Barykin Valery Rufovich

Barykin Valeriy Rufovich (born May 2, 1966) is a Nizhny Novgorod illustrator and the originator of the "Soviet pin-up" style, in which the subjects and slogans of Soviet propaganda posters are fused with the aesthetics of mid-twentieth-century American pin-up art ^[1][2][3]. He is a graduate of the stage-design department of the Nizhny Novgorod Theatre School ^[4]. He is the creator of the collectible can series for Zhiguli Barnoye beer, issued since 2012 ^[5][6]; his works have been exhibited at the Erarta Museum in St. Petersburg and at Erarta galleries in Hong Kong and London, and his oil paintings are offered at the VLADEY auction ^[5][7][8][9].

Biography

According to the artist himself, he was born in Ivanovo ^[1]; the same city is named as his birthplace in a biography published by the Republican Museum of Fine Arts in Yoshkar-Ola and in materials from Erarta Galleries ^[2][7]. Other sources state that Barykin was born in Nizhny Novgorod ^[9]. His father was a military officer, so the family moved frequently: they lived in Germany and later settled in Dzerzhinsk, where the future artist spent his childhood and school years ^[1][10]. He served in the army ^[7].

In 1983, Barykin came to Gorky and enrolled in the Polytechnic Institute ^[1][11]. His studies there did not work out, and he enrolled in a theater school then located on Figner Street, where he trained as a props maker ^[1]. In 1994, he graduated from the theater and design department of the school (course supervisor: A. V. Tvorogova) with a specialization in theatrical props design ^[4][3]. At the school he met his first wife — an actress in the graduating class; in the early 1990s they lived in a communal apartment beyond Sennaya Square ^[1].

Barykin never worked in theater: after college he became a designer at a newspaper, then worked as a designer at a glossy magazine and in advertising ^[3][12]. His first experience with collage, by his own account, came at the newspaper: he started by cutting with scissors, then mastered Photoshop, and at Alik Yakubovich's advertising agency he made his first calendar — for a construction company ^[13]. From the mid-1990s he worked in painting, graphics, performance art, and print design, was a member of the artists' association "Gallery of Atypical Art," and participated in joint exhibitions ^[2]. The "Soviet pin-up" style was, by his own account, something he invented in the early 2000s ^[1]; by 2012 he worked exclusively in it, producing both posters and illustrations ^[3].

The artist's wife Nadezhda frequently poses for him; he himself calls her "model, heroine, and muse" ^[10][13].

Soviet Pin-Up: Concept and Method

The concept, as Barykin tells it, grew out of a longstanding interest in both Socialist Realist art and American commercial graphics: at some point he made a collage by inserting a pin-up girl cut from a work by Gil Elvgren into a Socialist poster ^[3]. The first work in the series, as he describes it, was a girl from an American poster transplanted into a Soviet-room interior he had prepared himself; it was titled "Wake Up Early in the Morning, Hurry Up and Get Ready for Work" ^[12]. The artist explained the technique this way: a beautiful woman in a social poster turns its meaning 180 degrees ^[10].

Barykин himself recounted that it all started as a joke: a cutout of an American beauty placed in a Socialist Realist poster with his own signature amused him and his friends; he then set himself more ambitious tasks and moved from collage to entirely hand-drawn works ^[14]. The term "Soviet pin-up," he said, was not his own coinage: it stuck after the works spread across the internet ^[14][13]; the VLADEY auction house, however, credits the artist himself with coining the phrase ^[15].

Later, collage gave way to original drawing. Barykин works in Photoshop on a graphics tablet and paints in oils on canvas; models first pose for him, and then the image is rendered either on a computer or on canvas ^[16][17]. His wife poses more often than anyone else; male roles are filled by acquaintances, among them a friend from his institute days, and sometimes the features of several models are combined in a single face ^[10]. He began by working exclusively in Photoshop, and only turned to oil painting when clients appeared who wanted works on canvas ^[14].

For his work, Barykин collects albums of Soviet posters and Socialist Realist painting; friends bring him period objects — Soviet ice-cream makers, siphon bottles — and for retro photo shoots he buys old hats, shirts, and trousers ^[18][14]. His compositions contain recognizable references to Soviet art — from Aleksandr Deyneka to Viktor Popkov — and to films of the 1940s–1960s ^[19]; his sources of inspiration are also said to include American illustration, Norman Rockwell among others, and Soviet film posters by N. Khomov, B. Zelenskiy, and S. Datskevich, which he had studied back in theater school ^[20].

Barykin cites as his touchstones the masters of American pin-up — Gil Elvgren, Vargas, Sorayama, Robert McGinnis ^[16] — and Soviet cinema: *The Diamond Arm*, *Kidnapping, Caucasian Style*, *Three Plus Two*, *Height* ^[21]. The backdrop of his posters is Soviet everyday life, and it is men — students, workers, drivers — who most often find themselves in awkward situations, as noted by the Glavny Prospekt gallery in Yekaterinburg ^[21]. The titles parody the language of social-awareness posters: "Respect the Work of Cleaners," "Don't Waste a Single Working Minute!", "Help the Beginner Driver" ^[2]. The artist describes his typical hero as "a four-eyes, a Shurik type, rather like me," who dreams of a beautiful woman while she teases him ^[13].

Barykin also explained his concept as a response to the dismissive attitude toward the Soviet past: he recalled his parents — his father was a military man and a Communist — and said he wanted to "romanticize the Soviet era," including for a younger audience ^[18].

One day I simply made a collage: I took some socialist poster and inserted a cut-out pin-up girl by the renowned master of the genre, Gil Elvgren. The poster came alive instantly: the ideological element disappeared, and it took on a vivid, lively mood.

In my work I try to create a different kind of socialist world — one that is the way I would like it to be, a world that has room for light eroticism, frivolity, and self-irony.

Works

By his own count, the artist has 50–60 works he would be happy to show at exhibitions; beyond these are commercial commissions — illustrations for magazines, advertising for construction companies ^[14]. He named "Come Work With Us on the Construction Site," "Pass Your Experience on to the Young," and "Expose the Enemy's Plans" as his personal favorites ^[14]. "Come Work With Us on the Construction Site" was painted in oils on commission for a collector from Kyiv: a photoshoot was arranged in a photo studio, and the foreman was played by a friend of the artist, a gallery owner in Nizhny Novgorod ^[14].

Barykin regards the series "Moscow Is Coming Soon" as particularly significant to him — conceived as a triptych depicting travel by train, car, and plane ^[14]. He first assembled the scene in the third-class sleeper car as a collage, then finished it on a graphics tablet and reproduced it in oils; this copy was sold at auction at the Regina gallery ^[14]. In 2018 the artist reworked the airplane piece into a new painting titled "Fly Aeroflot," built on the irony of Soviet advertising: Aeroflot was heavily promoted despite being the only airline in the country ^[22].

The painting "Glory to Labor" (2020) is a free interpretation of one of the defining images of the Soviet era; the image was originally created for the hood of a vintage Moskvich-412 taking part in a vintage car exhibition and race ^[23]. In "Weekdays in Orbit" (2023), a girl in hair curlers gives herself a pedicure aboard a spacecraft, with a laptop and a portrait of Yuri Gagarin nearby ^[20].

Barykin found fame through the internet: his first small series of "Soviet pin-up" style posters spread rapidly across the web ^[3][10]. In 2015 the artist noted that entrepreneurs were printing his images on T-shirts, passport covers, bags, and mugs without permission, and even cutting boards bearing his illustrations gave him a laugh ^[16]. In Yekaterinburg, his works were used to decorate an official reception ^[14].

In this work, I wanted to take the Soviet majestic apotheosis of labor and the unity of city and countryside in the direction of light flirtation and a certain romantic charm.

Zhiguli Barnoye Cans

The artist gained wide recognition through his designs for a collectible series of Zhiguli Barnoye beer cans, released in limited runs with a new work by the artist every two months ^[5]. By the end of 2015 he had painted around eighteen cans for the series; a circle of collectors formed around it, exchanging and selling cans among themselves ^[16].

According to Barykin, the project was proposed to him by Oleg Perminov, who had come across his illustrations online; the artist agreed almost immediately and valued both the creative and financial aspects of the offer, as well as the fact that the cans are produced in large print runs ^[18]. The first series ran from April 2012 to February 2014, comprised 13 cans, and was recognized by industry portals as the "Best Packaging in Russia" ^[6]. In August 2014, the Moscow Brewing Company launched a second series dedicated to women's professions; its first illustration, "In Banana-Lemon Singapore," depicts the profession of a flight attendant ^[6].

The artist named his favorites in the series as the first can, "Resort Encounter," and the 23rd, "New Year's Route" ^[18]. In December 2019, the "Selfie" can was released — the 26th in the collection and the fifth on the theme of winter sports, with a volume of 0.9 liters and a limited print run; a QR code on the can linked to an animated video continuing the story ^[26].

Oleg suggested signing the illustrations. That is, buyers of Zhiguli Barnoye can see the name of the artist behind the work. This is not common practice in design circles — more often than not, the artist or designer goes uncredited.

Magazines, albums, film, and auctions

The October 2010 issue of the Russian edition of Playboy magazine featured a selection of his works under the heading "The Modest Charm of Socialism" ^[2][25].

In 2015, Barykin created the poster and animated titles for the children's film *Chastnoye Pioneerskoye 2* ("Private Pioneer Camp 2") directed by Aleksandr Karpilovskiy; the first part of the film was shot in Dzerzhinsk, where the artist spent his school years ^[16]. That same year he released his album *Sovetskiy Pin-Up* ("Soviet Pin-Up"), conceived as a summing-up of a particular creative period ^[16]; in 2017 the artist was selling postcards and remaining copies of the first album ^[10]. Works executed in physical media are sold at the VLADEY auction house ^[16][9].

In an interview with *NN.Sobaka.ru* in the summer of 2023, Barykin spoke about an artist's book featuring his best works from 2009 onward ^[13]. At the same time he was painting a picture for director Yuriy Grymov, who collects everything connected with Yuriy Gagarin ^[13]. According to the video project *Ya iz Nizhnego* ("I'm from Nizhny") (2020), Barykin is the creator of the posters for the entire *Chastnoye Pioneerskoye* film trilogy ^[27].

Oil paintings have been offered at the VLADEY auction house: *Ne opazdyvay na proizvodstvo!* ("Don't Be Late for Work!") at the Spring Sale 2016 ^[15]; *Slava Trudu* ("Glory to Labour") at the Spring Sale 2020 with an estimate of €4,000–6,000 ^[23]; *Budni na orbite* ("Everyday Life in Orbit") at the VLADEY Russia sale with an estimate of €5,000–8,000 ^[20]. The artist's page on the auction house presents works ranging from *Skoro Moskva* ("Moscow Soon") (2013) to *Ne otvlekaĭ voditelya vo vremya dvizheniya!* ("Do Not Distract the Driver While the Vehicle Is in Motion!") (2026) ^[9].

Barykin is associated with the Kladovka art gallery at Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, 8: his early posters hung there ^[10] — among them a poster reading "Don't Abuse Alcoholic Beverages!" which caught the eye of music critic Artemy Troitsky (listed as a foreign agent), who, according to the artist, could not tell whether it was a genuine Soviet poster ^[10]; for the gallery's third hall, decorated in the spirit of Soviet pin-up, he created several works ^[28]; and the artist himself calls it "ours" and recommends it to visitors as "an island of the Soviet past" ^[1].

The album is my creative autobiography, an encyclopedia of life in the pin-up style. It contains only what I consider important to me, from 2009 onward.

Exhibitions

According to Barykin, his first major show was the exhibition "All Ours Forever," which he organized together with artist friends at the Rekord venue; the title was taken from a song by the band Tsentr, whose frontman Vasily Shumov was an invited guest. This was followed by exhibitions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities across Russia ^[1]. Around 2010, the artist was invited to participate in the project "Art Against Geography," led by Marat Gelman (listed as a foreign agent) — an exhibition of artists from the provinces, shown at the Belye Nochi (White Nights) festival in Perm and subsequently across Russia, including as part of the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art at Vinzavod ^[3][29]. On 4 March 2011, his solo exhibition "Fashionista-Worker" opened, and on 1 April 2012, the exhibition "Soviet Pin-Up" opened ^[25].

By 2015, Barykin had held more than ten exhibitions in cities across Russia ^[16]; among the cities where his shows drew large audiences, including young people, he singles out Yekaterinburg, Ufa, and Rostov-on-Don ^[10]. Abroad, his work was shown by the Erarta Galleries network: in 2015, the solo exhibition "Soviet Pin-Up" was held in Hong Kong during Art Basel, and then in London's Mayfair district ^[7][8]. The Nizhny Novgorod Theatre School describes its alumnus's style as having gained recognition at both the Russian and European level ^[4]; the artist himself has said that admirers of his work can be found in many countries, as far afield as Brazil ^[21].

A solo exhibition at the Republican Museum of Fine Arts in Yoshkar-Ola opened on 6 April 2018; the opening was attended by museum director E. E. Burnasheva, First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Mari El M. Z. Vasyutin, and the republic's Minister of Culture K. A. Ivanov ^[30]. In 2020, the video project "Ya iz Nizhnego" listed among the venues where the artist's works had been shown cities across Russia, CIS countries, New York, London, and Hong Kong ^[27].

On 3 May 2024, Barykin held a creative meet-and-greet at the Konyushnya art space in Tomsk, and on 4 May an exhibition titled "Soviet Pin-Up" opened there — comprising several dozen posters and running until 2 June ^[31][32][33]. At the opening, the artist drew an illustration in front of the audience; responding to criticism of his work, he said that society is "somewhat divided" in its assessment of the USSR, while men over forty, in his observation, are very fond of his paintings ^[31].

There are many artists who like to mix the sour with the sweet, to combine the seemingly incompatible. The idea came to me — to connect the Soviet social poster with such a frivolous, erotic style as the American classic pin-up.

Nizhny Novgorod in His Life and Work

The city he came to as a student immediately won Barykin over: he recalls the constructivist building of the polytechnic institute and the Volga views from the embankment ^[1]. Later, the artist lived near the Elektron cinema, close to Shveytsariya Park; one of the courtyards there is depicted in his painting "An Unsuccessful Rendezvous" ^[1][11]. He describes the route along Piskunova Street from the theatre school to the former Nizhegorodsky supermarket and on to Bolshaya Pecherskaya as a romantic itinerary ^[1].

The artist's studio was previously located in Beketovka, then moved to Fedorovsky Embankment ^[1]. In 2023, in an interview with Nizhny Novgorod Pravda, Barykin recommended showing visitors the Fedorovsky Embankment, the newly landscaped Verkhne-Volzhskaya Embankment with its restored "Rakushka," Shveytsariya Park, and "Kladovka," and named the Strelka — the confluence of the Oka and the Volga — as the symbol of Nizhny Novgorod ^[1][11]. In his view, the city lacks distinctive museums; he welcomed the opening of the Kustodiev hall at the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum and proposed reviving the cheburek (a fried pastry) café on Skoba that had been well known since Soviet times ^[1][11].

In November 2020, Barykin became the subject of the 25th installment of the video project "I Am from Nizhny" — a series of interviews with Nizhny Novgorod residents produced in the run-up to the 800th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod — in which he spoke about creating Soviet pin-up art and about the profession of illustrator ^[27].

Our city is situated in a uniquely beautiful natural setting. I have visited many cities across Russia, and nowhere else are there such hills, such changes in elevation, such views that open up suddenly before you.

Marat Gelman has been entered into the register of foreign mass media outlets performing the functions of a foreign agent by decision of the Ministry of Justice of Russia dated December 30, 2021 ^[34]. Artemy Troitsky has been entered into the register of foreign agents by decision of the Ministry of Justice of Russia dated January 13, 2023 ^[35].

Sources

1. Nizhegorodskaya pravda — interview in the "My Nizhny" project, E. Orlenko, 22.03.2023 — "My Nizhny": the founder of Soviet pin-up Valery Barykin (archive)
2. rmii.ru — Republican Museum of Fine Arts (Yoshkar-Ola) — exhibition announcement and artist biography, 2018 — Solo Exhibition "Soviet Pin-Up by Valery Barykin" (archive)
3. nn.aif.ru — AiF — Nizhny Novgorod — interview, E. Garipova, 23.08.2012 — Artist Barykin knows how to combine erotica and the Soviet poster (archive)
4. ntu-nn.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Theatre School — graduate page — Valery Barykin (archive)
5. erarta.com — Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art — exhibition page, 2013 — Soviet Pin-Up. An Exhibition of Posters by Valery Barykin (archive)
6. sostav.ru — 26.08.2014 — "Zhiguli Barnoye" returns to pin-up (archive)
7. meer.com — press release for the exhibition at Erarta Galleries Hong Kong, 13.03.2015 — Valery Barykin. Soviet Pin-Up (archive)
8. artpie.co.uk — announcement of the exhibition at Erarta Galleries London, 18.11.2015 — 'Soviet Pin up' by Valery Barykin (archive)
9. vladey.net — artist's page at auction — Artist Valery Barykin (archive)
10. theartnewspaper.ru — interview, A. Fedorov, 17.11.2017 — Valery Barykin: "A beautiful woman on a social poster turns its meaning 180 degrees" (archive)
11. tourdom.ru — 22.03.2023 — The founder of Soviet pin-up shared which places in Nizhny are worth showing to tourists (archive)
12. artifex.ru — article about the artist, 06.02.2015 — The Soviet Pin-Up of Valery Barykin (archive)
13. sobaka.ru — interview, A. Zobova, 04.07.2023 — Valery Barykin
14. kg-rostov.ru — Kto Glavny magazine (Rostov-on-Don), no. 92 — interview, S. Medvedev — Pin-up posters by Valery Barykin — BACK IN USSR (archive)
15. vladey.net — lot from the "Spring Auction 2016" — Valery Barykin, "Don't Be Late for Work!", 2016 (archive)
16. m24.ru — Moskva 24 — interview, A. Pevchev, 29.12.2015 — Artist Valery Barykin: "I enjoy remembering departing eras" (archive)
17. illustrators.ru — artist's portfolio — Illustrator Valery Barykin (archive)
18. mosbrew.ru — Moscow Brewing Company — interview with the artist, 28.02.2019 — Artist Valery Barykin: "I have fulfilled my social commission" (archive)
19. vladey.net — work at the "Everything for 100" auction — Valery Barykin, "Soviet Pin-Up", 2022 (archive)
20. vladey.net — Valery Barykin, "Weekdays in Orbit", 2023
21. old.oblgazeta.ru — Oblastnaya Gazeta (Yekaterinburg) — M. Blinova, 07.08.2020 — Soviet-style pin-up: it's men who end up in awkward situations
22. vladey.net — Valery Barykin, "Fly Aeroflot", 2018 (archive)
23. vladey.net — lot from the "Spring Auction 2020" — Valery Barykin, "Glory to Labour", 2020 (archive)
24. lookatme.ru — 01.11.2011 — Back to the USSR with Valery Barykin (archive)
25. sov-art.ru — about the artist and exhibitions, 17.08.2015 — Soviet Pin-Up (archive)
26. mosbrew.ru — Moscow Brewing Company — "Selfie": new collector's can of Zhiguli Barnoye (archive)
27. nnews.nnov.ru — on the release of the video project "I'm from Nizhny", November 2020 — Illustrator Valery Barykin became the subject of the "I'm from Nizhny" project
28. sobaka.ru — Nizhny Novgorod — on the Kladovka gallery, 13.04.2022 — The cult art space "Kladovka" has resumed operations in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
29. russianartarchive.net — Russian Art Archive Network — dates of the 4th Moscow Biennale (23.09–30.10.2011) — 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (archive)
30. rmii.ru — Republican Museum of Fine Arts (Yoshkar-Ola) — 08.04.2018 — The exhibition "Soviet Pin-Up by Valery Barykin" has opened!
31. vtomske.ru — 04.05.2024 — Playful girls on Soviet agitprop posters: the exhibition "Soviet Pin-Up" opens in Tomsk (archive)
32. vtomske.ru — announcement, May 2024 — The originator of Soviet pin-up will hold a creative meeting in Tomsk
33. tomsk.mk.ru — MK in Tomsk — 28.04.2024 — Tomsk residents invited to the Soviet pin-up exhibition (archive)
34. Interfax — "Shenderovich and Gelman recognized as foreign-agent media outlets", 30 December 2021 (archive)
35. Kommersant (Volga Region) — "Actor Artur Smolyaninov and critic Artemy Troitsky declared foreign agents", 13 January 2023 (archive)