The Chernyakhovsky Bridge

Series Vilnius, IX, 1957.

Only one picture in the series, The Chernyakhovsky Bridge, is not of the Old Town, but of the new Soviet city. After the Second World War, the Green Bridge over the River Neris, the city’s oldest bridge, was renamed after General Ivan Chernyakhovsky, who had taken Vilnius from the Germans, and therefore became an important landmark in Vilnius. In 1952, four groups of bronze figures, representing Soviet heroes, were put up to decorate the bridge. The sculptors Bernardas Bučas and Pet ras Vaivada made the composition ‘Agriculture’, depicting a labourer and a female kolkhoz worker with a sheaf of rye. Rozin included this sculpture in his linocut. It shows passers-by hurrying past at the foot of the Soviet colossus, a couple on the bridge looking at the river, the new constructions on the riverbank, and the House of Scientists, a masterpiece of Stalinist architecture, in the distance. The artist represented the view sensitively, with the evening sky and reflections on the surface of the water. Stylistically, it is a good example of Socialist Realism, except that in Rozin’s linocut the city’s new face does not exude optimism.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA II (2015). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: “Vilnius. Topophilia. Views of Vilnius from the collection of the law firm Ellex Valiunas”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (curator Laima Laučkaitė). ‘Vilnius Forever. A Dialogue of Artworks and Guides to the City’, 25 May 2022 – 30 April 2023 Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curator Laima Laučkaitė.

Series Vilnius, IX, 1957.

Only one picture in the series, The Chernyakhovsky Bridge, is not of the Old Town, but of the new Soviet city. After the Second World War, the Green Bridge over the River Neris, the city’s oldest bridge, was renamed after General Ivan Chernyakhovsky, who had taken Vilnius from the Germans, and therefore became an important landmark in Vilnius. In 1952, four groups of bronze figures, representing Soviet heroes, were put up to decorate the bridge. The sculptors Bernardas Bučas and Pet ras Vaivada made the composition ‘Agriculture’, depicting a labourer and a female kolkhoz worker with a sheaf of rye. Rozin included this sculpture in his linocut. It shows passers-by hurrying past at the foot of the Soviet colossus, a couple on the bridge looking at the river, the new constructions on the riverbank, and the House of Scientists, a masterpiece of Stalinist architecture, in the distance. The artist represented the view sensitively, with the evening sky and reflections on the surface of the water. Stylistically, it is a good example of Socialist Realism, except that in Rozin’s linocut the city’s new face does not exude optimism.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA II (2015). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: “Vilnius. Topophilia. Views of Vilnius from the collection of the law firm Ellex Valiunas”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (curator Laima Laučkaitė). ‘Vilnius Forever. A Dialogue of Artworks and Guides to the City’, 25 May 2022 – 30 April 2023 Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curator Laima Laučkaitė.