Rusinian ethnic motives in works by the artist Mikhail Gardubey

The paper is devoted to the creative life and works of the artist Mikhail Gardubey, who lives in Tyumen (Western Siberia, Russia). He continues the traditions of an original art school which developed in the early 20th century in Uzhgorod and combined different styles of West European art culture with local ethnic motives. The representatives of this school could imprint and artistically conceptualise the outlook, national mythology and everyday life of the Rusins. Using the personal memories of the artist relating to the 1950s, the author reconstructs some elements of traditional culture and everyday life of a Carpatho-Rusinian village of Kamyanskoye, Irshavsky district, Transcarpathian Region, Ukraine, including features of calendar ritualism, folklore and architecture of Transcarpathian Rusins, which are reflected in Gardubey's works of art. The paper also discusses figurative perception of the Carpatho-Rusinian world in the fine arts. The analysis of Mikhail Gardubey's creativity demonstrates that the traditional Rusinian culture was preserved in the deep countryside in spite of the state policy and ethnocultural orientations of local elites, so Gardubey's paintings convey moral and cultural values that have become the foundation for Rusinian self-identification and recognition of their special place in the East Slavic world.

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