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Valentina Kropivnitskaya; Oskar Rabine with their son Alexandre Rabine

1 of 2 portraits of Valentina Kropivnitskaya

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© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Valentina Kropivnitskaya; Oskar Rabine with their son Alexandre Rabine

by Ida Kar
2 1/4 inch square film negative, 1962
Purchased, 1999
Photographs Collection
NPG x132982

Sittersback to top

Artistback to top

  • Ida Kar (1908-1974), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 1567 portraits, Sitter in 137 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Kar photographed Rabine and his family at their home in Lianozov when she travelled to the USSR to attend the opening of her exhibition in Moscow.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Freestone, Clare (appreciation) Wright, Karen (appreciation), Ida Kar Bohemian Photographer, 2011 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 10 March to 19 June 2011), p. 136 Read entry

    Rabine trained with the Russian painter and poet Evgeny Kropivnitsky. He went on to study at the Riga Academy of Arts before returning to his native Moscow to continue his training at the Surikov State Art Institute, from which he was expelled for non-conformism. In 1950 Rabine married Valentina Kropivnitskaya, his teacher's daughter, and settled in Lianozo Moscow, where their son, Alexandre, was born. Rabine was a founding member of the Lianozovo Group that brought together non-conformist artists whose art did not follow the official socialist-realist style. Banned from exhibiting by the Soviet authorities, he was the first unofficial Soviet artist to have a solo show in the West (at the Grosvenor Gallery, London, in 1964). In 1978 Rabine was forced into exile in France, where he continues to live and work. Kar photographed Rabine and his family at their home in Lianozov when she travelled to the USSR to attend the opening of her exhibition in Moscow.

Placesback to top

  • Place made and portrayed: Russia (sitters' home, Lianozovo, Moscow, Russia)

Portrait setback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1962back to top

Current affairs

After a series of by-election defeats, the prime minister, Harold MacMillan organises a drastic cabinet reshuffle, dismissing one third of his cabinet. Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe's wry comment summed up the desperate action: 'greater love hath no man than this, than to lay down his friends for his life.'
Britain suffers the 'Big Freeze' with no frost-free nights between 22nd December 1962 and 5th March 1963.

Art and science

The Beatles have their first hit with Love Me Do and release their first album Please Please Me.
The new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated and creates a showcase for British artistic talent with the first performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, a wall hanging by Graham Sutherland, stained glass by John Piper, and sculptures by Jacob Epstein and Elizabeth Frink.

International

The world comes to the brink of nuclear war with the Cuban Missile Crisis. In response to the USA's nuclear advantage, the USSR sent missiles to Cuba. The crisis lasted for 12 days before a deal was finally stuck between Khrushchev and Kennedy in which the Cuban missile bases were dismantled in return for the secret removal of US missiles from Turkey.

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