Leningrad (group portrait)

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (Russia).

Despite the fact that Zaltsman, unlike Filonov, did not consider “analysis” itself as a self-target, he used the techniques of analytical realism as a means of achieving the artistic expressiveness of his works. In addition, the artist used such a characteristic method of his teacher as compositional filling of the entire space of the painting in such a way that the viewer had a feeling of its continuation outside the canvas. Twelve characters do not pose for the artist, but could be a stream going past houses if some of the figures were not placed almost perpendicularly to the general movement. The idea is explained by the comment, “Persons of the Leningrad intelligentsia destroyed in the first years of Soviet power”.