The exhibition of the Iskitim Museum of Arts and History features Ivan Popov’s painting “On the Stage of the Community Center”. Three women wearing traditional festive costumes sit on chairs in front of a microphone. These humble singers are getting ready for a performance or recording. The red curtain behind them limits the space and brings them closer to the front edge of the stage.

The painting was created in 1975. It is largely autobiographical. A photo of this artwork is kept in the All-Russian Shukshin Memorial Museum-Reserve. On its back, there is an inscription made by Ivan Popov,

Of course, these are also collective images of women from the countryside. Sitting in front of the microphone, these women of various ages represent the connection between generations which is based on traditional culture. At the same time, the artist painted a luminous image of his mother. Her story echoes that of hundreds of thousands of Soviet women who lost their husbands during the Great Patriotic War and struggled to find their own quiet happiness while raising an entire generation of children alone. It is unknown what song the villagers are going to sing, but it will undoubtedly be a folk song, a melodic song from the past, as the artist himself noted.