“Group portrait of the UZTM blacksmith team” by the Ural artist Misha Brusilovsky: an underestimated masterpiece

Abstract

In the work of the Ural artist Misha Shayevich Brusilovsky (1931–2016), well represented in scientific discourse, there is a painting undeservedly bypassed by art historians and art criticism. This is the “Group portrait of the UZTM blacksmith team” (1977; UZTM — Ural Heavy Machinery Plant). The authors describe the experience of updating tables for exposition, educational, fundraising (project) purposes and demand their achievements. A contradiction is fixed — the painting by the venerable author, apparently, is more actively studied and exhibited, but these processes are hampered by the state of the painting (expert assessment as pre-accident) and ownership rights (corporate museum). Here, historical-descriptive and monographic methods are used, when using the results of a historical and sociological study of the viewer's experience of impressions with a painting at the Night of Museums in 2018. The history of the return of paintings to the museum environment was published for the first time, as well as the photograph from the workshop of M. Brusilovsky, where paintings are posed (foreman A. Kordukov, blacksmiths B. Shulepov, K. Le, A. Moskvin, V. Venchinov, I. Bersenev, V. Erer), the methodology for updating the heritage of “industrial art” of the Soviet period of manifestation is described, namely, such stages as collection of special identified memories, a project of students of art schools, participatory design of products with the involvement of university students, in the media, fundraising. Fundraising in the objects of restoration of paintings and its exposure to the general public can be based on various arguments — attention and interest in the time of creation of the canvas as an example of “industrial painting” of the Soviet period, increasing the motivation of the copyright holder (big business), etc. At the moment, restoration work of the painting continues.