Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Deyneka (Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Дейне́ка; 20 May 1899 – 12 June 1969) was a Soviet painter, graphic artist and sculptor, regarded as one of the most important Russian modernist figurative painters of the first half of the 20th century. His Collective Farmer on a Bicycle (1935) has been described as exemplifying the socialist realist style.
Deyneka was born in Kursk and studied at Kharkov Art College (apprentice of Alexander Lubimov) and at VKhUTEMAS. He was a founding member of groups such as OST and Oktyabr, and his work gained wide exposure in major exhibitions. His paintings and drawings (the earliest are often monochrome due to the shortage of art supplies) depict genre scenes as well as labour and often sports. Deyneka later began painting monumental works, such as The Defense of Petrograd in 1928, which remains his most iconic painting, and The Battle of Sevastopol in 1942, The Outskirts of Moscow. November 1941 and The Shot-Down Ace. His mosaics are a feature of Mayakovskaya metro station in Moscow. He is in the highest category "1A – a world famous artist" in "United Art Rating".
Deyneka is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
The title from one of Deyneka's works, "Work, Build and Don't Whine", was used as the title for a 2016 exhibition of Socialist Realist art at London's Gallery for Russian Arts and Design. One modern critic, however, suggested that Deyneka's posters are less radical than his fore-bearers like Alexander Rodchenko, and as a result, less interesting.
Hero of Socialist Labour (1969)
People's Painter of the USSR (1963)
Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Textile Workers Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, 1927
The Defense of Petrograd, 1928, Central Museum of the Defense Forces of the USSR, Moscow
Механизируем Донбасс! (poster), 1930
Китай на пути освобождения от империализма (poster), 1930
Надо стать самим специалистами (poster), 1930
The Interventionists' Mercenary, 1931
A Girl at the Window. Winter, 1931
Soccer Game Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, 1932
The Sleeping Boy With Cornflowers, 1932
The Night Landscape with Horses and Dry Grasses, 1933
Communists at Interrogation, 1933