Anna Mikutova
Novosibirsk State University, Russia
Grigory Ivanovich Choros-Gurkin was the first representative of the indigenous population of the Altai Mountains, who received an art education and became a professional artist. His thematic preferences and approaches to painting were similar to a representative of the indigenous population of Central Australia Albert Namatjira, who mastered the European tradition of watercolor painting and was known world-wide as a watercolor artist.
Both artists are members of small ethnic communities grounded in traditional culture. Similar destinies, genre preferences and socio-cultural situation allow us to consider them in the same context. The creative methods of G. I. Choros-Gurkin and A. Namatjira were formed under conditions of cultural isolation and their intention to integrate into European culture. Both authors expressed their ideas about their native land in landscape. A comparative analysis of the socio-cultural context and the paintings of the artists allows us to find out the patterns of influence of the European painting on the interpretation of the national nature images. Landscapes of Altai and Australia in the interpretation of G. I. Choros-Gurkin and A. Namatjira reflect the mythological vision of the native populations, expressed by the language of tradition, brought from outside during colonization.