Implementation of V.A. Vatagin’s method in moldovan animalistic sculture

Abstract

People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, laureate of state prizes, animal sculptor Vasilii Alexeevich Vatagin (1884-1969) followed a complex and controversial creative path. His drawings and sketches, which reflect the world of animals, are especially interesting and convincing in terms of their plasticity. Two characteristics of V.A. Vatagin’s drawings emerge clearly: the harmonious compositional distribution of images on the sheet and the sketches made in a fluid line, with thickening and thinning, as well as the use of tone. V.A. Vatagin positions the appearances of animals on the same level with a person’s, assigning them the same palette of emotions. Thus, the initial period of development of the animalistic genre in the works of the sculptors of the Moldavian SSR, Naum Epelbaum and Nikolae Gabzulin, coincides with the “majestic decline” of the creativity of Vasilii Alexeevich Vatagin, and this fact suggests the familiarization of Moldavian sculptors with his creative activity. The various plastic techniques used by the sculptor V.A. Vatagin, who oscillated between realism and stylization, led to a great stylistic diversity in his creativity. His manner of modeling and study from nature became classic and were taken over by artists of the USSR, and nowadays by other world artists. The contribution of the Russian sculptor V. A. Vatagin to the development of the animalistic genre in the Republic of Moldova is undeniable, significant and invaluable.