Biography. Buryat genius - Dashi Namdakov

Dashi was born in 1967 in a small village in the Chita region in a large family of a craftsman.
Dasha's father was known in the village as a man who knew how to make literally everything with his own hands - furniture, metal door handles, and carpets. His wooden sculptures of Buddhist deities and tangkas - Buddhist icons - were installed in monasteries. Therefore, from childhood, helping their father, the children learned different crafts, knew how to make things using different materials.

Dashi grew up in this atmosphere from early childhood, and therefore, by the time he grew up, he already knew how to do a lot with his own hands. But circumstances so developed that at the age of 15 Dasha suddenly became very ill, and for a long 7 years all visits to doctors did not bring any result. The young man was on the verge of death.

In the end, the parents ended up with a shaman, who explained the cause of illnesses and ailments by saying that people forgot their roots, stopped remembering their ancestors, remembering their names. The shaman performed her ritual. Incredibly, the pain subsided immediately. And after 7 days, Dasha was in another city and was looking for a job. That shaman predicted success for him, because Dasha had the ability to see the beauty of the surrounding things and embody it in her works.

Dashi starts working in the workshop of the Buryat sculptor G.G.Vasiliev in Ulan-Ude, where he hones his skills in working with different materials. Then in 1988 he entered the Krasnoyarsk Art Institute. Famous artists - L.N. Golovnitsky, Yu.P. Ishkhanov, A.Kh. Boyarlin, E.I. Pakhomov became his mentors.

After graduating from the institute in 1992, Dashi returns to Ulan-Ude, where he continues to work. In 2000, after the first solo exhibition in Irkutsk, it became clear that a new name had appeared in the art world - Dashi Namdakova. The exhibition made a splash in the art establishment. This was followed by successful exhibitions in other cities of Russia, successful shows abroad.

"Images often visit me at night," says Dashi, "when consciousness is in a borderline state between the real world and the world inhabited by illusions and spirits." Dasha scrupulously puts these visions on paper so as not to forget, and then skillfully transfers what she saw to another material - bronze, silver.

Dasha's sculptures come from distant worlds. From there, where there is no boundary between man and the universe, everything is there - particles of the universe, occupying a niche prepared for everyone in an endless stream of universal transformations. This is how the East perceives this world - finding beauty in its integrity and fragile harmony, fearing to destroy the order established by the Almighty with an awkward movement.

From here, shamans appear in Dasha's works, who still play an important role in the life of modern Buryats. The wisdom of things seen by Dasha pierces all his works. His warriors, tired of the war, do not seem like inhuman barbarians, but are filled with wisdom and greatness. Dasha's women are seductive and sensual in an earthly way, but at the same time she bashfully turns away from the artist deprived of modesty. If you look closely at a resting fallow deer, is it possible not to see a sleeping girl in it? Beauty surrounds us, wherever we are, but not everyone can see it.

"Perceive the world as it is, for its creator is wiser than you," Dasha's sculptures say, "then true beauty will be revealed to you."

The works of Dashi Namdakov, thanks to an amazing combination of innovation and ancient traditions of Buryatia, unusual plasticity and exceptional craftsmanship, were acquired for the personal collections of the first persons of Russia, including the President of the Russian Federation V. Putin.

Dashi Namdakov is a sculptor who needs no introduction. His works are made in the technique of artistic casting, forging and mixed media. The master's favorite materials are silver, gold, bronze, copper, wood, horsehair, mammoth tusk. Sculptures, jewelry miniatures, graphics - in all this one can see his original style, unlike any other, which is based on elements of national culture, traditions of Central Asia, Buddhist motifs. And at the same time, his work is clear to everyone, as if there is something in his work that touches the most delicate strings of the soul of a person of any nationality.

Legend (bracelet)

Excitement (pendant)

Africa (ring)

Africa (pendant)

Africa (earrings)

Lamb (pendant)

Gemini (neck ornament)

Nocturne (ring)

Babylon (ring)

Eternity (pendant)

Eternity (earrings)

Horse head (pectoral)

Rhinoceros beetle

Snake (pendant)

Truth (bracelet)

Capricorn (ring)

Mosquito (statue)

Lemur (ring)

Larvae (earrings)

Frog (ring)

Little Buddha (miniature)

Manta (pendant)

Manta (ring)

Mask (print)

Nautilus (pendant)

Rhinoceros

Aries (ring)

Octopus (ring)

Huntress

Panther (pendant)

Panther (earrings)

Spider (pendant)

Flight (pendant)

Princess

Enlightened

Birth

Cricket

Scythia (pendant)

Dasha's sculptures come from distant worlds. From there, where there is no boundary between man and the universe, everything is there - particles of the universe, occupying a niche prepared for everyone in an endless stream of universal transformations. This is how the East perceives this world - finding beauty in its integrity and fragile harmony, fearing to destroy the order established by the Almighty with an awkward movement.

From here, shamans appear in Dasha's works, who still play an important role in the life of modern Buryats. The wisdom of things seen by Dasha pierces all his works. His warriors, tired of the war, do not seem like inhuman barbarians, but are filled with wisdom and greatness. Dasha's women are seductive and sensual in an earthly way, but at the same time she bashfully turns away from the artist deprived of modesty. If you look closely at a resting fallow deer, is it possible not to see a sleeping girl in it? Beauty surrounds us, wherever we are, but not everyone can see it.

"Perceive the world as it is, for its creator is wiser than you," Dasha's sculptures say, "then true beauty will be revealed to you."

The works of Dashi Namdakov, thanks to an amazing combination of innovation and ancient traditions of Buryatia, unusual plasticity and exceptional craftsmanship, were acquired for the personal collections of the first persons of Russia, including the President of the Russian Federation V. Putin.

Dashi Namdakov (Dashinima Balzhanovich Namdakov) (b. 1967, the village of Ukurik, Chita Region) is a Russian sculptor, artist, jeweler, member of the Union of Artists of Russia.

Dashi Namdakov was born in the Buryat village of Ukurik, in Transbaikalia. Full name - Dashinima ("Dashi Nima") - "Lucky Sun". He was the sixth child in the large family of Balzhan and Buda-Khanda Namdakov, who had eight children.

The family of D. B. Namdakov belongs to an ancient respected family - blacksmiths-darkhans "darkhate". These families have always produced the best jewelers, craftsmen and artists. Only they were allowed to work with fire, the sacred symbol of chosenness.

Genghis Khan

By religion, Namdakov is a Buddhist. The artist's father carved Buddhist symbols, figures of lamas and deities from wood.

Buddhism is deeply reflected in Dasha's work. When asked what role Buddhism plays in his work, he replied that, as a Buddhist, it was even strange for him to hear such a question. On the wall of the datsan in St. Petersburg there is a marble plaque-bas-relief in memory of the first rector of the temple, made by the artist. The traditional images of his works are immediately visible - these are nomads, warriors and horsemen, sacred figures, magical women, family patrons of the Buryats: totem animals and mythological creatures. The viewer is presented with deformed, curved, elongated characters with disproportionate parts of the body, for example, elongated necks and elongated limbs. Almost all of them have Asian facial features.
Tsoi A. Dashi Namdakov conquered the State Hermitage Hermitage / / New Buryatia. - 2010. - March 1.

Until the age of seven, Namdakov did not speak Russian, he lived in the house of his ancestors. In this regard, he later noted:

“I had a full-fledged rich world, just a gigantic one, which was saturated with all kinds of spirits, animals, creatures. And when I went to school, they told me: “The whole world fits in this sheet, throw everything else out of your head. It's your sick imagination." And the world shrank into this leaf. I am 44 years old and all my life I have been fighting how to get rid of this sheet that limits me, I owe everything that I can to my parents, to my homeland. »

Dashi Namdakov began working in the workshop of the Buryat sculptor G. G. Vasiliev in the city of Ulan-Ude. In 1988, he entered the Krasnoyarsk State Art Institute, studied with artists and sculptors L. N. Golovnitsky (who came to Siberia from Leningrad to teach), and Yu. P. Ishkhanov. After graduating from the institute as an external student, he returned to Ulan-Ude.

In the 1990s Dashi Namdakov opened a small jewelry workshop in Ulan-Ude. “This money and part of the salary of my wife, who then worked at Sberbank,” he later recalled, “we spent on bronze. But casting from this material is a whole technology. It is impossible to do this alone - people who need to be paid a salary are needed. In general, I think that we would have much more sculptors if it were possible to organize this process more simply.”

In 2000, the first personal exhibition of Dashi Namdakov was held in Irkutsk.

According to Dasha, the results of this exhibition were a big surprise for him. Before her, he believed that his art was interesting only to the Buryats and Mongols, residents of the Irkutsk and Chita regions, but nothing more. And it was after this vernissage that Dasha's creative fate went up sharply: he moved to Moscow, his exhibitions are regularly held in Europe and Asia, in America.
- Bogatykh-Kork A. Jewelry by the Buryat master is worn by Uma Thurman and Glucose // Number One Publishing Group

The works of D. B. Namdakov are made in the technique of artistic casting, forging and mixed media. The works are made of bronze, silver, gold, copper, precious stones, as well as bone (mammoth tusk), horse hair and wood. Sculpture, jewelry, graphics and tapestries have a pronounced unique author's style, which is based on elements of national culture, traditions of Central Asia, and Buddhist motifs.

Dashi Namdakov's works are kept in the collections of the State Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg, the Museum of Oriental Art, the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, in museums in many countries of the world, including the Tibet House (New York) and Art Museum (Guangzhou, China). Sculptures are in private collections of V. V. Putin (“Elements”), M. Sh. Shaimiev (“Horseman”), Yu. M. Luzhkov, R. A. Abramovich (“Evening”, “Old Warrior”), others representatives of the elite of Russian politics and business, as well as in private collections in Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Japan, USA, Taiwan. The works of D. B. Namdakov are possessed by such famous and influential people as different in character as Gerhard Schroeder, country music star Willie Nelson, and actress Uma Thurman. On April 14, 2012, a monumental sculpture of Genghis Khan by Dashi Namdakov was installed in London. Sculptures by D. B. Namdakov "Masks" and "Actor" were the prizes of the All-Russian Festival of Modern Drama. Vampilov (Irkutsk, 2002, 2003), and the sculpture "The Owner" - the International Documentary Film Festival in Irkutsk (2002). In 2003 he was awarded the silver medal of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Since 2004, D. B. Namdakov has been living and working in Moscow.

In 2007, he provided art design for the film Mongol. In March 2008, D. B. Namdakov received the “Nika-2008” award “for the best work of the artist” in this film, as well as the “White Elephant”.

On July 30, 2008, the sculptor's workshop was robbed (moreover, they took away not only jewelry, but also molds for making them). “Everything that we had accumulated in five years,” D. B. Namdakov claimed, “was taken away in one night. Some people, of course, got very rich - God bless them. At first we had a panic, but then we calmed down. After all, it was not only my work, but also my colleagues - jewelers and stone craftsmen. But we set the task and completed the collection again on time.”

For a series of exhibitions in 2009, D. B. Namdakov became a laureate of the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of culture.

From December 21, 2007 to January 13, 2008, a personal exhibition of D. B. Namdakov was held at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, where his works for the previous seven years were exhibited.

In November 2008 in the Irkutsk Regional Art Museum named after. V. P. Sukachev opened the exposition of Dashi Namdakov "Transformation".

From February 26 to April 4, 2010 in St. Petersburg, in the State Hermitage Museum, with the support of Atomenergomash OJSC (Rosatom State Corporation), in the context of the masterpieces of the archaeological collection, D. B. Namdakov’s exhibition “Nostalgia for the origins. The Universe of Nomads by Dashi Namdakov.

From June 1 to July 31, 2011, in Kazan, in the National Art Gallery "Khazine", an exhibition of D. B. Namdakov "The Universe of the Nomad" was held, which was visited by the President of the Republic of Tatarstan R. N. Minnikhanov, the state adviser of the Republic of Tatarstan M. Sh. Shaimiev and Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan F. Kh. Mukhametshin and other officials. In total, more than four hundred people attended the opening of the exhibition, the total number of visitors was about 4.2 thousand people.

Amazon

Running

rich bride

Grand Champion

nobleman

Vision

Warrior of Genghis Khan

Memories of the future

Rider

Garuda

Pearl

Priestess (Mistress of the Taiga)

Eclipse

Astrologer

Centaur

space steppe

Nomad

lama with gong

Lama with a drum

Lama with a tambourine

The face of Africa

Archer 1

Madonna with a bird

boy on a cat

baby mammoth

Meditation

Mystery

Zher-ana (Mother Earth) monument in Astana

Sage

Nude with a pearl

kidnapping

wise warrior

Light of Shambhala

Steppe Nefertiti

steppe wind

Element

Swift

Sacrament

Uligershin

smiling

Ust-Orda

Master

Queen

Genghis Khan (statue)

Youth

Rage

Taken from http://sergey-v-fomin.livejournal.com/82022.html?view=193894#t193894

“... Nomads were distinguished by two qualities - military courage and unconditional loyalty. And on these principles, that is, on the principle of their heroism and the principle of personal devotion, they created great monarchies.
L.N. GUMILEV.

This post is dedicated to the Russian sculptor, artist and jeweler Dashi Namdakov and his work. Visitors to our LiveJournal are already familiar with some of them.
He was born in 1967 in the Trans-Baikal Buryat village of Ukurik. He was the sixth child in a large family of Balzhan Namdakov, who belonged to an ancient respected family of blacksmiths-darkhans. According to customs, only they were allowed to work with fire - a sacred symbol of chosenness. As in neighboring Mongolia, they are very attentive to the family pedigree. In the male line, the Namdakov family gave 23 generations over 600 years.

Dashi Namdakov studied first in Ulan-Ude, and then at the Krasnoyarsk State Art Institute, after which he opened a small jewelry workshop in Buryatia. In 2000, his first personal exhibition was held in Irkutsk, after which he gained well-deserved fame.

Ritual. 2001

Exhibitions of his works were held in the main museums of the country: the Tretyakov Gallery (2008), the Hermitage (2010), the State Historical Museum in Moscow (2014).

Rich bride. 1998

Steppe Nefertiti. 2001

His contribution to the creation of the feature film "Mongol" was awarded the "Nika-2008" and "White Elephant" awards "for the best work of the artist." D.B. Namdakov is a laureate of the Russian Federation Government Prize in 2009 in the field of culture.

Frame from the film "Mongol".

The main themes of Dashi Namdakov's works are nomads, warriors, sacred figures, legendary personalities, family patrons of the Buryats, totem animals and mythological creatures.

Khan.

Noble.

Nomad.

Nomad-2.

Flying, flying steppe mare
And crushes the feather grass...
Alexander Blok.

The exhibition of works by Dashi Namdakov in the Hermitage in 2010 received a very precise title: “Nostalgia for the origins. Universe of nomads.

Enlightened.

Warrior.

Most of the works of Dashi Namdakov are made in the technique of artistic casting, forging and mixed media. The material is bronze, silver, gold, copper, precious stones, as well as bone (mammoth tusk), horsehair and wood.

Old warrior. 2001

Old warrior. Fragment.

Dashi Namdakov's works are kept in the collections of the State Hermitage Museum, the Museum of Oriental Art, the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, as well as in Chinese and American government collections. They are also in many private collections, including those of President V.V. Putin.

Warrior of Genghis Khan.

Archer. 2000

Dasha Namdakov also has graphic works.

Disappeared, gone missing
Steppe mares herds,
Wild passions unleashed
Under the yoke of the flawed moon.
Alexander Blok.

Queen. 2010

Dashi Namdakov: NOSTALGIA FOR THE ORIGINS

“With the hooves of horses, the history of Eurasia is inscribed in the annals of mankind. […] The legendary Mongol cavalry, which terrified the Europeans, remained forever in the historical memory of generations.”
A.N. ZELINSKY.

In one of the previous posts of our LiveJournal, we already wrote about the installation on April 14, 2012 in London of a bronze equestrian statue of Genghis Khan, created by Dashi Namdakov for the 850th anniversary of the birth of the Great Conqueror.
The sculptor worked on it for more than two years. The British gave him a huge workshop in London in the very center of the city. The master found an interesting solution: the Great Khan, dressed in Mongol armor, seemed to stop at the very edge of an invisible abyss - at the border of Heaven.

The bronze sculpture was cast in the Mariani workshop in northern Italy, delivered to the UK in parts. Its height from the horse's hooves to the rider's helmet is about five meters, weight - 2714 kilograms.
A statue was installed at the London Borough Council of Westminster on an island-lawn next to Marble Arch in the north-eastern part of Hyde Park. The event took place as part of the City of Sculptures festival on the eve of the Olympics.

However, the appearance of the statue in the center of the English capital was not to the taste of some islanders.
“What were the Conservatives in Westminster thinking about when they decided to place the statue next to Marble Arch? Who is next in line? Stalin? Pol Pot? Saddam Hussein?” protested Labor MP Paul Dimboldenberg.

There is nothing strange, of course, in such a reaction. It suffices to recall some lines from the poem by Alexei Shiropaev that we have already cited:

Buryats, Mongols, Cossacks -
To the west, to the west, to the west
Where the capital shines
The legend, like a cloud, strives.

For offices, faxes and plastic -
The mystery of checkers and swastikas.
Look: on the bank walls
Horse foam pulsates.

Into your ribbed tunnels
Steppe snowstorms flew in,
And destroys computers subsoil
Empire of bronze and wind.

Tearing down curtains and curtains,
Will fly into your dreams
Cossacks, Buryats, Mongols,
Drawn by the surf of the English Channel.

Then the horsemen of Genghis Khan did not reach the British Isles.
However, today a bronze statue of their Terrible leader stands in the very center of London.

Meanwhile, the triumph of the Buryat sculptor from Russia in Europe continued.
In the following 2013, he became a laureate of the international sculpture competition "Pietrasanta e Versilia nel Mondo", which is held annually in Pietrasanta (Italian province of Lucca), a world-famous city where the greatest masters, including Michelangelo, worked.

Russian Asia in the Heart of Europe.

It was the first award of its kind given to a Russian sculptor.
Dashi Namdakov received the award and the title of "Artist of the Year" for his work on the Scythian theme. One of them - the "Royal Hunt", - made in the famous Italian art casting workshops "Mariani" and "Massimo Del Chiaro", was presented to the public and experts on the main square of the city of Pietrasanta.

What they saw captivated the audience. The well-known Italian critic, poet, doctor of art criticism Giuseppe Cordoni left an enthusiastic review: “Maestro Dashi portrayed the beautiful Queen - the Amazon and the Tsar - the hero. They are in a state of rapid pursuit. They are the nomads of Eurasia, where the house is a tent, and the roof of the house is the sky above them. The souls of the horsemen “breathe” with the boundless immensity of the steppe, on which they gallop. For the author, the steppe is the center of the universe, it determines the essence of the existence of the sculpture's characters. It contains everything that the heroes embody and possess: the shamanic spirit of their ancestors, the secrets of early Buddhist culture, the signs and symbols of ancient art.”

In the "Royal Hunt" there is something that is not often seen today: plasticity, elegance, lightness, movement ...

"I'm happy!" - this is how the head of Tuva, Sholban Kara-ool, responded to the success of the sculptor. “I am immensely grateful to Dashi Namdakov for the power of his art, for the way it brings nations together. For the fact that today this freedom and freemen of the Scythian King and Queen are already here in the West in bronze, in the very center of world culture, arouse admiration among the discerning public and critics. Dasha's highly artistic aesthetics is read by people of various languages ​​and cultures, connects us, brings the spirit of Asia to the most remote corners of the planet.”
"Royal Hunt" is a part of the sculptural ensemble "Center of Asia" in the capital of Tuva - Kyzyl, ordered by Dashi Namdakov.

We look forward to the implementation of this plan.

"On the horse-holes!" - comes the command
People immediately take off on horses,
And the horses greedily swallow the wind,
The wind of those irrevocable days.
Yulia SHISHINA

Historical justice has been restored in Buryatia. The monument "Mother Buryatia", standing at the Selenginsky bridge in Ulan-Ude, popularly called the Buryat statue of "Liberty" or "Hospitable Buryatia", was returned the name of its real author - People's Artist of the Republic of Belarus Erdeni Tsydenov. Until now, the well-known monumental sculptor Alexander Mironov in Buryatia was considered the author of the sculpture. The corresponding edit was made to the text about this sculpture, posted on the federal website "Culture.RF". "The author of the sculpture "Mother Buryatia" is the People's Artist of the Republic of Buryatia Erdeni Tsydenov," the material says.

Erdeni Tsydenov.

Note that I raised this topic in August 2016. It took two years to restore justice. The newspaper, in particular, wrote: “The authorship of “Hospitable Buryatia” is attributed to the Buryat monumental sculptor Alexander Mironov. According to MK, the sculpture has a different author. And this is the People's Artist of the Buryat ASSR Erdeni Tsydenov, who died suddenly in 1985.

The name of Erdeni Tsydenov is not known to the general public. He was born in 1934 in Orongoy, studied at the Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School named after Mukhina, a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, Honored Art Worker of Buryatia. Among his works, a brief biographical note posted on the website soyol.ru indicates a certain “Mother Buryatia”, dated 1982. According to his few surviving friends, they personally saw in the artist's studio, which was then located in the POSH area, sketches and a miniature of the "Mother of Buryatia" - an exact copy of the one that now towers over the Selenginsky bridge. Confirms the authorship of the father in an interview with the correspondent of "MK" and his daughter.

At the same time, in the biographical information of Alexander Mironov himself, posted on the same site (soyol.ru), among the listed works there is no “Hospitable Buryatia”, which is again strange, since no other sculpture (neither tigers nor warriors) brought so much to its author fame, reverence and gratitude among fellow countrymen, as much as "Mother Buryatia" brought.

Note that Alexander Mironov was a fellow countryman and student of Erdeni Tsydenov, worked under his mentorship, learning the basics of fine art. It was Erdeni Tsydenov who saw talent in the young man, and when the time came, he sent Alexander Mironov to Leningrad, to the same Mukhina Higher Art and Industrial School, where he himself had once studied. In 1985, Erdeni Tsydenov died suddenly - at the door of his apartment. The artist's workshop at the POSH (as well as the creative heritage - completed and unfinished works and sketches of the teacher) remained at the disposal of a capable student and assistant - Alexander Mironov ...

However, Alexander Mironov himself never publicly claimed that "Hospitable Buryatia" was exclusively his brainchild. Others always did it for him - journalists, art historians, colleagues, friends, attributing this monumental symbol to him. But Mironov did not refute, habitually avoiding communication with journalists, who would probably have asked him about how the idea of ​​​​creating “Hospitable Buryatia”, named with someone’s “light hand” the Buryat Statue of Liberty, was born, how the images of “Geser” were born, "Mergena"... What would he say then?

Few people know that the plaster sculpture "Mother Buryatia", which is difficult to distinguish from "Hospitable Buryatia", is still kept in the vaults of the Sampilov Art Museum. The older generation probably remembers her. A three-meter-high woman in national dress with a khadak on outstretched arms adorned the entrance to the museum, and once went to Moscow to an exhibition of the achievements of the national economy of Soviet Buryatia. The MK museum confirmed that Erdani Tsydenov was the author of it, that it was from her that Alexander Mironov scaled Hospitable Buryatia.