The Creativity of L. F. Deimant

Leonid Fedorovich Deimant primarily worked in the genre of thematic painting, often without any study material, relying on his imagination.
Deimant was perhaps one of the few artists in the republic who was interested in the narrative aspect of painting, developing a detailed script in advance, where each character was assigned a specific role. This was followed by the process of constructing mise-en-scènes that would accurately reflect the artist's intent, and finally, searching for character types appropriate for a certain time and social class, often purely theoretically without working from life. As an illustration, one can cite the script for the painting "The End for the World-Eater" (1963): "The difficult years of Soviet power. The kulak fiercely resists, wishing to provoke hunger and hatred towards the new authorities through his actions. He has prepared a pit, stacking bread in bags, intending to bury it.
Former laborers, a Russian soldier, and communists pursue him for this black deed. Through the entire group of people, especially through the former laborer, I wanted to express my hatred for this world-eater. The pit dug by the kulak is, of course, symbolically his grave..."
For each painting, the narrative quality of the plot was important to the artist, although he never used historical documents or photographic materials, relying instead on eyewitness accounts and his own ideas. While working on the images of the characters in accordance with the devised plot framework, Deimant acted more as an illustrator than as a painter in the traditional sense. Having rejected working from life, he gradually developed a stamp in solving the image of a person and the natural environment (if the composition was constructed en plein air). These traits are characteristic of such paintings as "As a Sign of Friendship," "The First Grains," "A Conversation about the Meaning of Life" (1972), "Take the Horse, Russian Son," and "Fathers of the Collective Farm Land" (1973).
The painting "His Biography" (1969) stands apart in his work. This painting is dedicated to the early years of Soviet power in Kyrgyzstan, written concisely, with the image of the central character expressed vividly, and the situation characterized accurately.
Deimant painted many landscape and portrait studies, which are stylistically little related to his paintings.
The studies are significantly fresher in terms of painting; in the landscapes, the natural state is skillfully conveyed, and in the portraits, the character of the model is captured.