Volgograd residents will see paintings from the Stalingrad Art Gallery recreated by a neural network

The interactive exhibition “Revived Collection” opened at the Museum of Fine Arts. I. I. Mashkova.

Rising from the Ashes

In the late 1930s – early 1940s. The Stalingrad Art Gallery, located in the building of the Lutheran Church on Spasskaya Street, was a real center of cultural education. Its collections included more than 330 works by Surikov, Shishkin, Repin, Ivanov and other famous authors. One of the first directors of the gallery was an art school graduate, Alexander Borisovich Ivliev, who went to the front in 1941. During fierce fighting, the building on Spasskaya was at the very epicenter of the bombing. The fate of the paintings still remains unknown. According to eyewitnesses, in 1942 they tried to save the collection, but it was not possible to remove it from the burning city. The paintings were lost; only black and white photographs of some of them were preserved in the archive. The Kandinsky neural network analyzed these photographs, hundreds of works by the authors and recreated the images of the paintings, returning the author’s style, manner and technique of writing. The project was implemented by the Mashkov Museum together with Sberbank, with the support of the administration of the Volgograd region.

“The exhibition of the revived collection is a vivid example of the new capabilities of artificial intelligence in the field of fine arts, which allows not only to create works of art, but also to resurrect lost paintings,” noted First Deputy Governor of the Volgograd Region – Chairman of the Finance Committee Alexander Dorzhdeev. – This project not only fulfills an important educational mission, helps to learn more about our culture and history, but also allows us to get closer to technologies that are already radically changing our present and future, changing our opportunities for development and learning new things.

Visitors to the exhibition will see in augmented reality format the lost paintings of the Stalingrad Art Gallery: “The Old Man” by Abram Arkhipov, “The Rape of Europa” by Dessart, “The Sick Woman” by Sergei Ivanov, “The Herd” by Vladimir Makovsky, “Portrait of Zvantseva” by Ilya Repin, “Cossack Oarsman” Vasily Surikova and others. You just need to scan the CUR code and you can enjoy watching.

“We haven’t had projects of this format yet,” says the director of the Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts. I. I. Mashkova Varvara Ozerina. – It is connected with history, artistic culture, and high technology. The history of the lost Stalingrad gallery aroused the interest of many researchers, many documentaries were made about it, but the mystery could not be solved. Not a single work was found either in private collections, or at auctions, or in museums in Russia and the world. Thanks to Sberbank, today we will be able to see in virtual format several works that remained in the only catalog of the Stalingrad Gallery, which was published in 1941.

Connection between generations

The history of the paintings is closely connected with the fate of the director of the gallery, the artist Alexander Ivliev, who died at the front in 1942. After more than 80 years, the collection of his institution again appeared before the eyes of viewers. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the front-line soldier came to the opening of the exhibition.

“Our grandfather is a family hero, and we have a large family – 8 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and already 3 great-great-grandchildren,” says Alexander Ivliev’s granddaughter, Tatyana Sabitova. “There is very little information left about the gallery, we only know that my grandfather loved his work very much, my grandmother and his letters from the front told us about this. We specially came to this exhibition from other cities, this is a very exciting event for us and a great honor. We sincerely thank all the organizers of this project; there are no words to express the emotions that overwhelm us. This is a holiday for our whole family, all our relatives are in touch with us – they are also worried today, asking us to send photos and videos.

There are five artists in the large and creative family of Alexander Borisovich, and one of them is his great-grandson Vsevolod Spengler. A young man is studying at the Moscow Art Theater School to become a theater artist.

“The opening of this exhibition is a very significant event for our family and for me personally,” says Vsevolod. – I am proud of my great-grandfather, he is an example for me, a source of inspiration and creativity. He dreamed of returning from the war and continuing to write, but his dreams were not destined to come true. Here are the lines from his letter: “You will have to see and experience a lot of things. I’ll stay alive, I’ll devote myself entirely to depicting the Great Patriotic War, I’ll write a series of paintings, now I sometimes make sketches, but most of all I look and look… I really want to get to work right now and draw, draw endlessly and tirelessly…”

As a token of gratitude, the artist’s great-grandson donated one of his works to the museum – a flower bouquet painted in oil on canvas.

It should be noted that the interactive exhibition “Revived Collection” will be open to visitors from April 26 to June 23 in the exhibition hall of the Mashkov Museum.

Let us remind you that the Volgograd region is actively introducing IT technologies into various sectors of the economy and social sphere. Artificial intelligence is successfully used in the industrial complex, healthcare, education, transport, tourism and other industries. As part of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Battle of Stalingrad, the panorama museum, together with Sber, implemented a project to create an AR tour in augmented reality mode, “The History of Unconquered Stalingrad.” A series of murals “History Lessons with Kandinsky” was also created. This year, in the Volgograd region, for the first time, a financial literacy competition will be held among schoolchildren and students using artificial intelligence. As part of it, using a neural network, competitors will have to create an image on one of the current topics related to financial education.

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