Show all images on one page	#007229 Title: The Black Bird (Chukchi Tale) Artist: Kiseleov Vladimir Size: 10x5.5x5 Size (inches): 4x2.25x2 Price : $495 SOLD!

This alluring piece of authentic Russian artistry was created by the talented Vladimir Kiselev from the village of Kholuy. Vladimir Kiselev has a talent that is thoroughly recognizable. His compositions are alive. It almost appears as if the action moves while one enjoys the piece. This comes from years of experience.
This small box shows several scenes from the Chukchi Tale "Black Bird".The tale tells that once upon a time in a village was a terrible winter, the citizen have nothing to eat, lot's of snows, some people has died. The winter has gone, spring has come, but all the time hunters wished to go to the Sea, the wind started to blow very bad, so they can not come out. The chief has mentioned a huge Black Bird on the top of the mountain. One experienced hunter went to kill it, but failed, then other one went-no result. Finally, there were nothing to eat in the village.One young, but experienced boy Choi-Choi, said, that he will go.Older hunters were laughing, but he went. After one day of walking he sit and started to sharp the arrow by the stone.
In an hour later the stone talked to him with a human voice and said, that it was here for several hundred years, but his back side didn't see the sun. Choi-Choi decided to help, but the stone was very deep in the Earth. After several attempts Choi-Choi realized, that he should do this tusk "with the head", not only his power and hands. So, he moved several small stones and turn a small water spring to the remaining stone. After the water has soak the earth, Choi-Choi has turned the stone. The stone after that gave a boy magic power in Magic words. When Choi-Choi continued his way to the Black Bird, that helped him.
Choi-Choi has come to a mountain, but the bird saw him and the wind has blow the boy into a deep canyon. On the next day he still decided to go and when the dark came on the mountain, Choi-Choi shoot the arrow to the Bird. He hit on wing of the bird and only magic words has saved him, because his body became as hard as a rock and Black Bird didn't affect him, and finally the bird was very tired and felt into same canyon .
The Chukchi people got the meat and fish and Choi-Choi became a hero.
The palette for this composition is undoubtedly cool. Kiselev uses this scheme to emphasize the coldness of the climate. This scene is an aesthetic pleasure to experience and the amount of detail and the amount of individual brush strokes boggles the mind. Gold paint is used to enrich the color palette.
The box is constructed out of paper-mache. Black lacquer covers the exterior and red lacquer covers the interior of the box. The box's exterior is decorated with luxuriant gold ornamentation. The lid is hinged and the box rests on four wavy legs. The work is signed with the artist's name, the title, Kholui, the date of 28 Oct 2012 on the interior side of a lid.