Vera Mukhina
Encyclopedia
Vera Ignatyevna Mukhina ' onMouseout='HidePop("38740")' href="/topics/Riga">Riga
– 6 October 1953 in Moscow
) was a prominent Soviet sculptor.
into a wealthy merchant family, and lived at Turgeneva st. 23/25, where a memorial plaque has now been placed. She later moved to Moscow
, where she studied at several private art schools, including those of Konstantin Yuon
and Ilya Mashkov
. In 1912 she traveled to Paris
, where she attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière
and took lessons from Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, then continued on to Italy
to explore the art and sculptures of the Renaissance
period.
In 1915 and 1916 she served as assistant to Aleksandra Ekster
at Alexander Tairov
's Chamber Theater in Moscow. In 1918 she married Alexei Zamkov, a military surgeon
.
In the 1920s Mukhina rose to become one of the Soviet Union's most prominent sculptors, and although she continued to produce cubist sculpture
as late as 1922, she became a leading figure of Socialist realism
, both in style and ideology. She taught at the state school, Vkhutemas
, in 1926-1927, and came to international attention with the 1937 Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
. Her studio's work on official monuments and architectural sculpture on state commissions continued through her death. She also experimented with glass, producing glass figural busts. According to legend, the classic Soviet faceted table-glass
was designed by Mukhina.
From 1941 to 1952 Mukhina won the Stalin Prize
five times, was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1943. In 1953 she wrote "A Sculptor's Thoughts".
Because of Muhkina's influence as a great Soviet artist, and as a former student of the Latvian sculptor Kārlis Zāle
, she persuaded Soviet officials in the late 1940s that the Freedom Monument
in Riga was of great artistic importance. Due to her efforts the monument was not demolished to make way for a statue of Joseph Stalin
.
Mukhina's legacy seems to be of little importance to the powers-that-be in today's Moscow. Mukhina's house and studio at 3a Prechistensky Lane is slated for demolition. She's buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery
.
which was the centerpiece of the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris
. It was the world's first welded sculpture
.The 24-meter-tall, 75-ton monument was made of plate of stainless steel
on a wooden frame, the plates connected by an innovative method of spot welding
. One hand of each figure holds respectively a hammer
and a sickle
, the two implements joining to form the hammer and sickle
symbol of the Soviet Union
. In 1947 the sculpture, now on permanent display at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre
, became the logo of the Russian Mosfilm
studio. It was renovated and re-installed on a higher pedestal in 2009.
Muhkina's other work includes:
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
– 6 October 1953 in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) was a prominent Soviet sculptor.
Life
Mukhina was born in RigaRiga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
into a wealthy merchant family, and lived at Turgeneva st. 23/25, where a memorial plaque has now been placed. She later moved to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, where she studied at several private art schools, including those of Konstantin Yuon
Konstantin Yuon
Konstantin Fyodorovich Yuon or Juon was a noted Russian painter and theatre designer associated with the Mir Iskusstva. Later, he co-founded the Union of Russian Artists and the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.-Biography:...
and Ilya Mashkov
Ilya Mashkov
Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov was a Russian artist, one of the most significant and at the same time most characteristic painters of the circle of "Jack of Diamonds" .He was born in the cossack village Mikhailovskaya-on-Don in a peasant family...
. In 1912 she traveled to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where she attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France. The school was founded in 1902 by the Swiss Martha Stettler , who refused to teach the strict academic rules of painting of the École des Beaux-Arts. It opened the way to the "Art Indépendant"...
and took lessons from Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, then continued on to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
to explore the art and sculptures of the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
period.
In 1915 and 1916 she served as assistant to Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster was a Russian-French painter and designer.-Biography:-Childhood:...
at Alexander Tairov
Alexander Tairov
Alexander Tairov was one of the leading innovators of theatrical art, and one of the most enduring theatre directors in Russia, and through the Soviet era.-Childhood:...
's Chamber Theater in Moscow. In 1918 she married Alexei Zamkov, a military surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
.
In the 1920s Mukhina rose to become one of the Soviet Union's most prominent sculptors, and although she continued to produce cubist sculpture
Cubist sculpture
Cubist sculpture is a style developed in parallel with cubist painting, centered in Paris, beginning around 1909 and evolving through the early 1920s.The style is most closely associated with the formal experiments of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso...
as late as 1922, she became a leading figure of Socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
, both in style and ideology. She taught at the state school, Vkhutemas
VKhUTEMAS
Vkhutemas ) was the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow, replacing the Moscow Svomas. The workshops were established by a decree from Vladimir Lenin with the intentions, in the words of the Soviet government, "to prepare master artists of the highest qualifications for...
, in 1926-1927, and came to international attention with the 1937 Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is a 24.5 meter high sculpture made from stainless steel by Vera Mukhina for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, and subsequently moved to Moscow. The sculpture is an example of the socialist realistic style, as well as Art Deco style...
. Her studio's work on official monuments and architectural sculpture on state commissions continued through her death. She also experimented with glass, producing glass figural busts. According to legend, the classic Soviet faceted table-glass
Table-glass
Table-glass or granyonyi stakan or granchak is a type of drinkware made from especially hard and thick glass and having a faceted form. It is a very widespread form of drinking glass in Russia and the former Soviet Union. Granyonyi stakan has certain advantages over the other drinkware, since due...
was designed by Mukhina.
From 1941 to 1952 Mukhina won the Stalin Prize
USSR State Prize
The USSR State Prize was the Soviet Union's state honour. It was established on September 9, 1966. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the prize was followed up by the State Prize of the Russian Federation....
five times, was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1943. In 1953 she wrote "A Sculptor's Thoughts".
Because of Muhkina's influence as a great Soviet artist, and as a former student of the Latvian sculptor Kārlis Zāle
Karlis Zale
Kārlis Zāle was a Latvian sculptor.Kārlis Zāle was born in Mažeikiai, Lithuania. After training in Russia and Germany he returned to Riga, where he both worked in sculpture and taught it. He is best known for his monumental sculptures, including the Brothers' Cemetery and the Freedom Monument in...
, she persuaded Soviet officials in the late 1940s that the Freedom Monument
Freedom Monument
The Freedom Monument is a memorial located in Riga, Latvia honoring soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence . It is considered an important symbol of the freedom, independence, and sovereignty of Latvia...
in Riga was of great artistic importance. Due to her efforts the monument was not demolished to make way for a statue of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
.
Mukhina's legacy seems to be of little importance to the powers-that-be in today's Moscow. Mukhina's house and studio at 3a Prechistensky Lane is slated for demolition. She's buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery
Novodevichy Cemetery
Novodevichy Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in Moscow, Russia. It is next to the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. It should not be confused with the Novodevichy Cemetery in Saint Petersburg....
.
Work
Mukhina's most celebrated work by far is the giant monument Worker and Kolkhoz WomanWorker and Kolkhoz Woman
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is a 24.5 meter high sculpture made from stainless steel by Vera Mukhina for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, and subsequently moved to Moscow. The sculpture is an example of the socialist realistic style, as well as Art Deco style...
which was the centerpiece of the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)
The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held from May 25 to November 25, 1937 in Paris, France...
. It was the world's first welded sculpture
Welded sculpture
Welded sculpture is an art form in which sculpture is made using welding techniques. Welding was increasingly used in sculpture from the 1930s as new industrial processes such as arc welding were adapted to aesthetic purposes...
.The 24-meter-tall, 75-ton monument was made of plate of stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
on a wooden frame, the plates connected by an innovative method of spot welding
Welding
Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes...
. One hand of each figure holds respectively a hammer
Hammer
A hammer is a tool meant to deliver an impact to an object. The most common uses are for driving nails, fitting parts, forging metal and breaking up objects. Hammers are often designed for a specific purpose, and vary widely in their shape and structure. The usual features are a handle and a head,...
and a sickle
Sickle
A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock . Sickles have also been used as weapons, either in their original form or in various derivations.The diversity of sickles that...
, the two implements joining to form the hammer and sickle
Hammer and sickle
The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist party, or a Communist state. It features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them...
symbol of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. In 1947 the sculpture, now on permanent display at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre
All-Russia Exhibition Centre
All-Russia Exhibition Centre is a permanent general-purpose trade show in Moscow, Russia....
, became the logo of the Russian Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
studio. It was renovated and re-installed on a higher pedestal in 2009.
Muhkina's other work includes:
- 1927 Peasant Woman, freestanding bronze, now at the Tretyakov GalleryTretyakov GalleryThe State Tretyakov Gallery is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world.The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Moscow merchant Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired works by Russian artists of his day with the aim of creating a collection,...
in Moscow - the 1934 Fertility and 1939 Bread, both now standing in Moscow's Friendship Park
- three cornice figures on the pediment of the Winter Theater in SochiSochiSochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains...
, 1937 - the monumental group We Demand Peace, 1950-1951 (Mukhina served as coordinator of other sculptors and contributor; her figure is the mourning mother)
- the 1952 Maxim GorkyMaxim GorkyAlexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
Monument in Nizhny NovgorodNizhny NovgorodNizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg... - the statue of TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
in front of the Moscow ConservatoryMoscow ConservatoryThe Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St... - the finial figure of Mir ("Peace"), with armillary sphereArmillary sphereAn armillary sphere is a model of objects in the sky , consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centred on Earth, that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features such as the ecliptic...
and dove, for the 1954 VolgogradVolgogradVolgograd , formerly called Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River...
Planetarium
Honours and awards
- Stalin Prizes
- first class (1941) - for the sculptural group "Worker and Collective Farm Girl" at the Agricultural Exhibition (1937);
- second class (1943) - a sculptural portraits of Colonels BA Yusupov and IL Khizhnyak (1942);
- first class (1946) - a sculptural portrait of Krylov;
- second class (1951) - for the sculptural group "We demand peace!" (Et al);
- first class (1952) - a monument to Maxim Gorky in Moscow;
- People's Artist of the USSRPeople's Artist of the USSRPeople's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...
(1943); - Order of the Red Banner of LabourOrder of the Red Banner of LabourThe Order of the Red Banner of Labour was an order of the Soviet Union for accomplishments in labour and civil service. It is the labour counterpart of the military Order of the Red Banner. A few institutions and factories, being the pride of Soviet Union, also received the order.-History:The Red...
(1938); - Order of the Badge of Honour (1945);
- Order "Citizenship Award" (Bulgaria)
- People's Artist of the USSR