Aylana A. Chap

THE ART OF YURI OORZHAK (IN MEMORY OF THE MASTER)

The author attempts to study the peculiarities of the work of the Tuvan master stonecutter Yuri Oorzhak (1959-2023). The phenomenon of Yu.D. Oorzhak, a recognized national stonecutter artist who did not receive a basic art education, is undeniable. The gifted master independently mastered the skills of stone-cutting art, thanks to his diligence, he achieved recognition in the professional artistic environment. Previously published materials concerning the work of this Tuvan carver are of a reference, fragmentary nature, limited to small prefaces in catalogs of art exhibitions or articles in periodicals, more often regional newspapers. The author of the article reviewed and analyzed some of the master’s works from the early 2000s, as well as small plastic created by the artist in the last years of his creative activity. Among them are such works as «The Terrible Sarlyk», «The Little Hero», «Oitulaash» and others. Formal and biographical methods helped to reveal the general and particular features of the stonecutter’s work. The empirical and qualitative methods used in writing this article also made it possible to reflect previously unexplored aspects of the issue in the material. Early works by Yu. Oorzhak made of agalmatolite and serpentinite are mostly made in a traditional realistic decorative style, static. In terms of genre, his small plastic is quite similar, since Yuri Dazhovich preferred to carve compositions depicting animalistic subjects (shags, argali, camels, etc. in statics or dynamics). His works are unique in their generalized vision and decor, which demonstrates the dynamics of a static figure. Small animalistic figures are as solid and solid in their nature as a full-fledged round sculpture.