The phenomenon of ornamentalism in the work of M.M. Nosov as a transition stage from folklore canon to professional art of Yakutia

Abstract

The article addresses the transformation of traditional Yakut culture into professional fine arts at the turn of the 20th century and during the Soviet period. The emergence of the national school of art became a crucial factor in preserving ethnocultural identity amidst modernisation. At this turning point of transition from traditional folklore thinking to academic realism, Mikhail Nosov — a painter, ethnographer and researcher — emerged as a key syncretic figure. A monographic study of his heritage reveals the mechanisms of integrating the visual language of folk plastic arts into individual artistic creation. The study aims to comprehensively analyse the role of traditional heritage as the foundation of M.M. Nosov’s oeuvre. Through the lens of folklore origins in the works of M.M. Nosov, the paper explores the phenomenon of his ‘ornamentalism’ and defines the stylistic markers of the transition period.

The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach implemented through the synergy of three analytical methods. The formal-stylistic tool is applied to study the pictorial plasticity of the works, the specific rhythmic organisation of the canvas and the artist's fused, flat-decorative style of painting. The iconographic approach is employed for a detailed analysis of landmark paintings and the decoding of the visual codes of the Olonkho epic. The cultural-anthropological method allows for the interpretation of the semantics of traditional everyday life, costume and ritual practices recorded in the author’s four-volume ethnographic atlas. In the course of the study, the master’s creative evolution has been traced: from the period of strict documentary descriptiveness and documentation of material culture (in the paintings and graphic works of the 1920s–1930s) to the creation of mature easel works and epic canvases (“The Dance of the Ancient Yakuts”, “The Yakut Still Life”, “The Erkeeni Valley”).The objective stylistic limitations of the transition phase (reduction of spatial depth, flatness, factual accuracy) are identified, and their gradual overcoming in his late career is demonstrated.