03 february – 10 may
The exhibition marks the 80th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazis in the Battle of Stalingrad. This victory of the Soviet army was decisive for future victory in the Great Patriotic War. The exhibition will be a tribute to this great feat.
In Russian culture, the theme of the Great Patriotic War and the victorious people has become one of the most important criteria for national consciousness and self-identification. The aim of the exhibition was to express the significance and scale of the Battle of Stalingrad, our victory in the language of the art closest to man - arts and crafts. This art offers great opportunities for imaginative, emotional and personal perception of this heroic event. The exposition will help viewers find their own memorable image of the victory.
The time frame of such a notion as "art of the winners" covers the period from 1945 until the mid-1950s, but the exhibits also include works of subsequent decades, as this theme has not been forgotten and continues to live in the people's consciousness.
The exhibition includes such "speaking" sections as "War and Heroism", "The Great Joy of Victory", "Return to Peaceful Life" and "Theme of Victory in the Successors of the Victorious Generation". The exhibits in each of the presented sections are dedicated to particular stages in the country's history. It is interesting to see how the theme of war and victory is reflected in different ways by different generations of artists.
Themes of war and heroism, self-sacrifice, the great joy of victory, the return to peaceful life and the theme of eternal memory are all present in the works of decorative and applied art displayed at the exhibition. Made in different materials and techniques, the objects reveal these themes in very different ways. But all these works of art are united by a common mood - the triumph of Victory, the joy of a return to peaceful life. There are works created by the war veterans and living witnesses of the war among them.
The exhibition features about 70 items from the 1940s-1980s: carvings, works by artists from the Gusev and Leningrad art glass factories, works by artists from Mstera, Fedoskino and Kholuy, items from Bogorod small sculpture, sculpture from stone-cutting workshops in the Perm region, works by artists from the Leningrad and Dmitrov porcelain factories, Konakovo faience factory, etc.
Of special interest are the works of the well-known painter and graphic artist Faythelya Lazarevich Mullar, who worked in Stalingrad from 1943 to 1946 on the works devoted to the defence and restoration of the city. Several works by Mullar created in Stalingrad were presented by the city authorities to General Charles de Gaulle, Clementine Churchill, Dolores Ibarruri and Josip Broz Tito.