Valentin Galochkin - Artistic Style

Artistic Style

His early works, including the graduation work "Steel smelter" (1956) follow the standards of soviet realism set up by Vera Mukhina, Ivan Shadr, Sergey Merkurov.

The first significant work "Hiroshima" (1957) which made Galochkin well known in the USSR is devoted to the victims of atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II. "Hiroshima" expresses the sculptor's protest against nuclear weapons, a call for humanness.

• "Steel-smelter", 1956

• "Hiroshima", 1957

• "V. I. Lenin", 1960

From 1957 till 1991 Galochkin produced dozens of state-ordered parade monuments and busts to Vladimir Lenin and other soviet leaders. However the sculptor never treated these works as art. Already as a young artist he became disillusioned with the principles of soviet realism. He studied European and American art, especially Henry Moore, Ossip Zadkine, Amedeo Modigliani.

A series of monuments by Galochkin is devoted to World War II. His view of war is however very far from the one of the soviet propaganda. Having survived the war as a child, he portrays the suffering of common people instead of youthfully marching soldiers or triumphant military leaders.

His work "Leaving for the front" 1957, carved from one piece of wood, shows the last passionate kiss of a soldier leaving his wife. In memorial "Victim" 1964 a shape of a human appears as a breach in solid stone, as if formed by an exploding shell. The disappeared human being has left a trace, a silhouette in the air. The memorial to the victims of Babi Yar (working title "Violence") 1964 - a pregnant woman, cut in half is a terrible symbol for the mass executions of Jews. Monument "Widows" 1975 depicts an old and a young woman (mother and wife) eternally holding the soldier's helmet. In the work "Gate of sorrow" 1976 two "women are mourning over a heavy loss, like atlantes". "Memorial to the burnt village" 1979 - a girl standing in the flame.

• "Leaving for the front", 1957

• "Victim", 1964

• "Babi Yar", 1964

• "Widows", 1975

• "Gate of sorrow", 1976

• "Memorial to the burnt village", 1976

A common theme of Galochkin's indoor sculpture is the figure of a woman and female torso. Unfortunately most of his studies and works depicting the female body in a realistic manner did not survive to the present day. His presentation of the nude body gradually changed from a realistic to more and more a symbolic one. In works "Queen" 1965, "River" 1970, "Cellist" 1975 the figure of a women is stylized, converted into a play of silhouettes, volumes, and "shapes of air". Valentin Galochkin develops his own concept of sculpture as a multitude of silhouettes, which are built by the air surrounding the sculpture. From different angles of view the same sculpture makes a different silhouette.

• "Mermaid", 1975

• Study ("Slavery"), 1965

• Study ("Spring"), 1975

• "Queen", 1965

• "River", 1970

• "Cellist", 1975

A special place in Galochkin's works belongs to the geometrical form of ellipse in which he sees the basis of composition and "the drive to harmony". His "Torsos" of 1969 and 1975 convert female torsos into ellipse-reminding, strained and balanced shapes.

• "Bounded torso", 1969

• "Torso", 1975

• "Torsos", 1975