Unofficial Art of the Second World War. Elena Marttila. Pavel Afonin. Sergey Babkov. Personal History and Memory. Kriga. 2021
***NEW PUBLICATION***
The album features over a hundred works conveying the first-hand military experience of three artists – E.O. Marttila, P.I. Afonin and S.F. Babkov. What distinguishes their pictures is their individual view – young art school graduates who found themselves in the centre of the grandiose events unfolding on the Eastern Front – a view free from official commissions and the demands of state propaganda. A special place in the publication is devoted to the sketches of the young woman artist Elena Marttila, made in besieged Leningrad, as well as autolithographs and engravings based on them in the postwar years.
The works of the sapper Pavel Afonin and the artilleryman Sergey Babkov are represented by portraits and genre scenes from the life of a soldier, mainly captured at the front and in hospitals. The artists created a gallery of vivid images of their wartime experiences and their contemporaries. Their works help to imagine and feel the depth of the trials that befell the frontline generation. More than half of the works are published for the first time.
The link to a short video presentation of the album: https://youtu.be/0bOWl15TESY