Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

It Has Come To Pass
Sergei Lukin

There is very little information about Lukin on the internet, not even an entry on Wikipedia. He was born in Ukraine in 1923 and was a member of the Soviet Artists’ Union — as was any artist that wanted a career. The Artists’ Union placed strict controls on art produced in the Soviet Union until its dissolution in the 1990s. According to the Union, art had to be productive, depict everyday events and regular people, support and champion the communist state and its socialist policies, and be easy to understand by the average person. Modernist styles were rejected in favor of traditionalist realism, and the subject matter had to be positive or heroic. This type of art is heavily propagandistic and called Socialist Realism.

In It Has Come to Pass, Bolshevik soldiers enter the imperial throne room in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia during the Russian Revolution of 1917. I like how the artist composed this piece. The red banner and white wall meet in the background at the vertical center of the painting. On one side is the empty throne with the imperial crest. To me, the throne seems diminished. During the imperial era, it was glorious and revered. It symbolized the authority and absolute power of the czar. Here, the throne is a shadow of itself. It blends into the background. The vivid red is washed out and the paint Lukin used looks runny, and the gold is dull. This once-majestic throne is now more drab than the heavy brown coat the soldier wears.

The soldier on the right is the focus of the painting. Notice how he is closer to the center line than the throne. If he was standing straight up instead of leaning slightly back, he would be in the exact center of the work. Also notice how the man’s head is at the same level as the top of the throne. He is equal, maybe superior. Lukin took the majesty out of the throne. Now it is only a chair. All the power is in the soldier and what he represents. Finally, look at the column behind the soldier. The soldier leans directly in front of the column so that its fluting – the vertical ridges that give it its signature look – look like rays of light shining onto his face. It’s cartoonish but effective. Heaven’s light blesses his cause.

In It Has Come to Pass, the glorious Russian Revolution has succeeded. The tyrannical czar is deposed, and the heroic soldier stands in the imperial throne room. He looks up and smiles. There’s relief and ecstasy in his face. He takes it all in — savoring the moment.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:30 AM

| Access Comments