At the Blast Furnace
1930
Oil on canvas, 112х63
Kyiv
A unique artistic manner, in which At the Blast Furnace is rendered, distinguishes it from other famous landscapes and still lifes of Lev Kramarenko. The artist’s style was largely influenced by his French counterparts, including post-impressionists. Created one year before Kramarenko moved to Moscow in 1931, the painting introduces us to his monumentalist technique. The composition is stylistically similar to other iconic works from his Moscovian period, for which labour was the key theme. However, it is difficult to put At the Blast Furnace on par with them. There is much more freedom of expression here. Kramarenko refused to merely portray workers in a naturalistic manner. Instead, he decided to preserve the artistic originality of the artwork. This is evident in the complete dominance of the colour theme, conventionality and generalisation of shape (flatness of composition, figures lacking individualistic features) as well as in the stylization of the labour motif. The latter is enhanced by the rhythm of the painting - expressive, yet unusually soft for the industrial theme.
Olha Shcherbyna, Lead Researcher at the Art Museum of Dnipropetrovsk.
From the collection of the Art Museum of Dnipropetrovsk.
