and were left with the contents of their studios, a lifetime of paintings.
Apart from the unsold finished paintings, the studios were full of preparatory sketches. These immediate impressions of life by these highly trained artists were a revelation.
The finished, exhibited works had to be idealized to conform to Stalin's definition of Socialist Realism and, or all except a very few artists, this process took away all the spontaneity so apparent in the preparatory works.
www.leningradschool.com has a chronology of the Artists' Union of St Petersburg, with many of our aritsts prominent in the annual listing of exhibitions.
extract "Art in Russia" Letter from John Barkes, 2011
illustrated
Valeri Roslyakov Loading Nickel Ore, Yenisei River 1973
Oil on board26 x 19 cmSignedProvenance: John Barkes, London, bought from the artist in the artist's stuido, St. Petersburg $900.....
Oil on paper 28.5 x 49.5 cm Signed; also signed and dated on reverse Provenance: John Barkes, London, bought from.....
Oil on board13 x 17 cmSigned
Oil on card 36 x 28.5 cm Signed
Russian Oil on board 29.5 x 34 cm Signed and dated; also inscribed with title and date on reverse
Oil on card 37.5 x 27.5 cm Signed and dated on reverse Provenance: John Barkes, Olympia Art Fair, London 2017
Oil on board46.5 x 68.2 cmSigned; also signed on reverseProvenance: John Barkes, London, bought from the artist in the artist's.....
Oil on panel 32.3 x 22.7 cmSigned and dated Provenance: John Barkes, London, bought from the artist in the artist's.....
Oil on board 29.5 x 23 cm Signed; also signed,c titled and dated on reverse Provenance: John Barkes, London, bought from the artist.....
Oil on board33 x 21.5 cmSigned and dated; also signed and titled on reverseProvenance: John Barkes, London, bought from the.....
Oil on canvas 48 x 69 cmSigned and dated Member of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists
Oil on board 48.5 x 48.5 cm Signed
Oil on board45.2 x 34.5 cmSignedProvenance: John Barkes, London, bought from the artist in the artist's studio, Simferopol
Oil on canvas on board32.8 x 47.5 cmSigned$1,850
Oil on card 26 x 34.5 cm Signed and dated; also inscribed on reverse Artists Union of St Petersburg, artist and teacher.....
Oil on canvas28 x 47 cmSignedProvenance: The artist’s studio in Simferopol, 2006 A sketch for the artist’s first Museum Acquisition .....
Oil 35 x 42.5 cm Signed and dated Provenance: the artist’s studio St Petersburg 1998
Provenance: John Barkes, London, bought from the artist in the artist's studio, St.Petersburg Oil on board 22.5 x 31.2 cm.....