Aleksandr Mikhailovich Gerasimov (August 12, 1881 to July 23, 1963) was a leading proponent of Socialist Realism in the visual arts, and was Stalin's court painter. August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events January - April January 16-24 ? Siege of Geok Tepe ? Russian troops under general Skobeleff defeat Turkomans January 25 - Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company February 5 - Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated. ... July 23 is the 204th day (205th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 161 days remaining. ... Events January-February January 11 - The Whisky A Go-Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the USA, is opened. ... Stalin as an Organiser of the October Revolution by Karp Trokhimenko Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style of realistic art which has as its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism. ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 1879[1] – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and leader of the Soviet Union. ...

Gerasimov was born on August 12, 1881 in Kozlov, now Michevinsk, in Tambov region. He studied at the School of Painting, Sculpture and architecture in Moscow from 1903 to 1915. There he championed traditional realistic representational art against the avant-garde. August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events January - April January 16-24 ? Siege of Geok Tepe ? Russian troops under general Skobeleff defeat Turkomans January 25 - Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company February 5 - Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated. ... Tambov (Тамбо́в) is a city in Russia, administrative center of Tambov Oblast. ... Saint Basils Cathedral Moscow  listen? ( Russian/Cyrillic: Москва́, pronunciation: Moskva), capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 1097. ... 1903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasnt had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Although today the word art usually refers to the visual arts, the concept of what art is has continuously changed over centuries. ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ...

During World War I and the Russian Civil War he served in the army. Subsequently he returned to his hometown to become a stage designer, helping to present plays glorifying the Revolution and the Soviet government. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The Russian Civil War was fought between 1918 and 1920. ...

Roses for Stalin (1949)

In 1925 Gerasimov returned to Moscow and set up a studio, combining techniques of academic realism with an Impressionistic light touch. He favored a style known as heroic realism, which featured images of Revolutionary leaders such as Lenin as larger-than-life heroes. However, as Stalin tightened his grip on the country, Gerasimov's work descended into pompous official portraits, such as "Stalin and Voroshilov at the Kremlin Wall," for which he won a Stalin Prize in 1934. He produced a large number of heroic portraits of Kliment Voroshilov, to the point that Nikita Khrushchev would later accuse Voroshilov of having spent most of his time in Gerasimov's studio, to the detriment of his responsibilities as People's Commissar of Defense. B. E. Vladimirskij: Roses for Stalin. 1949. ... B. E. Vladimirskij: Roses for Stalin. 1949. ... Events January-May January 3 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy. ... Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин  listen?), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) ( April 22 (April 10 ( O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the founder of the ideology of Leninism. ... 1934 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (Климе́нт Ефре́мович Вороши́лов) (January 23, 1881 - December 2, 1969) was a Soviet military commander and politician. ... Nikita Khrushchev in 1962 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (Russian: Ники́та Серге́евич Хрущёв) (nih-KEE-tah khroo-SHCHYOFF) (April 17, 1894 – September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. ...

His heavy-handed leadership of the Union of Artists of the USSR and the Soviet Academy of Art were notorious, and he was at the forefront of the attacks against cosmopolitanism and formalism during the Zhdanovshchina. Cosmopolitanism is the quality or state of being sophisticated and having wide international experience. ... The word formalism has several meanings: A certain school in the philosophy of mathematics, stressing axiomatic proofs through theorems specifically associated with David Hilbert. ... The Zhdanov decree was issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on 10 February 1948. ...

Although his excessively fawning portraits of Soviet leaders and his political activities against artists who would not toe his line have gained him a reputation as a political hack, Gerasimov did not entirely lose touch with his genuine artistic abilities. Even at the end of his career, he continued to follow a moody, almost Impressionistic treatment of landscapes, curiously at odds with the stridency of his official portriature. Hack has a number of meanings, some related: Hack is a slang term in technology culture which has a number of meanings depending on context, including a joke, a progamming exploit, or a commercial software breakin. ...

Gerasimov died in Moscow on July 23, 1963.