Dmitry Fedorovich Bogorodsky’s We’re on Vacation (1972–73) explores the tension between personal freedom and state control in late Soviet life. Painted during the Brezhnev-era stagnation, the work blends official Soviet styles with elements of nonconformist art, turning a quiet domestic scene into a psychological statement.
A bright orange circular table dominates the composition. Its geometric boldness, along with the triangular tablecloth, references El Lissitzky’s Constructivist poster *Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge* (1919), linking revolutionary imagery to an otherwise still, introspective space.
A solitary woman sits by the table near a small window. She’s painted in muted tones, her body barely distinct from the background. The title *We’re on Vacation* adds irony—nothing about the image suggests rest or freedom. Instead, the tight interior, subdued figure, and minimal interaction suggest emotional confinement and a kind of enforced stillness.
Bogorodsky’s warm palette—rich oranges and browns—creates a sense of calm, but it’s at odds with the isolation in the scene. The window offers a glimpse of blue sky, a distant symbol of escape or openness, but it remains small and out of reach.
The simplified forms and limited colour range point to the Severe Style, which emerged as a pared-down, more realistic alternative to Socialist Realism. But the atmosphere—quiet, ambiguous, subtly off—also connects the painting to Soviet Nonconformism. This was art that pushed against cultural limits without overt protest, using subtle shifts in tone, space, and symbolism to question the system.
Born in 1943 in Moscow, Bogorodsky came from a well-known artistic family. His father was the Soviet academician painter Fedor Bogorodsky, and his mother, Sofya Razumovskaya, was a prominent art critic. Growing up around major figures like Aleksandr Deyneka and Arkady Plastov gave him early exposure to the Soviet art world.
He joined the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1975 and later became Chairman of the Board for the Association of Theater, Film and Television Artists in 1994. He also held positions in the Union of Cinematographers of Russia and the Nika Cinematographic Academy. His work gained recognition in both late Soviet and post-Soviet periods for its layered, introspective style.
