Now I would like to draw your attention to another Soviet artist - to Andrei Konstantinovich Sokolov. He is rightfully considered the first space painter.
Graduate of the Architectural Institute Andrei Sokolov, a hero, a handsome man - all in his father - in the mid-1950s he worked on projects of "closed" special towns, and ahead of him there is a promising career of a post-war builder raised from the ruins of the country. A young specialist likes the profession. But still - all kinds of equipment and science fiction. The circle of interests is wide: at home there is a large special library for his father. Is it a joke to say that Sokolov the elder, Konstantin Mikhailovich, was one of the leaders of the construction of such unique objects as the television tower in Ostankino, the Togliatti auto plant, the Baikonur cosmodrome, and, of course, did everything he could to educate his son. And conversations in the family - about modern technology, aviation, about the cosmic future of a great country; And favorite books - Jules Verne, Alexander Belyaev, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky - all contributed to the development of Andrei's talent. The realized craving for painting was manifested after reading the novel by Ray Bradbury "451 ° Fahrenheit."
To a purely fantastic topic is added after the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite and the theme of real space exploration. From this moment, the artistic method of Andrei Sokolov can be considered cosmic realism. Small patterns of tempera on cardboard and larger canvases, painted in oil on canvas, are distinguished by a detailed list of technical details - elements of spacecraft structures, alien landscapes, cosmic phenomena and effects. Because the picture is internally reliable.
The innate talent of the painter, subtle sense of color, deep knowledge of his favorite topic made Andrei Sokolov the founder of a new genre of space painting. In the legendary 60-s Andrew is friendly with the first cosmonauts. In the family archive there is a photo that captures how he and Yuri Gagarin play soccer in a clearing. In those same years, the creative community of Andrei Sokolov and Alexei Leonov, the first earthman who had gone into outer space, appeared. In co-authorship, they created a lot of wonderful paintings (you could see a part of them above).
He is dedicated to the story of the famous Soviet writer Ivan Antonovich Efremov (Five Paintings - here the theme of art is touched upon, abstract art and "contemporary art" are criticized (which is typical of Soviet art criticism), which causes rejection of some readers, but with careful reading reveals a criticism of "unchecked naturalistic Plan ").
""In the first scene, the white trail of a fast-flying spaceship cut through the menacingly violet, purple-stricken sky of the planet of Venus, the pale green-blue lights of electric storms raging over the violet ocean."
Found the Pennant
"The second and third paintings depicted various aspects of the planet а double star - a red giant and a blue dwarf. Sharp fluctuations in temperature made life impossible on earth type, but it nonetheless existed in the form of silicon crystals.One picture showed the red sun, the other - blue and discoid a spaceship from Earth, penetrated into the world of double sun and crystalline life. "
The world of a double star. In the rays of the blue sun
The world of a double star. Red sun
"The fourth picture was dedicated to the first meeting of earthly people and Thinking beings of another world. The artist did not try to depict these creatures, probably because then the views on the plurality of forms of thinking matter prevailed. He wrote a meeting with the creation of extraterrestrial civilization - a giant electronic brain that controls the operation of the automatic devices of the planet. "
Artificial brain
"The fifth, and last, picture was an automatic station, abandoned to the atmosphere of Saturn, on the ring of the planet among the fragments of rocks - the remains of satellites, torn by its attraction."
In the rings of Saturn
