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Outer Space and Man in the Cliff
Art of Ancient Khakasia On 23 March 2006 an exhibition of works by Irina Batsanova opened in the Youth Center of the State Hermitage. Man and the Universe, Man and Outer Space, Man and Nature... In the third millennium, in the age of supersonic speed, the Internet and mobile telephones, we often turn to the traditions of earlier generations. We remember and interpret them in a new manner. This creative showing of works by Irina Batsanova entitled Outer Space and Man in the Cliff Art of Ancient Khakasia, which runs from 23 March until 2 April in the State Hermitage's Youth Education Center, shows all of this to be true. The cliffs of Khakasia hold drawings made by countless generations. The oldest of them date from the Stone Age. Drawing on stone was a durable tradition over the course of many thousands of years, extending into the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, then for a long time during the medieval period. The attribution of drawings to one or another archeological culture is often made by guesswork, but this imprecision does prevent us from placing the cliff painting of the Khakasia-Minusinsk basin among the monuments of art having worldwide importance. Perhaps they are not as well known as the masterpieces of prehistoric art discovered in the caves of France, but these petroglyphs are no less significant. Each year learned archeologists come to Khakasia from the whole world in order to copy and study the cliff drawings. Khakasia has its own scholars as well, and thanks to them many of the petroglyphs were saved from destruction. The project Outer Space and Man in the Cliff Art of Ancient Khakasia consists of copies made by the student Irina Batsanova and her teachers, archeologist Era Antonovna Sevastianova and honored artist of Russia Vladimir Feofanovich Kapelko. Irina Batsanova is a third-year student at the University of Culture and the Arts, where she studies in the Department for Management of Museums and Tourist Excursions. The copies which she has presented to the Youth Educational Center of the State Hermitage are the result of a summer's archeological practical work which she spent in Khakasia, though she has been studying petroglyphs since her secondary school days. Copies with images of monuments that today no longer exist were made using mica paper tape in a special technique invented by Vladimir Kapelko. It is likely that in visiting this exhibition many people will for the first time come to know cliff art or will re-discover it in some new way. Youth Educational Center of the Hermitage The exhibition is open from 12.00 to 17.30 |
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Copyright
© 2006 State Hermitage Museum |
