Afanasy Osipov is a Yakut painter, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, People’s Artist of the USSR, winner of the Ilya Repin State Prize of the RSFSR. The exhibition features paintings from the Northern cycle, in which Osipov depicted residents of a harsh climate and restrained Northern landscapes. While being in the tundra for a long time, the artist studied in many ways the traditional way of life of the Northern peoples, touched their original life values, and captured what he saw in his works.
Osipov first came to the Arctic North in early 1958. Then he visited the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Together with Semyon Danilov who later dedicated his “Northern” poem “Happiness of the Eagle” to him, he made trips to distant villages and camps of reindeer herders in the Nizhnekolymsky District, whose indigenous population is Chukchi and Evens. Since then, the edge of the tundra has often appeared on the artist’s canvases. Sometimes, the artist spent whole weeks alone in the tundra expanses and returned from there to Yakutsk with a lot of sketches, paintings, and ideas. He has almost always found a chance to visit one of the uluses of Yakutia.
The Lower Kolyma tundra, the Indigirka Valley with high snow-capped mountains, the expanses of Oymyakon, Alazei, Moma, Tompo, Verkhoyanya, and the Kharaulakh Range near the Arctic Ocean, all this was seen and captured by the artist. He devoted about 10 years of his creative life to the nature of the tundra and its inhabitants.
Afanasy Osipov also captured images of women and children. He worked not only in the technique of oil painting, but also painted in watercolors. It was in the 60s and 70s that the painter’s passion for the art of graphics began. He tried his hand at etching, a technique that painters usually prefer when turning to graphics. There are changes in Osipov’s travel sketches. Among them, along with the usual pencil linear-dashed sketches, pen drawings are increasingly common, namely: linear, contour sketches, or those with smooth-flowing rhythms on a blank field of sheets.
Drawing ‘In the Cradle’ by Afanasy Osipov is performed in watercolor. A baby sleeps in a traditional cradle surrounded by elements of Northern life, such as blankets and bedcovers made of deer skins.
Osipov first came to the Arctic North in early 1958. Then he visited the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Together with Semyon Danilov who later dedicated his “Northern” poem “Happiness of the Eagle” to him, he made trips to distant villages and camps of reindeer herders in the Nizhnekolymsky District, whose indigenous population is Chukchi and Evens. Since then, the edge of the tundra has often appeared on the artist’s canvases. Sometimes, the artist spent whole weeks alone in the tundra expanses and returned from there to Yakutsk with a lot of sketches, paintings, and ideas. He has almost always found a chance to visit one of the uluses of Yakutia.
The Lower Kolyma tundra, the Indigirka Valley with high snow-capped mountains, the expanses of Oymyakon, Alazei, Moma, Tompo, Verkhoyanya, and the Kharaulakh Range near the Arctic Ocean, all this was seen and captured by the artist. He devoted about 10 years of his creative life to the nature of the tundra and its inhabitants.
Afanasy Osipov also captured images of women and children. He worked not only in the technique of oil painting, but also painted in watercolors. It was in the 60s and 70s that the painter’s passion for the art of graphics began. He tried his hand at etching, a technique that painters usually prefer when turning to graphics. There are changes in Osipov’s travel sketches. Among them, along with the usual pencil linear-dashed sketches, pen drawings are increasingly common, namely: linear, contour sketches, or those with smooth-flowing rhythms on a blank field of sheets.
Drawing ‘In the Cradle’ by Afanasy Osipov is performed in watercolor. A baby sleeps in a traditional cradle surrounded by elements of Northern life, such as blankets and bedcovers made of deer skins.
