The Evolution of the ‘National’ Concept in the Painting of Chuvashian Artists of Twentieth Century

Today, the publicʼs interest in national history, understanding of the identity and value of traditional artistic heritage is becoming one of the main catalysts in the development of the fine arts of Chuvashia. In addressing issues of cultural identity, artists expressed themselves very vividly and variously in the second half of the twentieth century, by the end of which the concept of “national art” had received a clear content. It is based on the entire material layer of culture, as well as the spiritual and aesthetic values of the ethnic group, formed over the centuries. The article examines the forms and evolution of the national component in the professional art of Chuvashia of the twentieth century, the degree of its presence in the work of the republicʼs painters in different periods of history. Using the works of the most prominent artists as an example, the author analyzes the processes of formation of a new concept of Chuvash painting, the beginnings of which were found in the late 1950s and 1960s in the paintings of P.G. Kiparisov, Yu.A. Zaitsev and R.M. Ermolaeva. But the work of A.I. Mittov (1932-1971), who worked in the 1960s, is now recognized as a genuine expression of the “Chuvash world”, a conscious search for the national language of art. His pictorial and graphic heritage testifies to the birth of a new art in form and content. Artists appeared next, looking for their own ways of mastering the spiritual heritage of the Chuvash people. Thus, in the works of V.P. Petrov (Praski Vitti) and S.N. Mikhailov (Yukhtar), the value and figurative equivalents of the concept of “national” are born from a whole complex of worldviews and aesthetic canons. Having originated in the 1920s, the professional art of Chuvashia acquired the high qualities of the Soviet realistic school by the middle of the century. But it was only in the second half of it that the pronounced features of the national character were determined. An analysis of the works of Chuvash artists created in the last decades of the twentieth century allows us to assert a high degree of presence of a national component in them.