DOI: 10.36871/hon.202204097
Authors
O. K. Gorbonos
Novosibirsk State University of Architecture, Design and Arts named after A. D. Kryachkov, Novosibirsk, 630099, Russian Federation
Abstract
In the middle of the last century, the construction of the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station
on the Angara River became a symbol of the conquest of Eastern Siberia. The article is devoted
to the description of the Bratsk HPS as an industrial and artistic symbol of the Soviet
era, presented in the paintings of landscape artists of the Baikal region. Numerous paintings
depicting the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station belong to landscape painting and represent
an industrial symbol of the Soviet era. All the paintings related to this period are made in the
style of socialist realism — the dominant artistic trend in the visual arts of the Soviet Union
up to the 1963s. In the context of the research topic, the concept of the symbol in the visual
arts is introduced. From the viewpoint of the historical and cultural approach, adopted in art
criticism, the article examines the paintings "Bratsk HPS, 1958" by V. I. Bochantsev and "Bratsk
HPS, 60" by V. I. Ovchinnikov, which reveal the characteristics and properties of the considered
methodology of studying works of fine art. The similarities in the plots and compositions
of the works, allowed a comparative analysis of the two paintings to be applied.
The author concludes that the Bratsk HPS, as a monument of the distant past, is a symbol
of the Soviet era, of Newly Conquered Siberia and at the same time an industrial symbol, presented
in the paintings of landscape artists of the Baikal region.
Keywords
industrial symbol, Bratsk HPS, landscape artists, historical and cultural approach, socialist realism, comparative analysis
