One of my and Mrs Coldwarrior’s favorite statues is back on display.

We both have a soft spot for ‘Socialist Realism’ both in sculpted and print form, I will bring up more Socialist Realism work for further lecture or open thread…i just might scan my silk Ping Pong Mao banner for display here.

Please read this entry on Socialist Realism here if you are unaware or need to brush up on this art form.

FROM MOSCOW: RT

A sculpture originally created to crown the 37-meter-high Soviet pavilion of the World’s Fair in 1937 has recently been restored and returned to its place at the All-Russia Exhibition Center in Moscow.

The monument depicts a young man and a girl, personifying the Soviet Union: its working class and collective farming. Together they raise the emblem of the Soviet State – a hammer and sickle. The competition to create the sculpture was won by artist Vera Mukhina. Her idea became a 25-meter-tall, 80-ton-heavy monument to socialism.

Titled “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman”, it returned to the USSR after the fair in 1939. In January-August 1939, the sculpture was reconstructed and subsequently placed on a pedestal before the northern entrance to the All-Russia Exhibition Center in Moscow. Later it was restored again in 1979, and in 2003 it went for another planned reconstruction.

However, “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” was supposed to return to its place in 2005, but ended up sitting dismantled in a hangar for six years, though not without good reason.

In a huge pavilion the monument was reassembled and now looks as good as it did back in 1937. The updated monument passed all stages of computer modeling, its skeleton was strengthened, and all connections and joints were tested for durability.

On November 27, the sculptural group set up a pedestal at the All-Russia Exhibition Center in Moscow with a special crane. The solemn opening of the actual monument will take place on December, 4-5, 2009.

The sculpture was named “the touchstone of socialist realism” in the Big Soviet encyclopedia. In cinema, “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” was chosen in 1947 to serve as the logo for Soviet film studio Mosfilm.

It is supposed that, in the near future, “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” will be put on the new 34.5-meter-tall pedestal-pavilion, inside of which there will be a museum that is planned to open in 2010.

 

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ALSO:

The glorious symbol of the might and prosperity of the USSR and the 1937 Grand Prix winner at the Paris International Exhibition – a 30-meter mosaic map of the Union made of jewels and gemstones – is being restored to its initial luster.

The famous work was called “The Industry of Socialism.” The masterpiece, made from some 4,500 jewels and semi-precious stones as well as metal boards, will be carefully reconstructed with every single stone being cleaned and polished.

More than 700 master craftsmen were involved in the creation of this gigantic Florentine-style mosaic for the Paris and New York exhibitions. Now, several workshops across Russia are faced with the task of restoring the beauty that touched hearts of the whole world and became a symbol of the USSR along with the famous “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” monument by Vera Mukhina.
The mosaic showed signs of fracturing just after it was first exhibited in 1937 in Paris. The textolite base proved too fragile to support the three-ton composition of heavy stones.

Ninety sections, each stored in its own safe box covered in textile for safety reasons, traveled the globe before ending up back in the craftsmen’s workshops – and not before time. With more and more jewels peeling off, the map was beginning to lose its contours. Luckily, all the stray jewels had been meticulously stored.

“Nothing was lost, and this is an extraordinary thing for these days. The mosaic traveled a lot, was stored in many safes, but managed to survive all of it”, says Aleksandr Kharlamov from the All-Russia Research Geological Institute, as cited by the Rossiya 24 channel.

Kharlamov will replace the textolite base of the mosaic with Italian shale to make the composition stronger. It is needed because after the restoration, every fragment of the puzzle will be seven kilograms heavier.

“That was the weak point in the whole composition – its bottom, base. It used to deform and change its shape,” Kharlamov explains.
“The Industry of Socialism” was dispatched with extraordinary speed, with all the craft work being completed in an unbelievable five months. This may explain the weaknesses and the injudicious choice of material for the base. The map design was the brainchild of Grigory Orjonikidze, then People’s Commissar of Heavy Industry of the USSR.

Detailed and painstaking work was involved in showing the relief of mountains and the winding of the rivers with the stone plates, and sticking to correct colors. After the map was made, craftsmen tried to keep it up to date, changing the frontiers after the war with Finland and the joining of the Baltic countries. Eventually, though, they gave up.

During preparations for the New York exhibition in 1939, the height of the upper side was raised to show the North Pole and the route of Papanin’s expedition, using topazes and phenacites. The map was awarded the exhibition’s gold medal.

After the restoration, the great mosaic will become not only a symbol of the former glory of the Soviet Union, but will also demonstrate the skills of Russia’s contemporary master craftsmen. Some of the stones are now unique as the deposits in which they were found no longer exist.

The geological marvel that is “The Industry of Socialism” will become a window on the history of Soviet geological research.