The Mongolian national style painting “Mongol Zurag”. By ESU

Like any transitional period of time, the turn of a century is a cultural phenomenon characterized by numerous processes like the struggle between the old and the new, evolution, and mutation. In Mon­golia, the shift from the 19^th to the 20^th century was dominated by social chaos. At a time of world­wide crisis, changes in cultural thought occurred and new aesthetic and artistic concepts appeared due to the chaotic situation with its difficult conditions. This is shown by the history not only of the world, but also of Mongolia.

Like it had happened during the renaissance of Mongolian art in the 17^th century, at a time when the Mongolians were fighting among themselves and beginning to lose their independence, the fine arts of Mongolia were revived around the turn from the 19^th to the 20^th century. At this time, the Mongo­lians’ fight for independence was reaching its climax, and the resurgence of the Mongolian people’s national conciousness must have appeared like the dawn of a new era. During this politically, so­cially, and economically difficult interval, Mongolian painting, as one of the fine arts of Mongolia, entered a new stage of its development. Although it already had a long-standing tradition, at the turn of the century it found its own fixed form in the true sense of the word and developed into one of the national arts of Mongolia. Therefore, institutes of art history and influential scholars all over the world agree that Mongolian painting is an art form with distinctive regional characteristics.

The phenomenon that occurred in Mongolian art around the turn of the century was fundamentally different from the cultural change that took place in the Western countries. The latter was more re­volutionary, negating the cultural traditions and breaking the ties with the past. As far as Mongolia is concerned, however, the artistic traditions were revived and the long-standing aesthetic views and values were renewed and enriched. Mongolian art history shows a more evolutionary quality. Some researchers are now to a considerable degree comparing the ‘Mongolian style’ to those of other Eastern countries.

Although influences of other Eastern painting styles have been incorporated into Mongolian paint­ing to a small degree, scholars have stressed that beautiful and precious works of art were created by developing the artistic traditions of the Mongolian nation, the basic thinking of the Mongolian people, and the distinctive aesthetics of the nomads. To compare works of art representing the cul­mination of nomadic Mongolian creativity to another nation’s art with completely different basic ideas, world view, or aesthetics would be a gross error indeed.

Mongolian painting is distinguished from other kinds of Eastern painting by its choice of colours, its division of space, its painting technique, its genres, its calligraphy, and its patterns. Since these features are the main characteristics of Mongolian painting, they are closely connected to its artistic traditions, its basic ideas, and its world view. Mongolians have always thought the symbolic value of colours to be of the utmost importance, thus their painters have primarily been using the colours favoured by the people and have developed a theory of colour symbolism over the centuries.

Thus, deep blue, red, green, yellow, and white are the dominating colours in the fine arts of Mongo­lia. Researchers have concluded that what makes the choice of colours in Mongolian painting so special and excellent is that when for once a painter introduces intermediate shades, he is able to ad­just them very delicately to their corresponding basic colours. The reader will have noticed that the colours primarily used in Mongolian painting are the ‘pure colours of nature’, which the Mongolian people always calls by such names as ‘lapis lazuli green’, ‘sandy yellow’, ‘earthy brown’, ‘sky blue’, or ‘light blue like distant mountains’.

A combination of colours not harmonizing with each other is called ‘dirty colours’, and the paint­ings that have been preserved until our present day show that the painters always tried to use bright colours. Another interesting characteristic of Mongolian painting is its particular division of space. In Western art theory, space is considered to consist of perspective and chiaroscuro. In Mongolian painting, however, space is represented in a ‘bird’s-eye view’. Thus, the opportunity to observe things like a witness of the events in the picture opens up before the viewer.

Such a picture is usually said to have many perspectives. The creation of space by looking on the world from above is a characteristic feature of Mongolian painting that is found nowhere else. The calligraphic traits of the strokes are another means of creating space for the objects in the picture. There were numerous gifted artists painting in the Mongolian style at the end of the 19^th and the be­ginning of the 20^th century. The great heritage they left us has in fact become the basic source of in­spiration for the ongoing tradition of Mongolian painting.

It includes Jugder’s ‘Urga’, Tsagaanjamba’s ‘Gunjinlham’, G.Dorji’s ‘Procession of Maitreya’, Dam­ba’s ‘Monastery of Jaya Gegen’, and Sonomtsering’s portraits of the Tusiyetu Khan Nas­antogtokh and his wife. Moreover, the works of many anonymous painters are kept in the museums and private collections of Mongolia. Let us briefly mention the works of Balduu Sharav (1869-1939), a distinct representative of Mongolian painting and one of the founders of modern Mongoli­an fine arts.

The latter was very popular and generally known as the ‘Joker’. He is said to have been given that nickname by the 8^th Jebtsundamba Khutugtu. According to another source, the people came to call him the ‘man who does funny things’, or the ‘Joker’ for short, because he criticized various actions in human life in an ironic manner. Anyway, everyone agrees that B.Sharav was a very cheerful, hu­morous, and kind-hearted fellow. His character clearly comes out in his works, too. He pays great attention to detail, and he is a perceptive observer of his time. However, his pictures have a second deeper meaning, and his expression is forceful and caustic.

His works like ‘One Day in Mongolia’ or ‘Spring Kumis Festival’, which depict the way of life and the customs of the nomadic Mongolians at the end of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th century in a humorous manner, are by rights agreed to be the classical masterpieces of Mongolian painting. B.Sharav not only painted festivals, weddings, funerals, and other customs, but also showed the making of felt and the preparation of firewood, agricultural activities, the breaking of horses and camels and the branding of cattle, sex and childbirth, human feelings like greed, shame, love, or hu­mour, and even the instructors of the foreign armies stationed in Urga at his time. He immortalized the life of the Mongolians in those bygone days with its amusements, its religion, and its philo­sophy.

Some foreign researchers have compared him to Pieter Breugel the Elder, the so-called ‘Peasant Breugel’, but they agree that the latter could not show the many-faceted activities of human life on a limited amount of space with the simple and even artistic humour and truthfulness of the Mongolian master. Balduu Sharav was an artist of extraordinary talent and versatility. Apart from his traditional paintings like the ‘Green Tara’ or his portraits of the 8^th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, of his queen Don­dogdulam, and of other dignitaries, he also designed the first postal stamp of Mongolia at the begin­ning of the 20^th century and the banknotes printed in 1925, as well as numerous medals; and he il­lustrated revolutionary pamphlets and books, too.

In the 1950s, when the ‘cold war’ was gaining ground throughout the world and the bloody storm of persecution in our native country was beginning to subside, the tradition of Mongolian painting was revived by the efforts of artists like B. Sharav’s disciple D.Manibazar, the famous painter U.Yadam­suren, A.Sengetsokhio, D.Damdinsuren, and Ts.Minjuur. Although at that time Mongolian painting underwent some changes and there was a tendency to narrow down the range of contents, numerous works were created depicting mythical and historical subjects or animal life. Among them are, to name just a few, U.Yadamsuren’s ‘Old Horse-Fiddler’, D.Damdinsuren’s ‘Naadam Festival’, and A.Sengetsokhio’s ‘Camel Bull’.

It is marvellous how at that difficult time when all things Mongolian were being destroyed, Mongo­lian painting was revived and enriched. Soon, in the 1990s, Mongolia was again to undergo a period of transition. When the old system had been abolished and a new system established, national ideas were revived, and the Mongolians could breathe freely again after many decades.

At that politically, socially, and economically difficult time, the Mongolian fine arts, and among them Mongolian painting, entered a new period of development. The changes and innovations in the Mongolian painting style at the turn from the 20^th to the 21^st century revived the traditions of many centuries and in consequence incorporated their outstanding features. Mongolian painting is again evolving and developing with a wide range of contents and subjects.