Kudym-Osh is a legendary hero of the Komi-Permyak epic. In the 7th century he founded the Kudymkar Chudes’ settlement of the 7th century on the high bank of the Kuva River, on Mount Izyur, which means the “stone head”. Modern Kudymkar residents call this mount Krasnaya Gorka.
Kudym-Osh was the son of the witch Pevsin and a Chude god. According to other legends, his father was a forest bear. The hero lived on a high mountain, rode an elk, hunted, fished, grew rye and wheat, and prayed to the pagan god Oipel. The handsome and mighty warrior was respected by the Chudes for his intelligence and courage. Not a single arrow could wound him, all the power came back to the hero, as soon as he touched the ground. Kudym-Osh married a Vogul girl Koste, lived many years, performed countless heroic deeds, and always defended his town and people from enemies.
The creator of the Kudym-Osh sculpture is Vitaly Nikolaevich Onkov, a Komi-Permyak graphic artist, sculptor, professor, member of the Union of Artists of Russia. He produced more than 40 paintings and 100 graphic works, including the coat of arms and flag of the Komi-Permyak Okrug. The sculptor was born in the village of Bolshiye Oni, Perm Region, in 1946. He studied at the Kudymkar Art Studio, and then at the Pedagogical Institute named after Alexander Gertsen in Leningrad at the Art and Graphic Department. Vitaly Onkov worked as a teacher of fine art at the Kudymkar Children’s School of Arts.
The main themes of Vitaly Onkov’s work are the Urals nature, the Komi-Permiak epos, the people’s character types. The artist studied Komi-Permiak pagan mythology and its synthesis with Christianity, folk themes and fairy tale creatures. Using clay and wood, the artist created bright sculptural images of Kudym-Osh, Chudes, mythical birds and animals. The collection of the Komi-Permyak Local History Museum has 29 paintings and 6 sculptures by the artist, including a sculpture of Kudym-Osh.
The elongated sculpture depicts the head of an old leader in a pensive pose. His face is rendered realistically, with a wrinkled forehead, well-defined eyebrows, deep eye sockets, and an elongated straight nose. The sculpture is made of red clay, tinted with brown and black paint and varnished. The work was donated to the Komi-Permyak Local History Museum by the sculptor personally in 1994.
Kudym-Osh was the son of the witch Pevsin and a Chude god. According to other legends, his father was a forest bear. The hero lived on a high mountain, rode an elk, hunted, fished, grew rye and wheat, and prayed to the pagan god Oipel. The handsome and mighty warrior was respected by the Chudes for his intelligence and courage. Not a single arrow could wound him, all the power came back to the hero, as soon as he touched the ground. Kudym-Osh married a Vogul girl Koste, lived many years, performed countless heroic deeds, and always defended his town and people from enemies.
The creator of the Kudym-Osh sculpture is Vitaly Nikolaevich Onkov, a Komi-Permyak graphic artist, sculptor, professor, member of the Union of Artists of Russia. He produced more than 40 paintings and 100 graphic works, including the coat of arms and flag of the Komi-Permyak Okrug. The sculptor was born in the village of Bolshiye Oni, Perm Region, in 1946. He studied at the Kudymkar Art Studio, and then at the Pedagogical Institute named after Alexander Gertsen in Leningrad at the Art and Graphic Department. Vitaly Onkov worked as a teacher of fine art at the Kudymkar Children’s School of Arts.
The main themes of Vitaly Onkov’s work are the Urals nature, the Komi-Permiak epos, the people’s character types. The artist studied Komi-Permiak pagan mythology and its synthesis with Christianity, folk themes and fairy tale creatures. Using clay and wood, the artist created bright sculptural images of Kudym-Osh, Chudes, mythical birds and animals. The collection of the Komi-Permyak Local History Museum has 29 paintings and 6 sculptures by the artist, including a sculpture of Kudym-Osh.
The elongated sculpture depicts the head of an old leader in a pensive pose. His face is rendered realistically, with a wrinkled forehead, well-defined eyebrows, deep eye sockets, and an elongated straight nose. The sculpture is made of red clay, tinted with brown and black paint and varnished. The work was donated to the Komi-Permyak Local History Museum by the sculptor personally in 1994.
