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[PEOPLES OF RUSSIAN ARCTIC] Evenkiia. Graviury V.I. Meshkova [i.e. Evenkia. Engravings by V. Meshkov]

Item #1528

Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1961. 7 pp.: ill.+10 ills. 38,5x29,5 cm. In
original illustrated folder. Folder rubbed, with tears of folds and creases,
pale water stain on lower edge, small stain and minor tear of brochure,
some creases on lower edge of leaf #10.
Signed by the author on an inner flap of the folder.
One of 5000 copies produced. Rare. Introductory text by N.
Ustinovich. Design by Iu. Kirillin.
This series of 10 colored linocuts are dedicated to the country
of Evenks, the indigenous people of the Russian North. Evenk National
Okrug (also called Evenkia) was an administrative division within
Krasnoyarsk Krai since 1930.
The series was created by Soviet artist Vladimir Meshkov
(1919-2012) who was raised in the Irkutsk region and embarked on
linocut technique while he was studying in school. Soon Meshkov
illustrated city and region periodicals of Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk
territorial divisions. In 1939, the artist moved to the Russian North, to Evenkia and joined employees of a local newspaper. This move
played a decisive role in his art while his linocuts influenced the local
newspaper and a level of literacy at the territory. Meshkov frequently
applied a poster-style method to those illustrations and an elementary
comparison principle to make the periodical more clear. Also, linocut
prints were published in series “So It Was And So It Is”, “Past and Present
of Evenkia”, “Hospital vs Shaman”, etc. Meshkov himself joked that he
spent a whole cart of linoleum from Krasnoyarsk. The 1940-1941 All-
Soviet Agricultural Exhibition was the first show that exhibited Evenki
works by Meshkov. He survived the Great Patriotic War and came back
to Krasnoyarsk Krai. He returned to illustrating periodicals, books and
also published a book “Newspaper Engraving in Linoleum and Wood”
adopted as a manual for novice engravers. Meshkov traveled a lot across
Siberia but always came back to Evenkia and explored the territory
by deers, airplanes, boats or on foot. Finally he mastered colored lino
printing and his first work in the technique was “In Tura”, No. 8 of this
series. The reproductions demonstrate Northern lights illuminating
daily life and work of Evenki, their households and reindeers. After the
series “Evenkia” (1961), Meshkov published series “Northern Dawns”
(1966), “Taimyr” (1974), “Yenisei North” (1975).

Worldcat shows
copies located
in University of
Hawaii, Amherst
College.

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