Fyodor Pavlovich Reshetnikov (russian: Фёдор Павлович Решетников) ( – December 13, 1988) was a prominent

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

painter. A preeminent practitioner of "

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...

", Reshetnikov was recognized by the government for his work and was a member for three and a half decades of the

Soviet Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thre ...

. His creations are held in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

's finest collections, including the

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (russian: Государственная Третьяковская Галерея, ''Gosudarstvennaya Tretyâkovskaya Galereya''; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered th ...

(

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

), the

Russian Museum The State Russian Museum (russian: Государственный Русский музей), formerly the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (russian: Русский Музей Императора Александра III), on ...

(

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

), the

State Historical Museum The State Historical Museum ( Russian: Государственный исторический музей, ''Gosudarstvenny istoricheskiy muzyey'') of Russia is a museum of Russian history The history of Russia begins with the histories of ...

(Moscow), and others.

Early life

Reshetnikov was born in Sursko-Litovskoe village in what is now

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Dnipropetrovsk Oblast ( uk, Дніпропетро́вська о́бласть, translit=Dnipropetrovska oblast), also referred to as Dnipropetrovshchyna ( uk, Дніпропетро́вщина), is an oblast (province) of central-eastern Ukra ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, into a family of

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

painters. Orphaned at an early age, Reshetnikov was raised by his brother, who painted church frescoes and icons for a living, and who employed Reshetnikov as an apprentice. Having never attended secondary school, Reshetnikov enrolled in a remedial "

Rabfak Rabfak (from russian: рабфак, a syllabic abbreviation of рабочий факультет, ''rabochiy fakultet'', "workers' faculty") was a type of educational institution in the Soviet UnionBerthold Unfried''"Ich bekenne": Katholische Beic ...

" institution as preparation for attending Moscow's elite art college VKHUTEIN.

Arctic expeditions

While still an art student, Reshetnikov's prowess in realist representation procured him a position as resident "artistic reporter" on two arctic expeditions in 1932–34: the first, with famous explorer

Otto Schmidt Otto Yulyevich Shmidt, be, Ота Юльевіч Шміт, Ota Juljevič Šmit (born Otto Friedrich Julius Schmidt; – 7 September 1956), better known as Otto Schmidt, was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesm ...

on the '' Sibiryakov''; the other, on the doomed ''Chelyuskin'' which sank in 1934. Reshetnikov was one of the people rescued from the ice after the ''Chelyuskin'' sank.

Artistic career

Beginning in the late 1940s, Reshetnikov emerged as one of the Soviet Union's best known socialist realists. He specialized in two types of paintings: depictions of Soviet leadership (his several drawings of Stalin were favored by the dictator) and of ordinary lives. Children were particularly common in his paintings. The most famous of his works depicting children is '' Arrived on vacation'' (''Прибыл на каникулы'') (1948), '' Low Marks Again'' (''Опять двойка'') (1952), ''

Reexamination In United States patent law, a reexamination is a process whereby anyone—third party or inventor—can have a U.S. patent reexamined by a patent examiner to verify that the subject matter it claims is patentable. To have a patent reexamined, ...

'' (''Переэкзаменовка'') (1954). Throughout his life, Reshetnikov opposed

formalism Formalism may refer to: * Form (disambiguation) * Formal (disambiguation) * Legal formalism, legal positivist view that the substantive justice of a law is a question for the legislature rather than the judiciary * Formalism (linguistics) * Scie ...

in art, exposing it wherever he found it. His views were popular with the authorities and he became an appointed member of the Academy of Arts in 1953 and its vice-president in 1974. Reshetnikov received many prestigious governmental awards for his contributions to Soviet culture, including the

Stalin Prize Stalin Prize may refer to: * The State Stalin Prize in science and engineering and in arts, awarded 1941 to 1954, later known as the USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, ...

. Reshetnikov taught art in two Moscow colleges from 1953 until 1962. In 1963 he authored a book (''Secrets of Abstractionism'', ''Тайны абстракционизма''), in which he expounded his negative views of "bourgeois" artistic movements. Reshetnikov died in Moscow in 1988, aged 82.

Sources

Biography from the Ministry of Education website

General reference

* L. Yevgrafova (Евграфова Л.), ''Fyodor Pavlovich Reshetnikov'' (''Федор Павлович Решетников''),

Perm Perm or PERM may refer to: Places *Perm, Russia, a city in Russia ** Permsky District, the district **Perm Krai, a federal subject of Russia since 2005 **Perm Oblast, a former federal subject of Russia 1938–2005 **Perm Governorate, an administra ...

, 1961 * ''Fyodor Reshetnikov'' (album), "Izobrazitelnoe iskusstvo" pub., Moscow, 1982 {{DEFAULTSORT:Reshetnikov, Fyodor Pavlovich People from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Socialist realist artists Soviet painters Full Members of the USSR Academy of Arts Stalin Prize winners 1906 births 1988 deaths