Soviet art delights on display in UK

Sotheby’s, The Institute of Russian Realist Art and PromSvyazBank are presenting the exhibition Soviet art Soviet sport – one of only a very small number of exhibitions of Soviet Art ever to have been staged in the UK. Bringing together 35 important paintings, drawings and sculptures from the collection of the Institute of Russian Realist Art, the exhibition will explore the representation of sport – one of the most powerful symbols of Soviet ideology - in 20th 1917 Revolution, sport, with its associations with strength, unity and glory, emerged as a leading theme in Soviet art - the finest examples of which include some of the most evocative and vivid Russian artworks of the 20th century.

Soviet art Soviet sport will be on view at Sotheby’s in London between 19th and 2nd – 14th January 2014. It marks the first international initiative by the Institute of Russian Realist Art and has been generously sponsored by PromSvyazBank.

In the same way that court painters like Velázquez were obliged to adjust their style to please royal families, artists in the USSR were expected to adapt their personal style and tastes to meet the demands of their chief patron – the Soviet state. Artists were expected to focus on figurative art glorifying Soviet life, the people’s unity and collective optimism and not to fall into ‘formalism’, that is, deliberate lack of ideology. There were circles of artists who worked on the boundaries of what was seemed acceptable and the majority of them did not fare well. The artist Mikhail Sokolov was declared a formalist, accused of counter-revolutionary activity and was eventually arrested and exiled.

Alexander Deyneka, one of the leading artists of the Soviet era, explains the allure of sport as a subject for artists in an email statement: "Sport has one wonderful feature: it can safely fit into a very wide variety of artistic frameworks. This subject is inexhaustible because it is democratic and popular. Sport accommodates within itself shades of feeling - it is lyrical, it is positive and full of optimism. It draws on heroic origins."

Along with other key characteristics of the USSR such as industrialisation, space and ballet, sport was often heavily influenced by Soviet ideology.