They stood in desolate landscapes and warned of future war, a message that increased in desperation with each work. She populated her paintings in this era with archetypal female figures, oversized and posed as symbols of recurring suffering. Forner made use of the surreal styles popularized in Paris at the time by artists such as Salvador Dali, melting the physics of reality to match the destructive violence she saw around her. The paintings that poured from Forner in the subsequent years were fittingly shadowed and brooding.
This work from 1988 depicts the planned laser probing of the Martian moon Phobos by a Soviet Phobos spacecraft.Raquel Forner, Icaru, 1944, oil on canvas.
Sokolov was known to collaborate with others including Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov (1934-2019) who was an accomplished space artist in his how right. “Phobos” Probes Phobos (with Alexei Leonov) Here is a view of NASA’s Voyager 1 during its flyby of the Jovian moon Io showing the volcanic plumes discovered by this mission (see “ First Pictures: Voyager 1 Images Io’s Volcanic Plumes – March 8, 1979”). In addition to portraying events in the Soviet space program, Sokolov painted those the US as well. This is a depiction of the separation of the modules on a 7K-T spacecraft used to ferry crews to the Soyuz prior to the spacecraft’s reentry. The painting was returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 30 on Jby the crew of Pyotr Klimuk and Miroslaw Giermaszewski of Poland after spending 124 days in orbit spanning two long-duration Salyut missions. It arrived at the Salyut 6 space station on Maaboard Soyuz 28 flown by Soviet cosmonaut Aleksey Gubarev and Vladimir Remek of Czechoslovakia as part of the first Interkosmos mission. This painting by Sokolov showing the Soviet Salyut 6 space station in orbit has the distinction of being the first artwork flown in space. Here is a depiction of an advanced 4V Venera lander on the surface of Venus like those in October 1975 as part of the Venera 9 and 10 mission (see “ Venera 9 and 10 to Venus”). Here is Sokolov’s depiction of that historical event on July 17, 1975. While most American space history buffs are familiar with Robert McCall’s (1919-2010) painting of the docking of Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft for the ASTP (known as the Soyuz-Apollo Test Project in the Soviet Union), other space artists have portrayed this scene as well. This painting shows that Soviet Mars lander during its parachute descent to the surface of the Red Planet. I recall reading some time ago that this depicts the liftoff of Soyuz 9 on June 1, 1970.ĭuring the early 1970s, the Soviet Union launched pairs of landers to Mars in 19 hoping to beat the upcoming Viking missions. This is the night launch of a Soyuz from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Sokolov depicts the separation of the first Sputnik from the core of its 8K71PS launch vehicle following its successful launch on Octo(see “ Sputnik: Launch of the Space Age”). Here is a view of an early R-7 rocket (used by the USSR as its first ICBM and its first satellite launch vehicle) after the engines of its Blok A core have shutdown. Presented here is a sample of these paintings from the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to painting scenes of the future of space exploration (see “ Soviet Space Art: The Space Fantasy of Andrei Sokolov”), Sokolov is also well known for his accurate depictions of historical events from the Soviet space program. Among the postcards and books were a lot of artwork from the famous Russian space artist, Andrei Sokolov (1931-2007).
Three decades ago, I was fortunate enough to get some collections of reproductions of Soviet space art from a friend of mine living in Lithuania (then part of the USSR), which I rediscovered while searching through my archives during my COVID-19 isolation. In addition to providing a different perspective of the vision of space exploration, these paintings frequently provide depictions of events of the Soviet space program that do not exist in the photographic record of these flights. For almost as long as I have had a serious interest in the Soviet space program, I have enjoyed Soviet space art.