Visualizing (Post)-Soviet Ethnicity. Fine Art of Buryatia

Abstract

The author reviews the history of art in Russia's Buryatia in an interpretive analysis, beginning with pre-revolutionary Buddhist art legacies, through various stages of Soviet art policy, to the difficult post-Soviet period of national identity quests. The creative art of pre-revolutionary Buryat Buddhist Sanzhi-Tsykik Tsybikov, Soviets Ivan Kopylov and Tsyrenzhap Sampilov, and the famous post-Soviet Dashi Namdakov is examined. The author argues that current trends toward valorization of Eurasian identity resonate with Russia's politics and popular culture.

Notes

English translation © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text, “Vizualiziruia (post)-sovetskuiu etnichnost'. Izobrazitel'noe isskuvstva Buryatii.”Published with the author's permission, English title by the author. Maria Tagangaeva is an art historian from Ulan-Ude, based at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland when she provided this article. Email: [email protected] by Stephan Lang. Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/maae

^1. Limbist derives from the word “limba”—a musical instrument, formerly widespread among nomadic cultures, Buryats and Kalmyks.

^2. See A. Umarov's article: “Postup' vremeni,” Khudozhnik, 1983, no. 1, pp. 1–9; S. Chervonnaia 1978.

^3. See Ch.Iu. Mandaganov's work Kochevnik (2005), O.T. Kozlov's Trubiashchii monakh (2006), S.V. Khankharov's Vaiatel' (2007), B.T. Taisaev's Sled kochevnika (2008), D.D. Lygdenov's Tabunshchik (2010), and many others.

^4. Also known as “Zher-ana” (Motherland). See D. Namdakov's Internet site http://www.dashi-art.com/gallery.