The graphic artist and painter Nikolay Gavrilovich Zaslavsky (1921–1991) was born in Volodarka, the Kyiv region. He studied at the Krasnodar Art College and went through the severe experience of participating in the Great Patriotic War. However, his work is full of images of peaceful life — bright landscapes, still lifes, and portraits of his contemporaries.
The artist lived and worked in the Russian Far East for forty years and was the first director of the children’s art school in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. During his numerous trips to Khabarovsk Krai, the Baikal-Amur Mainline and Sakhalin, he collected a lot of material for his work.
“Boulders of Sikachi-Alyan” is a work with multiple grounds. The Amur River near the Sikachi-Alyan village is depicted on a cloudy day, the pictorial space is mostly occupied by stormy waves, with their pearly gray foam contrasting with the forest and hills. At the same time, the artist deliberately raises the horizon line and uses a small-scale format to emphasize the greatness of the mighty river with its mysteries and legends.
The center of the painting is occupied by a multi-ton boulder, corroded as time passed; smaller rocks are arranged in a semicircle around it, creating an impression that the mythical ruler of the river, the Black Dragon Puymur, is rising from the water. A long time ago, these pieces of basalt chipped off the neighboring rocks and were brought to this place by drift ice.
The rock’s surface, smoothened by waves, has deep grooves carved by an unknown artist: patterns, figures of people and animals, hunting and fishing scenes, shamanic masks, and mysterious symbols. This encrypted message shares the story of life in the preliterate era, sacred bits of knowledge about nature, people, the universe, and the enduring power of art.
There are several legends as to how these images came to be. According to one of them, there was a time when three suns were shining above the world, and all living things were dying of the heat and rocks were melting. A hunter named Hado shot down two of the three suns with his arrows, sparing only the one in the middle. A young woman named Myamelchji drew birds and animals on the stones while they were still soft.
The petroglyphs of Sikachi-Alyan are the most famous rock carvings of Khabarovsk Krai. The basalt boulders with the petroglyphs are located on the right bank of the Amur River between the villages Sikachi-Alyan and Malyshevo, 75 kilometers from Khabarovsk.
The artist lived and worked in the Russian Far East for forty years and was the first director of the children’s art school in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. During his numerous trips to Khabarovsk Krai, the Baikal-Amur Mainline and Sakhalin, he collected a lot of material for his work.
“Boulders of Sikachi-Alyan” is a work with multiple grounds. The Amur River near the Sikachi-Alyan village is depicted on a cloudy day, the pictorial space is mostly occupied by stormy waves, with their pearly gray foam contrasting with the forest and hills. At the same time, the artist deliberately raises the horizon line and uses a small-scale format to emphasize the greatness of the mighty river with its mysteries and legends.
The center of the painting is occupied by a multi-ton boulder, corroded as time passed; smaller rocks are arranged in a semicircle around it, creating an impression that the mythical ruler of the river, the Black Dragon Puymur, is rising from the water. A long time ago, these pieces of basalt chipped off the neighboring rocks and were brought to this place by drift ice.
The rock’s surface, smoothened by waves, has deep grooves carved by an unknown artist: patterns, figures of people and animals, hunting and fishing scenes, shamanic masks, and mysterious symbols. This encrypted message shares the story of life in the preliterate era, sacred bits of knowledge about nature, people, the universe, and the enduring power of art.
There are several legends as to how these images came to be. According to one of them, there was a time when three suns were shining above the world, and all living things were dying of the heat and rocks were melting. A hunter named Hado shot down two of the three suns with his arrows, sparing only the one in the middle. A young woman named Myamelchji drew birds and animals on the stones while they were still soft.
The petroglyphs of Sikachi-Alyan are the most famous rock carvings of Khabarovsk Krai. The basalt boulders with the petroglyphs are located on the right bank of the Amur River between the villages Sikachi-Alyan and Malyshevo, 75 kilometers from Khabarovsk.
