Vera Mukhina - Work

Work

Mukhina's most celebrated work by far is the giant monument Worker and Kolkhoz Woman which was the centerpiece of the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris. It was the world's first welded sculpture. The 24-meter-tall, 75-ton monument was made of plate of stainless steel on a wooden frame, the plates connected by an innovative method of spot welding. One hand of each figure holds respectively a hammer and a sickle, the two implements joining to form the hammer and sickle symbol of the Soviet Union. In 1947 the sculpture, now on permanent display at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre, became the logo of the Russian Mosfilm studio. It was renovated and re-installed on a higher pedestal in 2009.

Muhkina's other work includes:

• 1927 Peasant Woman, freestanding bronze, now at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow
• the 1934 Fertility and 1939 Bread, both now standing in Moscow's Friendship Park
• three cornice figures on the pediment of the Winter Theater in Sochi, 1937
• the monumental group We Demand Peace, 1950-1951 (Mukhina served as coordinator of other sculptors and contributor; her figure is the mourning mother)
• the 1952 Maxim Gorky Monument in Nizhny Novgorod
• the statue of Tchaikovsky in front of the Moscow Conservatory
• the finial figure of Mir ("Peace"), with armillary sphere and dove, for the 1954 Volgograd Planetarium

• Theatrical costume design (1916)