In 1979, the creative union of brothers Alexander and Vladimir Shadrin received early recognition for the painting “Brigade of L. P. Balakhonova”. This work was displayed at several exhibitions, and was mentioned on central television in the program “Time” and in print — in the newspaper “The Soviet Russia”. Together with the painting “Spring”, this canvas was awarded a diploma of the Artists’ Union of the RSFSR. The characteristic features of the artists’ further work crystallized in the “Brigade of L.P. Balakhonova”. We can see here the moral pathos of a person’s civil and personal mission, and the realistic persuasive characters, and a sober analysis of the environment with an unchanging lyrical intonation.
The “Brigade of L. P. Balakhonova” is a group portrait painted as a plot picture. The canvas depicts the team of painters of Building Management Office No. 4 of the Saransk Construction Plant. They were quite famous in Mordovia. The canvas still retains certain principles of painting of the 1960s: this is expressed in the special parable-like presence of the heroines, in the majestic flow of time, in the “planetarity” of space.
The overall composition is circular. There is a group of girls in the foreground, and in the second plane — a spiral of car tracks on a snow-covered field. These repeating circles are emphasized by the hemisphere of the high horizon line, pieces of equipment and working people. It seems that the painters stand on the edge of the world and solve the problems of the universe in a businesslike way.
In the center of the group is the brigadier Lydia Petrovna Balakhonova, who energetically and vigorously explains the task for the current day to the young women. The eyes of all the participants are focused on her, and only one girl in the center behind Balakhonova looks directly at the viewer. This closes the circle outlined by their gazes.
This technique allows to involve the viewer in the action unfolding on the canvas. This sense of involvement is also emphasized by Vladimir Shadrin’s self-portrait: he poses as a driver on the left side of the truck in the background. The artists create an image of the festiveness of everyday work, showing the natural strength and beauty of painters and builders.
The canvas “Brigade of L. P. Balakhonova” is reminiscent of a fresco painting. It recreates an atmosphere of harmony and clarity of relations between people, and asserts a certain ethical ideal of modernity. Everything is harmonious and everything is poetically transformed by the artists in the figurative composition of the painting.
The “Brigade of L. P. Balakhonova” is a group portrait painted as a plot picture. The canvas depicts the team of painters of Building Management Office No. 4 of the Saransk Construction Plant. They were quite famous in Mordovia. The canvas still retains certain principles of painting of the 1960s: this is expressed in the special parable-like presence of the heroines, in the majestic flow of time, in the “planetarity” of space.
The overall composition is circular. There is a group of girls in the foreground, and in the second plane — a spiral of car tracks on a snow-covered field. These repeating circles are emphasized by the hemisphere of the high horizon line, pieces of equipment and working people. It seems that the painters stand on the edge of the world and solve the problems of the universe in a businesslike way.
In the center of the group is the brigadier Lydia Petrovna Balakhonova, who energetically and vigorously explains the task for the current day to the young women. The eyes of all the participants are focused on her, and only one girl in the center behind Balakhonova looks directly at the viewer. This closes the circle outlined by their gazes.
This technique allows to involve the viewer in the action unfolding on the canvas. This sense of involvement is also emphasized by Vladimir Shadrin’s self-portrait: he poses as a driver on the left side of the truck in the background. The artists create an image of the festiveness of everyday work, showing the natural strength and beauty of painters and builders.
The canvas “Brigade of L. P. Balakhonova” is reminiscent of a fresco painting. It recreates an atmosphere of harmony and clarity of relations between people, and asserts a certain ethical ideal of modernity. Everything is harmonious and everything is poetically transformed by the artists in the figurative composition of the painting.
