Art Russe has organised an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery which shows how Russian artists depicted World War II and its legacy, with the aim of encouraging debate about the similarities between Russian and British experiences of World War II.

The exhibition is wide ranging, including artworks that show everyday life at home, action on the battlefield and celebratory parades, photographs of the artists in their studios and models and photographs of monumental sculptures. It shows how Russian artists at the time often used precedents from other western art styles in unusual ways to depict their theme.

“For the people of Britain and Russia, the years of World War II were a period of great ordeal. The war affected everyone – those who were on the front lines and those who stayed at home. It was a period of suffering, self-sacrifice, and great acts of bravery of our nations. Over 26 million lives is the cost that the Soviet Union paid for the Great Victory. Almost every family in Russia has photographs of grandfathers and great grandfathers who did not come back from the battlefields, who gave their lives in the struggle to free Europe. The events of those years had a tremendous influence on art, and the theme of war was reflected in the works of several generations of Soviet artists. For Art Russe, it is a great honour to introduce an international audience to works depicting this tragic and heroic part of world history; works created by artists that are widely admired in Russia but mostly unknown in the West.”  (Andrey Filatov, founder of Art Russe)

This exhibition aims to counterbalance to the propaganda art we are used to seeing with regard to war and also raise awareness of the range of Russian artists working during and after the Second World War.