The First Exhibition of Works by Leningrad Artists during the Great Patriotic War opened at the Leningrad Union of Artists during the siege's catastrophic first winter. The exhibition brought together work by artists who remained active under bombardment, hunger, cold, and civic emergency, including Ivan Bilibin, Vladimir Konashevich, Aleksandr Laktionov, Vladimir Lebedev, Vsevolod Lyshev, and Yaroslav Nikolaev. A related history of Leningrad art describes the show as opening in a frozen building and later traveling to Moscow. Its importance lies in the way it made artistic production part of wartime endurance, propaganda, documentation, and morale, while preserving visual testimony of the besieged city.
The exhibition became a touchstone for the wartime identity and historical memory of Leningrad artists.