Paintings from the exhibition “Human. War. Victory”: peculiarities of the realism method transforming

The authors of the article cover an exhibition located in the Hall of Arts of the South Ural State University. It is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The uniqueness of the exhibition is the impossibility of inviting viewers to its opening due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Hall was deserted for the first time during its 17-year-old existence. Nevertheless,theexhibitionwasheld,but notinreal,butin virtual space.Acopyofthepainting“Rest after the Battle. Vasily Terkin” by Yu. Neprintsev from the collection of the University’s Art Museum is presented as a central exhibit. However, the new format made it possible to expand and enrich the semantic field of the exposition. In virtual space in addition to Neprintsev’s work the exhibit included a representative collection of Soviet artists of the 1940s. Their works became symbols of Victory: “The signing of the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Germany”, created by M. Kupriyanov, P. Krylov and N. Sokolov (Kukryniksy) from the collection of the Chelyabinsk State Museum of Fine Arts and “Letter from the Front” by A. Laktionov (Tretyakovskaya Gallery in Moscow). The Kukryniksy’s, Neprintsev’s and Laktinonov’s works reveal the most important facets of the exhibition “Human. War. Victory». Its concept is a premonition of victory and confidence in it in the rear and at the front, which led to the victorious end of the terrible war. The authors have revealed the features of the style of socialist realism that unite all the exhibited works: a true image of the event, its interpretation in the spirit of social equality and justice, nationality, typification of images, optimism, concreteness, reliance on the traditions of the Russian school of painting, especially of V. Surikov and I. Repin . Borrowings by Yu. Neprintsev of some I. Repin’s artistic techniques from the painting “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan” made by Yu. Neprintsev are specially investigated.