Classical approach: How sculptures of VDNKh’s Soviet Culture Pavilion are restored

VDNKh’s Soviet Culture Pavilion (former Uzbek SSR Pavilion), a cultural heritage site of federal significance, is being restored. Specialists are restoring the historical appearance of the building with pinpoint accuracy, returning the original appearance, which it had at the time of its opening almost 70 years ago. Thanks to field studies and archival photographs, they managed to restore the central element of the pavilion — the snow-white rotunda. The main façade will be decorated with two monumental sculptures soon.

The first Uzbekistan pavilion opened at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in 1939. It was a wooden building with bronze plaster figures wearing national clothes at the entrance. During the war, both the pavilion and the figures fell into disrepair; they were completely rebuilt in 1954.

Based on the project of architect Stefan Polupanov, a monumental building was erected with a rotunda on the main façade and two new concrete sculptures that welcomed visitors: Karakul Shepherd and Cotton Picker. These figures, created by Zinaida Snigir, were lost in the 1960 s. Today, a team of sculptors led by Vladimir Trulov is restoring them.

Restoration steps

High ceilings, a few tools and lots of clay. This is how the workshop near the Voykovskaya metro station looks like, where the lost sculptures of the pavilion are being restored. Restoration is not the most difficult task for a professional. It is more difficult when you have to do it almost blindly.

“Initially, we had several photographs of each monument. They are all front and side, of poor quality, date from the 1950 s. Many details were unclear. For example, for a long time we could not determine what is shown in the photo: the leg of an animal or the fold of a robe. In the course of work, new images were found, based on which some details were clarified,” says Vladimir Trulov, leader of the group of sculptors.

According to him, the recovery technique includes several stages. Two clay models were made on a scale of one to five. After they were approved by the selection committee, we proceeded to the next stage of work. Then the welders, under the close supervision of the sculptors, made a metal frame for full-scale sculptures.

“Our work is a product of collective creativity. Even when the sculptures were in clay, we paid attention to a slightly different arrangement of the hand of the female figure since another archival photograph was discovered, without taking into account which the model was made,” recalls Vladimir Trulov.

According to the sculptors, the most important task was to choose the most correct arrangement, which would be identical as much as possible to all the photographs taken from different angles.

“Our curators turned out to be biased in a good way. There were various disputes. For example, we believed that the man’s leg should be turned in a certain way, they disagreed with us. In the course of work, the true arrangement of the element was revealed. We often had to sculpt the same thing several times. Specialists do not do this in creative work, but this is a common practice for restoration,” notes Vladimir Trulov.

Finding a form

The team involved in the restoration of figures is small, only three people. The sculptors started sculpting in October, and since then they have been doing just that, because the work is completely manual.

“First, we fill the frame with clay, we do it with a mallet so that the material sits tightly. The main thing is to find a form according to the human anatomy. We are not making a snowman, we have to form a certain basis, the correct turns of the body, the length of the arms, and so on. You always start from the general to the particular, the details are worked out at the end,” explains Dmitry Salychev, who sculpted the sculpture of the woman.

According to his colleague Andrey Golubev, from a technical point of view, there was nothing new here for the sculptor: the frame was welded, the clay was filled, and then the molding process itself takes place. “It is fundamentally different: we restore figures from old blurry photographs. Sculpturing can be compared with the work of an explorer. I took a photo and explore each angle for a long time, then I made some conclusions. This exploratory work has become a completely new challenge for me,” says the sculptor.

One sculpture represents a man with lambs and a karakul sheep. The other is a woman with a book and cotton, symbolizing the full life cycle of a plant: an ovary, a flower and a dry pod.

Information about the prototypes of the sculptures could not be found in the archives. However, we know that they are heroes of Socialist Labor. Each has the Soviet medal For Distinguished Labor on their chest.

To show facial features as authentically as possible, the sculptors looked through a great number of photographs of the inhabitants of the republic, studied national skullcaps and robes and consulted experts.

“Sculptor Zinaida Snigir also participated in the design of the Rabbit Breeding Pavilion, where visitors are greeted by concrete figures of rabbit breeders at the entrance. We also visited it to study her artistic techniques. It was important for us not to succumb to modern trends and excessive naturalism. Our sculptures feature certain moderation that gives monumentality. We use completely classical technology: first a sketch, then a layout, then a frame and so on. This is what sculptors did before the revolution, this is what Snigir did, and this is what we do,” says Vladimir Trulov.

Now there are soft models in the workshop. Made from domestic Pulkovo clay, they need to be moistened every couple of days to prevent cracks leading to destruction. The sculptors moisten the clay figures: this is an integral part of their work, along with modeling.

Soon they will remove the mold from the figures and make a cast of plaster. Plaster sculptures can be improved and, if necessary, get a smooth or textured surface, as similar as possible to the historical one. After that, a silicone mold will be removed from the plaster model, into which concrete will be poured and left to harden. Then, the figures will be finally improved and installed.

The sculptures will be installed next to the restored fountain cascade of the Uzbekistan Pavilion, where a concrete pedestal has already been prepared for them. The pavilion will house an exhibition, culture and exposition center of Uzbekistan.