In 2016, a new generation of Yekaterinburg artists — Yelizaveta Netreba and Ruslan Sarzhanov — united both in their personal and professional lives, launched the collaborative series “Man of Labor”. The paintings in this series honor individuals working in Russia’s manufacturing sector, reviving a once-dominant theme in Soviet visual culture with contemporary resonance.
During the Soviet era, the industrial theme was central to artistic expression. In the 1930s, as the country underwent rapid industrialization, painters produced large-scale canvases depicting factories, assembly lines, and the daily lives of workers. By mid-century, this tradition evolved into organized creative trips — systematic expeditions in which groups of artists, including students from art academies and established masters, visited factories to sketch directly in workshops.
In 2019, management at VIZ-Steel, one of Russia’s leading metallurgical enterprises, invited faculty and students from the Ural State University of Architecture and Art to revive this legacy. The plant’s museum collection preserves numerous works from the Soviet period that celebrated the dignity of the worker. For the new initiative, titled “Made of Steel”, the focus shifted to the 21st-century workforce. Over three months, participants lived and worked on-site, creating more than twenty easel paintings and a series of engravings directly within the factory’s workshops and production zones. Artists were given full creative autonomy — they chose their subjects, compositions, and narratives.
Like his peers, Ruslan Zhumabayevich Sarzhanov immersed himself in the environment: he observed workers, engaged in conversations, studied machinery, and absorbed the atmosphere of the plant. His contributions to the project include several powerful portraits of laborers. In 2021, he returned to this subject and painted a compelling canvas that captures the modern metallurgical work — “Rolling Mill Operator. VIZ-Steel”.
VIZ-Steel is Russia’s largest producer of transformer (anisotropic) electrical steel — a critical material used in power transformers and electric motors. Founded in 1998 on the historic grounds of the Verkh-Isetsky Plant, one of the oldest ferrous metallurgy enterprises in Russia, the company traces its origins to 1726, when a forge was established on the shore of Verkhneye Isetskoye Pond, two versts from the newly founded city of Yekaterinburg. Named after Tsarevna Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great and Empress Catherine I, the site gradually grew into a thriving industrial settlement.
By the early 20th century, roofing iron had become the plant’s primary product. During the Great Patriotic War, it played a vital role in the Soviet defense industry, producing over 100 grades of specialized steels, as well as grenades, artillery shells, and aerial bombs. In recognition of its exceptional contribution, the enterprise was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor on May 18, 1942.
