Animal images in sculpture and graphics by Vladimir Vaskin: from realism to parable

The study aims to reveal the artistic and compositional features, the nature of the formation and stylization of animalistic images from the heritage of the Honored Artist of Russia Vladimir Savelyevich Vaskin (1941-2022). This master is a representative of the fine arts of Kalmykia, one of the regions of the South of Russia. For the first time, his unpublished works from the collection of the National Museum of the Republic of Kalmykia and private collections were introduced into scholarly discourse, and the results of art studies by Russian researchers were used. The author applied comparative, historical-cultural and formal-stylistic methods for analyzing works of art, as well as some methods used in historiographic research. The artist’s works exhibited at solo exhibitions (2011, 2016, and 2021) at the National Museum of the Republic of Kalmykia (Elista) are analyzed in chronological order starting from the late 1960s until the beginning of the twenty-first century. The author reveals little-known facts from the artist’s biography, describes and comprehends the master’s personal aesthetic and emotional motives for creating easel and monumental works. For the first time, the author analyzes the origins of Vaskin’s interest in images of animals, the theme of animalistic plots illustrating the national epic Jangar. She also determines the semantic component of Vaskin’s compositions, where the meaning of animalistic images both in sculpture and in graphics is inextricably linked with Kalmyk oral folk art, and gives the chronology of the change in the form and content of animalistic works from nature sketches of animals to mythopoetic works. In the process of studying graphics, easel sculpture, monuments, plastics of small forms by Vaskin, the artist’s methods and ways of creating works in various techniques and materials are revealed. The author has established that the transformation of the direction of the artistic language of Vaskin’s works from the first years of his creative activities to the beginning of the 21st century occurs along the trajectory: realism - decorativism - parable. The author concludes that the animalier art of Vladimir Vaskin occupies a significant place in his works, due to the ethnic identity of the master, formed on the folklore traditions of the Kalmyks, in which humans and animals were identified with each other. The author also notes that the Buddhist worldview is an important element of the artist’s sculptural works.