This book examines the monumental mosaics that were created in Moscow during the Soviet era.
While monumental mosaics became common in other Soviet cities and republics in the 1960s during
the age of modernism mosaics in the capital of the USSR were used for works in the art deco
style and for 'pictures' in the socialist realist style. As a result the entire history of
Soviet art is reflected in Moscow's metro stations palaces of culture military museums
hospitals schools and prefabricated houses. Many important mosaics are now disappearing
before our eyes - victims of destruction or dismantling. The majority are not listed under
state protection and the authors of many remain unknown. This book is structured
chronologically. Four sections (art deco socialist realism modernism and postmodernism) show
and describe 140 mosaics. The appendix lists 322 mosaics that have been identified in Moscow.
The guide places well-known works by Alexander Deyneka Pavel Korin Boris Chernyshev Evgeny
Ablin Yury Korolev and Leonid Polishchuk side by side with mosaics by artists whose names
were excluded from the history of art and architecture for a long time. The idea for this book
came from English photographer James Hill who spent three years seeking out and photographing
works of Soviet monumental art that have not received the attention they deserve in Russia and
have often been regarded as propaganda in the post-Soviet period.
