In 2025, it will be 100 years since the birth of the People's Artist of Russia, Gennady Sotskov (1925–2011). In honor of the anniversary, the Plyos Museum-Reserve is participating in the all-Russian project “My Vast Motherland...”. Throughout the year, the artist's works will be presented in different cities across the country. The first exhibition opened on February 7 in Plyos at the Landscape Museum, where works from the local museum-reserve's collection will be displayed.
Later, the exhibition will be hosted by the Museum of the World Ocean in Kaliningrad, then the Uglich Museum, and the final venue will be the Central House of Scientists in Moscow. In addition, the Russian Geographical Society will present photocopies of paintings on the streets of the city.
In 2021, an exhibition dedicated to the work of Gennady Sotskov was held in Plyos. At that time, the artist's widow, Svetlana Sotskova, donated more than 200 of his paintings and sketches, created over the years, to the museum-reserve. These works will form the basis of the “My Vast Motherland...” exhibition at the Landscape Museum.
Gennady Sotskov was born on March 8, 1925, in Moscow in a teacher's family. In 1952, he graduated from the Moscow Art School in memory of 1905, and in 1958, from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute. He was a participant in the Great Patriotic War, and since 1975, a member of the Moscow Union of Artists, where he headed the section of marine painters. Thanks to his initiative, art galleries appeared in Yelabuga, Gorokhovets, Zeya, Plyos, and Provideniya Bay in Chukotka. In 1983, the artist became a full member of the Russian Geographical Society.
In search of inspiration, Gennady Sotskov traveled along the Volga, Kama, Yenisei, worked on the BAM, in the Far East, Kamchatka, and Chukotka. The impressions, sketches, and photographs brought back from his trips formed the basis of the painting cycles “Volga”, “Kama”, “Siberia”, “The Vanished Landscape of Russia”, “The Sad Landscape of Russia”. His works continue the traditions of Russian landscape painting and are held in the collections of museums in Russia and abroad.
