Grigory Choros-Gurkin

[Кирилл Сызранский]

Grigory Choros-Gurkin
 
Grigory Gurkin was born January 12, 1870 in the small village of Ulala (now the Gorno-Altaisk) Bijskogo County Family handicraftsman saddler from an ancient clan - Choros (later call himself an artist Choros-Gurkin). The village was located the main camp of the Altai Spiritual Mission, in which there was a primary school with iconic class. Subsequently, GI Gurkin almost 15 years spent by a painter, first in Ulale, and then in Biisk.

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who arrived in Biisk vacation Listener Petersburg chapel AV Anokhin, acquainted with the work of the artist, persuaded him to go together to the capital. In October 1897 GI Gurkin attempts to enter the Academy of Arts, but it lacked both general and professional knowledge. However, drawings and sketches caught the eye of the famous landscape painter Ivan Shishkin, and he immediately invited Gurkin in personal studio. And in March 1899 the artist was enrolled in the landscape class Academy of Arts.

The first personal exhibition GI Gurkin in January 1907 in Tomsk had exceptional success and immediately elevated him to the rank of the first landscape of Siberia.

"There will new artists, will raise it (art - VE) to the European level, but the first on this road will remain GI Gurkin, and this is his great credit to the native land, which he was accustomed to the art and joy" - wrote the St. Petersburg critic M. Dalkevich, summing up the exhibition.

Siberian scientist and publicist AV Adrianov later wrote: "For the first exhibition of GI Gurkin in Tomsk showed that Siberia, finally got its own artist".

In the subsequent decade, the artist wrote hundreds of studies, thousands of the most diverse figures - full-scale, heavy machine, ethnographic, creating dozens of great pictures. Of particular prominence acquired painting "Lake Mountain Spirits, which first appeared on the show in Tomsk in 1915, and orders for its author's repetition appeared so much that, as acknowledged by the artist himself, he got tired of them. Copyright versions of this painting is in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Museum of Fine Arts of the East in Moscow, in art museums of Krasnoyarsk and Barnaul, in private collections.

The artist is not just a lot of drawing and writing, but also collected the heroic tales, folk tales, legends, songs, samples of music and arts. "According to the concepts of Altai, Altai is not just mountains, forests, rivers, waterfalls, and spirit, generous, rich giant giant. For the people living there Altai alive. Fantastically beautiful it is their colorful clothing of forest, grass, fog, his thoughts clear, run all over the world. Lake in his eyes, looking into the universe. Waterfalls and rivers - his words and songs about life and the beauty of the earth, the mountains ... "- so many times to explain people's understanding of nature and so wanted to express in their works Altai Grigory Ivanovich.

During the Revolution, in 1917-1919 years the artist headed mountain Duma, trying to establish local governance and ensure national equality Altai. And at the end of 1919 was forced to go first in Mongolia and later in the Tuva republic, where he lived until 1925. When he returned, he was actively involved in local cultural life, becoming a member of society "New Siberia" (from 1926) and in the same year, taking part in two major exhibitions in Moscow. People's Commissar of Education Lunacharskii said at the opening: "I note more remarkable for the subtlety of painting, a really precious to paint landscapes Choros-Gurkin, oyrotskogo artist from the Altai. It has gotten to the Altai such sophisticated technology - I do not know. "

The artist returned home in the previously nationalized Anosov, where Gurkin restored studio. Also on his initiative in the Altai Mountains have opened a museum, a national publishing house, an art school. He illustrated the first textbooks in the Altai (oyrotskom) language, books, continued to paint.

In July 1937, tragedy. 67-year-old artist was arrested on Oct. 11, 1937, he was shot (all of his art, of course, was banned) and was rehabilitated only in 1956.

The most complete collection of works by the artist is stored in Republican lore museum named after AV Anokhin (Gorno-Altaisk). Over time, more clear becomes the outstanding role of GI Choros - Gurkin in the development of the Siberian and Altai national art, literature, folklore.