Golden Collection. First Artists of Yakutia

At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, the art of Yakutia did not abound with the names of professional artists. Certain interest was aroused by the work of Ioakim Arkousha, who came to Yakutia immediately after studying in St. Petersburg. A romantic legend, preserved in the memoirs of the artist's son, connects the origin of their surname with the word “arkoush”, that is, “a sheet of paper”. Its origin was due to the landowner, whose yard was Arkousha's father.

Noticing the boy's talent, he took part in the fate of Ioakim with the opportunity to go to St. Petersburg to receive an art education. There are several landscape works of the artist, small in size – “Maganka” (1897), “Summer house on Sergelyakh” (before 1919), “Evening on Sergelyakh” (before 1919). The most famous is “Cathedral and the tower” (1907), the composition of which seems to be dictated by the originality of the city's appearance at the beginning of the last century.

A corner of old Yakutsk is captured through a once – characteristic detail - a neat, solid fence made up of planks that brought goods after the opening of the Lena river. The domes of a white-stone Cathedral and a slender bell tower rise against the sky of a fading short winter day. Nearby, the ancient fortress tower darkens. Nothing disturbs the peace of the city, only sometimes the ringing barking of a dog will announce the passing of a carriage on a deserted street. The work attracts with the preserved authenticity of the architectural motif, the transfer of a special atmosphere of measured slowness of the provincial way of life.

The name of the first professional painter Ivan Popov is strongly associated with the foundation and formation of fine art in Yakutia at the beginning of the XX century. An artist of democratic beliefs, he wrote with a sincere feeling about the passing history and new transformations that took place on the Yakut land (“The old man and the beggar” (1935), “Building a school” (1936), “Airships over the Verkhoyansk ridge” (1936); sketches for paintings “Taiga” (1932), “Electric mail communication” (1930s). The versatility of interests and talent allowed the master to work in various genres.

Popov, in his professional interest to capture the passing, has repeatedly addressed the theme of shamanism, the material and spiritual culture of the Sakha people. The first historical and architectural landscape in Yakut art “Yakutsk of the end of the XVII century” (1928) became its undisputed classic. In the dim light of a winter day, you can see the panorama of the city, which naturally fits into the surrounding natural landscape. The blue hills in the distance are repeated in the necklace of the prison, whose dark towers emphasize its antiquity and eternity. Painted in a conventional color, the painting continues the classic tradition of city view painting, in which the artist accurately recreated and generalized the spatial rhythms of the city. He introduced details into the composition that make it possible to fill the panoramic image with life: the courtyard of a wealthy citizen, a house cut from a good forest with carved shutters and a high porch, a shopping area.

The 1930s and 40s were the time of active formation and development of the main types of fine art in Yakutia. In painting, it was associated with the name of the energetic, somewhat uncompromising-severe, as a person and creative personality, Peter Romanov. The first of the pleiad of national painters, who had outstanding organizational and pedagogical abilities, he greatly influenced the formation of the creative face of the collective of artists. Freely working in various genres of painting, he successfully tried himself in political poster, caricature, book illustration, theatrical and decorative art, artistic carving from mammoth bone.

“Knight with a bride” (1938). For the first time in Yakut painting, a work marked by many features of national identity was created. The attraction to decorativeness, storytelling, attention to detail, indicate the author's internal connections with the spiritual culture of his people. The plot of the picture is easy to read and gives great freedom to the imagination. The calm and majestic landscape on the background of which unfolds the dramatic scene. The artist presents his characters in historically accurate costumes of a distant era. Great attention is paid to the beauty of horse decoration. Romantic coloring, love for their past, traditions, merged together, created a work that was destined to become the emblem of the Yakut fine art.

Ethnographer, painter, graphic artist ... Mikhail Nosov's artistic heritage bears a clear imprint of time, with its definite search for the period of formation of professional fine art of the Republic. The subject of the artist's works shows an interest in the history, ethnography, and material culture of the Sakha people.

Nosov has always been attracted by the uniqueness of objects created by unknown masters, and throughout his work there is a constant attachment to the genre of still life. “Still life” (1942) has a second, author's name – “Things to the war”. Admiring the beauty of the works of folk masters, together with the artist, you become aware that these objects have lived a long life. They were kept in families as relics, as inheritance. They are beautiful, durable and immortal, like the creations of nature. Glitter soft shimmering folds of silk, shining silver jewelry, care about the mystery of the ancient designs. Ancient objects that can tell about time, about the special spiritual world of man-made things are written in a majestic key.

Portrait works by Leonid Kim – are full-scale, born in the course of direct communication with the author's models. People of different professions, ages and life destinies posed… In the portraits of cultural figures, attention is drawn to the artistry. Thus, in the “Portrait of the honored artist of the YASSR M. V. Zhirkov” (1962) – an incomparable performer of the red shaman – there is emphasized theatricality, the actor is depicted in the image.

Background and heavy fur costume are written pasty, material and beautifully, the color of the picture, thick and dense, is full of drama. Slightly muted colors of the edge of the fur coat and headdress perfectly interact and support each other, greenery and terracotta lapel, ornament. As always in the art of the master, the composition of the portrait is strictly thought out. Elongated horizontally, it is rhythmic and balanced, which gives the portrait a certain monumentality, despite its closeness. Setting the figure in profile allowed the artist to give the most expressive, accurate characteristic of the model. In front of the audience – a strong-willed person, of great talent and giftedness.

A whole stage in the development of the visual art of Yakutia is associated with the name of Ellay Sivtsev: he was the initiator of easel prints, his work had a significant impact on the formation of the traditions of graphic art of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). A native of the hinterland, the artist knew the life and customs of the Yakut village, folklore and material culture of his people, knew a lot about old man-made things, had a magnificent, carefully collected collection of wood and birch bark, metal and sewing. Sivtsev is the author of a great artistic heritage: prints, drawings, book illustrations, where the knots of memory are crossed, intertwined, enriched with new content, as a symbol of the beginning of human existence, the themes of his native land, its history and people.

The linocut “On the bull” (1963) depicts a group of haymakers returning from work. Here everything - a low horizon line and a white field of paper, freely included in the composition, emphasize the characteristic poses, gestures, and naturalness of the characters.

Efim Shaposhnikov is known primarily as an illustrator, who laid the foundations of book graphics in Yakutia. The artist designed about a hundred books by Yakut writers, as well as writers of other nations. The talent of the graphic artist, which closely combines the lyrical beginning and lively humor, was revealed with special generosity in the works for children's books, which are distinguished by imagination, wit and entertainment.

A connoisseur of rural life, Shaposhnikov was able in his works to transform the habits of animals in expressive human movements and gestures, to emphasize the unique specificity of the characters, to captivate a young reader active game start.

The idea of creating an illustration of the “The boy of the hare's tail size” to the artist was inspired by the motives of the Yakut fairy tale of the same name, which was literarily processed by M. D. Efimov. Folk humor, Efim Shaposhnikov's subtle understanding of the aesthetic possibilities and potential of graphics, a sense of folklore and language - all combined to create a captivating example of art. It is unique that the work incorporates archetypal ideas of man about the correlation of ancient cultural codes – anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and food, which is, in all probability, the result of the author's deep understanding of the philosophy and culture of the Sakha people.

Afanasiy Petrovich Munkhalov is one of those authentic masters, who brought Yakutia's graphics to the international scene in the 1960s. A seeker and analyst, he paved his own unique path in the print. Munkhalov's work is characterized by large-scale thinking, addressing the most complex topics, and the ability to find capacious imaginative solutions for them. Its creative program combines the modern and the eternal, the personal and the universal.

The series “My North”, created in 1965, has become a recognized hallmark of Yakut art. Large spots, clear silhouettes, collected energetic stroke, concise unmistakable drawing – these are the expressive features of these works, where the graphic's penchant for symbolism and metaphors is clearly indicated. The sheets have their own attitude to space -it is an active environment, devoid of any specific place and time, interpreted by the author in a general philosophical context.

In the art of Valerian Vasiliev the subtlest lyricism with the depth of the analyst and the breadth of the philosopher are surprisingly organically combined. He worked in engraving, original graphics, book illustrations and in his short life left works that were included in the treasury of national culture. By the power of talent and personal charm, he created a wide field of attraction around him, activating the creative search of artists. His works largely determined the features of the development of Yakutia's graphics – its rhythm and pace, atmosphere and intonation, participation in prestigious international exhibitions, and the vector of movement forward.

The sharp character of visual techniques becomes a plastic metaphor for the series “Old Yakut masters” (1967), reflecting thoughts about national cultural roots, about the continuity of modern art and traditional creativity.

Seksei Parnikov started his art way with book graphics and posters. His name is associated with the formation of the poster in the region, the renewal of the arsenal of visual tools, the desire to generalize, the use of original symbols and signs. Naturalism is replaced by a conventional, flat-graphic manner of performance (“Long live the world!” (1971); “Take care of nature” (1973); “Moscow Olympic” (1980); “Protect the green friend!” (1983), etc.).

The lithograph “A rainbow” (1981) is perceived as a model of a harmonious world order, a code of the eternal human desire for proportionality and beauty. It is no accident that the artist uses, as in Yakut folklore (songs, Olonkho), the principle of parallelism, which rhythmically organizes the composition. The three-color arc-rainbow, in the belly of which seven lead the ancient dance osuohai, is surrounded by trees “chechir” - symbols of the earth's fertility, birds and the sun – signs of the life-creating principle. The figurative structure of the engraving is personified by the unified system of the world, the Universe.

Semen Afanasievich Egorov - the first professional sculptor among the Sakha people. Master of a rare plastic talent. His concise and capacious pictorial language revealed the rich possibilities of the material. He worked in granite, wood, and terracotta – “Portrait of the philosopher D. S. Makarov” (1959, marble); “Portrait of the bone cutter V. V. Popov” (1962, granite); “Girl with a letter” (1963, wood); “Portrait of Kere” (1969), etc.

Surrounded by air, here comes a figure “Kere with the ball” (1969). The flexible silhouette has several elongated proportions - the image of childhood, serene, impetuous, dynamically striving forward… Wood, as if cut, plays with the richness of light and shade, the texture of the material.

Ksenophont Pshennikov belongs to the pleiad of the first professional sculptors of Yakutia. In his work, he follows the traditions of realistic art. He is attracted to genre scenes, story narration. Works in stone, ceramics, metal, wood. The thematic range of works includes historical events, working days, everyday life, portraits of contemporaries.

The sculpture “Kerchekh” (1976, bronze) is painted with childhood memories. An uncomplicated scene is shown simply and convincingly. The compact two-figure composition is imbued with inner harmony, warmth and love.

Prokopiy Dobrynin's art belongs to the Yakut and Russian art cultures. After completing his studies, he remained in Moscow, but kept in touch with Yakutia. The multi-aspect talent and temperament of the artist allowed him to embody his ideas in easel, monumental, monumental and decorative sculpture, small-form plastics and decorative and applied art. The design of the fountains “Stone flower” (1952-1954) and “Golden ear” (1951-1953; architect K. T. Topuridze) on the territory of VDNH (now VVC) clearly reflects the aesthetic principles of the post-war decade.

End-to-end thread through all the work of Dobrynin is the theme of Yakutia. In easel sculpture, he created portraits, story compositions made of ceramics, marble, and bronze. His images are filled with the colors of the Olonkho land, the melody of Yakut music.

... As if in a light haze, the pensive and contemplative appearance of a young Yakut woman appears from a block of marble (“Elegy”, 1963). Subtle gradations of light-and-shadow modeling and masterly use of the chisel made it possible to create a captivating female image.

The casket with a pitched lid, made by Leontiy Popov in 1906, is characterized by “severe archaism” and plastic integrity. A traditional lyre-shaped ornament with plant shoots adorns the massive lid. The inscriptions carved in script on its slopes indicate that the work was made to order – the initial letters of abbreviated words are formed into whole sentences – “KLTD” (whom I love, I give), “VZZP” (VZZP as a sign of memory).

The silhouetted realistic scenes of hunting fur animals unfolded on the sides of the casket are combined with the architectonics of the object itself on a large scale and rhythmically. In the images, the carver introduces a light, additional modeling, schematically working out the notches of the tree crowns, the main details of clothing, emphasizes the design features of the ancient Yakut dwellings – urasa and balagan with shallow cuts. At the heart of each story is a direct sense of life, observation of reality.

The name of Vasiliy Popov is associated with the revival of artistic carving on a mammoth tusk. The master comes from a hereditary family of carvers – five generations of Popovs were engaged in bone-cutting. Since childhood, learning the skills of craft, Vasiliy Popov was a bearer of cultural memory, a living tradition of the Sakha people. In the 1940s, the work of the master laid the main lines in the development of small bone plastics. You can rightfully call the genre composition “A Yakut woman at the hitching posts” (1947), made by Popov at the time of creative maturity, a masterpiece of bone-cutting art. The composition is classically clear and balanced.

Using the layout techniques of the masters of the XIX century, he successfully places monolithic figures on the conditional field of the stand. The carver gives a special significance and weight to the figure of a woman – she appears in a solemn frontal turn, embodying the moral and spiritual scale of a person. In the image of clothing and jewelry, in the decoration of every very small detail - an echo of ancient origins. The smooth matte surface of the large planes in contrast with the relief patterns of the festive dress of the woman, the decoration of the horse and hitching posts, reveal the natural beauty of the mammoth bone.

“A Yakut woman at the hitching posts” allows you to feel both the power of tradition and its modernity, poetic thinking and imaginative vision, which makes Vasiliy Popov an exponent of folk talent.