Argentine period of the Stepan Erzia's creativity (1927-1950): searching and findings

Relevance: The problem of studying the work of one of the outstanding masters of the Russian Diaspora - Stephan Erzia, who created several hundred sculptures in Argentina, has been raised. Their specificity, connection with the culture of the country hasn’t been studied properly, and cultural and art history analysis has not been carried out. At the same time, identifying the reasons why the Argentineans perceive his art in relation to the Argentine one, is an essential research task. Moreover, Erzia’s exhibitions of recent years, held in Buenos Aires, Moscow and St. Petersburg, were successful. Novelty: The uniqueness of Erzia’s work is due to his double mentality. He saw the world not only as Russian, but also as Argentinean. New cultural meanings are indicated in the problems of his sculptures and in the visual language itself. Erzia’s stay in Argentina is considered in the context of the formation of national art. Including the example of the synthesis of architecture and sculpture of representative buildings created by European masters. Although the 20-40s of the 20th century were an era of prosperity for Argentina, their own architects will only make themselves known in the 1930s. Many of them worked in Europe and Argentina. The interest in Erzia’s art before his first exhibition in Buenos Aires was prepared by the press. The articles emphasized that the sculptor would show the works that were successfully demonstrated in 1926 in Paris. The audience became convinced of the high professionalism and genre diversity of the master's works. A year after his arrival, Erzia turns less to marble and bronze, more to the tree of local tropical species - quebracho and algarroba. They possessed exceptional density, multiplicity of color shades, and expressive texture. Erzia’s works were formed in cycles. These are portraits and nudes, monumental images of geniuses of humanity, the theme of motherhood. A bold change in iconographic canons distinguishes the best works of the master.