Background
Vera Ignatyevna Mukhina was born on June 19, 1889 in Riga, Latvia. She was born into a wealthy merchant family.
1937
Vera Mukhina; portrait by Mikhail Nesterov
(Mukhina's most celebrated work by far is the giant monume...)
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.
Vera Ignatyevna Mukhina was born on June 19, 1889 in Riga, Latvia. She was born into a wealthy merchant family.
Vera Ignatyevna later moved to Moscow, where she studied at several private art schools, including those of Konstantin Yuon and Ilya Mashkov. In 1912 she traveled to Paris, where she attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and took lessons from Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, then continued on to Italy to explore the painting and sculpture of the Renaissance period.
In 1915 and 1916, Vera Ignatyevna served as assistant to Aleksandra Ekster at Alexander Tairov's Chamber Theater in Moscow. In the 1920s Mukhina rose to become one of the Soviet Union's most prominent sculptors, and although she continued to produce Cubist sculpture as late as 1922, she became a leading figure of Socialist realism, both in style and ideology.
Vera Ignatyevna taught at the state school, Vkhutemas, in 1926-1927, and came to international attention with the 1937 Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. Her studio's work on official monuments and architectural sculpture on state commissions continued through her death. She also experimented with glass, producing glass figural busts. Seeking to enrich the artistic vocabulary of Soviet art, Mukhina often presented her theories on sculpture, experimented with new materials, and developed a technique of polychromatic sculpture. She decorated exhibitions, made industrial drawings, and designed clothes, textiles, porcelain and theatrical costumes for the Vakhtangov Theater in Moscow. In 1953 she wrote A Sculptor's Thoughts.
Mukhina died in Moscow on 6 October 1953 of angina. She is buried in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow.
In 1918 Vera Ignatyevna married Alexei Zamkov, a military surgeon.