Anniversary Art Exhibition (Leningrad, 1957)

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The Anniversary Art Exhibition in Leningrad, 1957 was held to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution. It took place at the State Russian Museum and opened on October 3, 1957.

Organization and scope
- A committee of 39 leading experts planned the show, and a catalog was published.
- The exhibition displayed about 1,750 works by painters, sculptors, graphic artists, craftspeople, and theater/cinema artists.
- Around 600 Leningrad artists participated.
- In Painting, 269 artists were represented; in Sculpture, 113 sculptors; in Graphics, 117 graphic artists.
- Many works were created especially for the exhibition in 1957; some earlier works were also shown. All pieces appeared for the first time in this exhibition.
- Afterward, some works entered other Soviet museums or private and foreign collections.

Highlights by category (examples)
- Historical genre: Lenin in Gorki (Nikolai Baskakov); Attempt on Lenin (Piotr Belousov); Proclamation of Soviet Rule (Alexander Samokhvalov).
- Portraits: Portrait of the Conductor E. A. Mravinsky (Lev Russov); Portrait of Mother (Gevork Kotiantz); Egyptian (Mikhail Anikushin).
- Genre painting: On the Neva River (Leonid Baykov); A Waiting (Maya Kopitseva); At the Rest (Vladimir Chekalov).
- Landscape and cityscape: On the Volga River (Nikolai Galakhov); Winter in Leningrad (Vera Liubimova); Ancient City of Novgorod (Rostislav Vovkushevsky).
- Still life: Still Life (Evgenia Antipova); Bellflowers and Lilac (Irina Baldina); Peaches and Pears (Victor Teterin).

The exhibition received wide press coverage and is remembered as a major event in Soviet art during the Khrushchev Thaw.