The picture ‘Coalmine Named After V. Volodarsky’ was painted by Ivan Ivanovsky in 1932. The inspiration for it came from his creative trip to the Ural region. The coalmine named after V. Volodarsky, which previously had the name of Starokorshunovskaya Kop, was opened in the mid-19th century. It is located in a big coalfield — Kizelovsk coal basin, which was actively developed in the 1930s.

Ivan Ivanovsky and Alexander Shipitsin, who took creative trips to the town of Kizel in those years, were fascinated by the special ambiance of underground mining. They took great interest in the unpredictable and dangerous life that flowed unnoticed, hidden beneath the thickness of rock mass.

Ivan Ivanovsky decided against a naturalistic portrayal of the field development in this painting, so he created an abstract poetic tunnel, inhabited by translucent, almost elusive figures. The miners seem oblivious of time, only remotely in touch with reality. Experts noted that their silhouettes partially resemble people from early Christian communities, who buried their dead in catacombs — natural and artificial underground passages. They also used them to secretly pray and administer sacraments in safety.

The painter was among the last graduates of the Moscow Vkhutein — Higher Artistic and Technical Institute. He studied there from 1925 to 1930. Initially, the institute was called Vkhutemas, and the most prominent avant-garde painters of the 1910s taught there from its first day. Such famous artists as Vasily Kandinsky, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Ilya Mashkov, Alexander Rodchenko, and others were at different times part of the art department faculty. In 1927, the institute’s name was changed to Vkhutein, and three years later it was dissolved.

In the 1930s, Ivan Ivanovsky was still a young painter in the process of discovering his own distinct style. It would later be characterized as highly poetic and allegorical.