The exhibition of the Iskitim Museum of Arts and History features Ivan Popov’s painting “Chuya Belki”.

Many childhood memories of Ivan Petrovich Popov and Vasily Makarovich Shukshin are associated with the Chuya Highway. This road was named after the Chuya River — one of the largest tributaries of the Katun River, flowing along the entire length of the highway. At the confluence of these two majestic rivers, an amazing sight opens up, with the murky white Chuya and the turquoise Katun flowing side by side for some time, not mixing with each other. The river also gave name to several mountain ranges connected by a transverse chain of mountains in Central Altai. The valleys and slopes of these mountains are home to some of the region’s natural landmarks. These mountains are known as the Chuya Belki. The name is mainly applied to two “brothers” — the Northern Chuya Range and the Southern Chuya Range. These are snow-capped mountains with a height of about 3,000 meters. They have triangular peaks covered in eternal snow and ice, and large, steep slopes with river valleys passing through them. The Chuya Belki feature almost all the landforms shaped by ice, wind, snow, and water throughout many centuries.

The childhood memories of Ivan Popov and Vasily Shukshin later inspired many of their artworks. The artist recalled, “We lived near the Chuya Highway which was like a connecting thread for our region. We didn’t have a radio and weren’t subscribed to newspapers — it was from the highway that we learned all the news. Along the Altai road, strings of carts were traveling from Mongolia, loaded with sheepskins, wool, and other cargo. At that time, there weren’t enough cars, so cargo was transported by horses. Sometimes these carts would stop to spend the night in our village… and we talked with their drivers late at night. They knew a lot — because they met so many people on the road — and they also were great storytellers…“

Ivan Popov found inspiration for his studies in the Altai Mountains. Each new study was a new experience. To find it, the artist would go on physically demanding plein-air expeditions that lasted several days.