Tomsky N.V., (1900-1984), sculptor :: ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SAINT PETERSBURG

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Tomsky N.V., (1900-1984), sculptor

TOMSKY Nikolay Vasilievich (1900-1984), sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1960), member (1949) and President (1968-83) of Academy of Arts of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labour (1970). Studied at the Leningrad Art and Industrial Institute (1923-27) under V.V. Lishev. In 1923-42 he lived in Leningrad, where he created monuments to S.M. Kirov (1938, Kirovskaya Square; architect N.A. Trotsky), to V.I. Lenin (1949, in the niche of the major facade of the Varshavsky Railway Station), to I.V. Stalin (1949, in a public garden near the Baltiisky Railway Station, at Obukhovskoy Oborony Avenue and at Srednaya Rogatka in the region of present-day Pobedy (Victory)Square; all of them were demounted in the late 1950s - the early 1960s), to K. Marx (1975, Marx Garden) and to A.N. Kosygin (1977, Moscow Pobedy Park). He also created the frieze Defence, Labour and Rest for the building of the House of Soviets at Moskovsky Avenue (1941). He sculpted many portraits (I.D. Chernyakhovsky, marble (1947) and D. Rivera, bronze (1956-57), both in the State Tretyakov Gallery; I.N. Kozhedub (bronze, 1948), at the State Russian Museum), as well as several monuments and monumental bas-reliefs in Moscow and other cities. Tomsky's works are classic samples of the Socialist Realism aesthetic. He moved to Moscow in 1942, and taught at the Moscow Surikov Art Institute from 1948, taking rectorship in 1964-70. In 1960-68 he led the sculpture workshop at the Academy of Arts in Leningrad. He was awarded the Stalin Prize (1941, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952), the State Prize of the USSR (1979), and the Lenin Prize (1972).

Works: In Bronze and Granite. Moscow, 1977.

Reference: Минина В. Б. Николай Томский. М., 1980.

O. L. Leikind, D.Y. Severyukhin.