Scene History & Socialist Realism

"Sabantuy" - one of the best paintings in this genre (Tatarstan Fine Arts)

Sabantuy is a Tatar festival that dates back to the pre-Islamic epoch. The holiday's name means "plough's feast".  It was celebrated by farmers before sowing. The Tatar wrestling "kurash" is the main event in Sabantuy. Wrestlers use towels and aim to knock down the opponent.

This painting of Sabantuy has been moved from and to different museums and is now at the National Art Gallery.

Among the other paintings is a personal one. They're  his two sons, one of which became an artist too.

After the war, he devoted himself into painting. What I heard from my mom-in-law is that he never talked about war, never watched movies and documentaries about it even when children were watching.  He simply did not want to see and tell his children what ugly thing war was. 

What Dau Ani kept in repeating to us was that Dau Ati (grandfather) wants the family to rather look forward. See the good in life despite of what misery they have been trough. 

What a strong spirited man! I'm not sure how he could look at life with such optimism after what he had seen and experienced.

Whenever I hear people complain or I catch myself complaining about life and stuff...I remember stories like his. 

He has thing for countrysides and simple life. Maybe because he finds peace in them. He merely collected joyful events in life and transfered them into canvass.

He also painted portraits of known and unknown people.

He entered the war with a notebook and pencil. His notebook was full of sketches showing the tragic event of a wartime. He sketched and painted fellow soldiers. One of them is "Ivan Kalitina" on oil canvass, Germany.

Many of his paintings are exhibited in different galleries in Moscow and in other cities. A series of illustrations of Tatar folktales are kept in the golden fund of of Russia & Tatarstan Fine Arts.

But my ever favorite portrait is his "wife pregnant with their first child-my husband's mother". Not only because it is very symbolic for me but because it is very beautiful. I don't have a picture of it now because I didn't think I  was going to post about it. It's kept privately, not in any gallery.

Some of his paintings are political figures and these paintings are  in a commercial art gallery.

The painting above "The signing of Lenin decree on the formation of Tatar Autonomous Soviet Republic" it was co-authored by his bestfriend, his wife's brother. It was awarded the "State Prize of the USSR".

Next I'll  share Dau Ani's brother's artworks.