1964–1967
oil on canvas
200 x 223

For the postwar generation of artists opposition to the totalitarian “official” world made the period of the “thaw” a time of search for a plastic tradition that would be suitable for the dramatic clashes of the contemporary world. For Korzhev and his generation of painters the plastic equivalent was Realism, which they understood not only as a tradition in Russian art but as a professional school of technical mastery. Korzhev’s oeuvre during the 1970s–1980s involved an attempt at dramatic generalization from the life of a specific man. At this time the artist’s works gradually brought together genre scenes and portraiture. The monumental treatment of complex psychological problems in the genre portrait Mother presents us with the imagery sphere of the master’s work – an uninterrupted experience of discord with life, its finality and loneliness.

at 10, Krymsky Val, Hall 36