The Soviet art of painting without the contribution of Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin is totally unimaginable.
He is on a par with great Russian artists of the early 20th century, such as Kandinsky, Malevich, and Filonov. To mark the 140th anniversary since the artist's birth, an exhibition of his works from various Russian museums was held. It is now available online.
The exhibition is organized very conveniently, so that you could walk through the halls or include a review of specific works. But in any case, the virtual tour enables you to get a close look at the paintings, to the extent of seeing individual brushstrokes as well as see the artwork as a whole. Lots of paintings are accompanied with sketches, which makes it possible to trace the development of their authors' ideas.
Petrov-Vodkin's works combine a deep moral subtext with a proletarian, Soviet expression. It takes just one glance at the "Petrograd Madonna" to be imbued with this special spirit of proletarian high-moral art.
See the online exhibition here.
Where: Russian Museum
When: permanently
Author: Vera Ivanova