Mikhail Pyaskovsky (1925—2012) graduated from the Department of Fine Arts of the National State Institute of Cinematography. In 1953, he came to Kaliningrad according to graduates’ placement program. Here, he became a prominent activist of the local branch of the Union of Artists and a scene-designer — in 1950-s, mounted stage plays for Kaliningrad Drama Theatre. Marine theme was his favorite in painting; he dedicated many pieces to the waves. To get to know this life better, Pyaskovsky went on business trips to the Atlantic; he lived together with the fishermen and made sketches from life. Reserved Baltic nature, fishery and life in the port became the main theme of the artist’s work.

Pyaskovsky painted genre pieces, portraits, landscapes and still life. He preferred the motives traditional for Russian realistic painting. In 1970-s he travelled abroad and visited Finland, Germany and Poland. He brought back many sketches for future paintings. The pieces created by Pyaskovsky are full of lyrics and love towards nature.

The collection of Kaliningrad Regional Museum of Fine Arts holds quite a few pieces by Pyaskovsky. One of the most interesting paintings is called Under Repairs. It is one of the symbols of the region famous for its dockyards and ship-building enterprises. The artist created this piece in the late 1970-s. In those days, industrial aesthetics was extremely popular — artistic groups were established at various plants across the country, the artists strived to comprehend the role of technical progress in the modern world.

In this piece, Pyaskovsky painted a marine landscape with the silhouettes of the dock cranes in the background. As for the style, it belongs to lyrical industrial landscape. The artist demonstrates the beauty and the might of the ship — due to the low angle it looks as if hanging over the city like a gigantic building or monument.

Pyaskovsky strived to share his impressions from nature with his audience. Contrary to many contemporary artists, he interpreted the industrial theme not rationally, but emotionally. The composition of the painting is based on the contrast between the world of humans (taking a very small part of the painting) and the world of machinery.