Axes in Art

There is always more to petroglyphs than simply art for arts sake. Not sure how to articulate it? A vision or religious significance perhaps..
 
Another huge painting (5 1/2 yards X 2 1/4) with an axe & a few old tools-

NMU7FZb.jpg

1937 Vasily Yakovlev, oil on canvas.

v4dUCWO.jpg


IQwDgrp.jpg


Proper countryman spade handle!
RMEx6Jd.jpg


A bit off topic but I thought this was interesting, titled "Heated basin & log conveyors" from 1932 by Boris Tsvetcov, small oil on canvas.

Ve62EzU.jpg


Sorry for the poor phone pics.........
 
phantomknives said:
i need to get a print of that last one and find a place to hang it
Click to expand...

Yes, I thought the same as I really like it yet I can't find an image of it online, other work of the painter comes up if spelt Boris Tzvetcov.
In real life it's a more sensible 3' X 2', that first painting is huge!

I wonder how they heated the pool? Some kind of wood burning boiler I guess, I also guessed it was to thaw out the trunks that had frozen while being moved in semi-freezing rivers before processing? Or are trunks being delivered by by sled & thrown in the pool to heat them, if so, why?
 
Thanks Steve, well done :thumbsup:.

I forgot to try an image search ;)

The other painting does look like the same or similar scene. Hard to believe that cordoned off area is heated, but I suppose anything is possible in those conditions.
 
Last edited:
Wow! For a whole bunch of reasons. That a talented and trained artist would spend time to picture this, and that the poor fellow didn't make it to age '50' is one
I'mSoSharp said:
Yes, I thought the same as I really like it yet I can't find an image of it online, other work of the painter comes up if spelt Boris Tzvetcov.
In real life it's a more sensible 3' X 2', that first painting is huge!

I wonder how they heated the pool? Some kind of wood burning boiler I guess, I also guessed it was to thaw out the trunks that had frozen while being moved in semi-freezing rivers before processing? Or are trunks being delivered by by sled & thrown in the pool to heat them, if so, why?
Click to expand...
Never attribute efficiency, economy nor genius to Soviet socialist projects. Same goes for the vast majority of Western gov't-initiated programs. Lowering or dropping oven-heated iron 'heat-sinks' into the bay at temperature-determined intervals would be plenty enough to keep ice off a small surface area. What industry and cottage owners have successfully been doing around here over the past 50 years (central Canada) is using 'air bubblers' to keep 'ice formation/action' from acting upon valuable boats, rafts, docks and piers.
 
300Six said:
Never attribute efficiency, economy nor genius to Soviet socialist projects
Click to expand...

I could not agree more.

I'mSoSharp thanks,i know you're probably simply unaware of the background on this art,but most of it is fairly nasty.
That first painting depicts a supposedly voluntary and cheerful signing up for joining into a Collective Farm.In actuality a forced process resulting in death by hunger and repressions of hundreds of thousands of peasants,and destruction of the agriculture on an unimaginably massive scale.


But strictly technically speaking:

(from https://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/rusles/pesocki/text.pdf p.129)

"...To prevent the water in the mill pool freezing the water may be heated by newly generated or exhausted steam from steam engines,or the used condensate,or some other means of heating.Special devices to circulate the water may be used.Some utilise the principle of mixing of the water layers,thus ensuring that water in the entire mill pool remains thawed."

It was done to continue operations during the colder times of year.
Especially since the skidding of timber is best done during those times.
(and yes,they're being dumped into the water after the teams haul it to the mill).
 
Thanks 300Six & Jake for your replies, that explains a lot.

Jake, with the greatest of respect, it is excellent art work & that is what we should discuss here, axes in art.
(I'm not ignorant of it's background but I don't think this is the place to get into that, nor do I want to, I'm pretty sure we would agree anyway ;-)
 
Last edited:
I'mSoSharp said:
Thanks 300Six & Jake for your replies, that explains a lot.

Jake, with the greatest of respect, it is excellent art work & that is what we should discuss here, axes in art.
(I'm not ignorant of it's background but I don't think this is the place to get into that, nor do I want to, I'm pretty sure we would agree anyway ;-)
Click to expand...
Even though I have known about collectivization in Soviet Union I did not connect it to this art. J jake pogg thank you for reminding me about background and also for pointing out socialist/communist propaganda aspect of that painting.
 
Last edited:
crbnSteeladdict said:
Even though I have known about collectivization in Soviet Union I did not connect it to this art. J jake pogg thank you for reminding me about background and also for pointing out socialist/communist propaganda aspect of that painting.
Click to expand...

My grandfather on the paternal side was a blacksmith. One morning, he found a note on his shop that going forward, he is going to work under a new employer, the Communist State, and his pay is going to be amount X.

That's when he put his hammer down and took up a job with at the railroads. He did not suffer the idea that his work, tools etc. were going to belong to someone else, and him becoming a simple "user" of his property.

With the land, I can only imagine how having it confiscated and then forced to work it for the benefit of "the State, Party and People" felt. This happened to my grandmother's (maternal side), when she was a teenager. I guess, she had to be thankful she hasn't been declared "an enemy of the State", thrown in jail or worse, as she was wealthy, of Hungarian nobility. This was happening in Transylvania.

Having seen what communism actually means, I get pissed off to no end when I see people throwing words around, having never lived true adversity *under totalitarian regimes* (pray you never get to know what "commies", or "nazis", are). "Don't devalue words, don't strip them of their meaning.", is what I always tell - even to youngsters that haven't been around to live and remember those times.

*

So yep - it is a very touchy subject, but it's worse to forget history. I, for one, *in this context*, value art for being art, even if it was propaganda. Pretty much, back then, if you wanted to be an artist, you had a quota of such works, the others had to pass censorship; you, again pretty much, had to sell your soul to the devil. Some did it happier than others.

So, keep the discussion going - don't worry, you won't hurt anyone's feelings - at least mine :).

(If anyone is interested in how the State (in this case, Romania) was dealing with its enemies, I recommend this reading: https://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/communism/communist-senate-hearing-wurmbrand.htm . It is the testimony of a priest that refused to be a "collaborator" and paid dearly - if Christianity in general triggers you, I suggest you skip this.)

One last comment: by no means, as a hater of Communism, I am making them to be worse than devil itself. It wouldn't be fair. Not everything they did was...evil. While they couldn't care less if I were starving - it didn't happen, but I'm quite sure my parents did a few times, so that me, sister (brother was born after Communism was - in theory at least - history) didn't, the education I received (minus the brainwashing) was performance-oriented, and I, to this day, reap its benefits. Some things were done right.)
 
Last edited:
1. In that Norman Rockwell paining, looks like a knife hanging off of Abe's suspenders?

2. Had a friend who escaped from Bulgaria, and joined the U.S. Army and came into Special Forces. I was giving him a ride home one day and he told me that when he was a kid in Bulgaria, his ambition was to RIDE in a car, not own one, just ride in one. Then he said "Now I own two cars and people try to tell me Communism is good?" John
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top