Azat Minnekaev’s Paintings: Poetic and Authentic Visions of the Arctic

A. Minnekaev, Island. Canvas, acrylic, 1993. Private collection, Russia.

Azat Minnekaev has created a large number of paintings dedicated to the Far North. Looking at his canvases feels like standing before an open window into a world both familiar and mysterious. The Arctic landscapes are rendered so faithfully that many who have visited the high latitudes will surely recognize in his works a striking resemblance to what they themselves have seen. While depicting the sea, rocks, snow, ice, tundra, and low taiga, Minnekaev creates a grand, poetic vision of the Arctic that captivates with its beauty and majesty.

A. Minnekaev, First Snow. Canvas, acrylic, 1993. Private collection, USA.

His works often feature indigenous northerners—primarily Eskimos, Aleuts, and Chukchi—shown as they are rarely seen today: in traditional clothing, in kayaks covered with walrus hides. Minnekaev reminds the viewer not only of the recent past of Arctic peoples but of the essence of the cultural traditions developed over millennia. These traditions reflect the unity of humans with northern nature, the desire not to conquer it but to understand it, adapt to it, and preserve its beauty and richness for future generations.

The Canvas as a Shaman’s Drum

Once, Minnekaev compared himself to a shaman: “The canvas for me is a shaman’s drum, and the brush is the beater.” Shamanism in the Arctic was more than a spiritual practice—it was a vital cultural force. Shamans were keepers of folklore, rituals, and survival knowledge. They were also artists, carving bone and wood, painting symbolic images, and decorating clothing with magical ornaments. Artistic creativity helped Arctic peoples adapt to their environment, channel inner strength, and preserve their connection to nature.

Minnekaev’s paintings, resonant with wind and surf, are unframed—he likens frames to “a drum in a case.” Working in acrylic allows him speed and technical variety, essential for his restless search for new expression. He has earned the name ‘eternal wanderer,’ always willing to take risks and change course in pursuit of deeper truths about the world.

Life and Journeys in the Far North

Born in Ufa, Minnekaev studied painting at the Ufa Institute of Arts, worked as a stage designer, and in the late 1980s moved to Magadan. This began his journey into the Far North, followed by time in Chukotka and Alaska—both the mainland and remote islands like St. Paul in the Pribilofs. There, he taught art, painted, and immersed himself in local culture.

The Pribilof Islands became a cultural crossroads for Minnekaev. He saw parallels between the histories and worldviews of peoples on both sides of the Bering Strait. His time there inspired works such as Island, First Snow, and Two Walruses—the latter depicting an elder hunter and a walrus, shown as kin rather than predator and prey.

A. Minnekaev, Two Walruses. Canvas, acrylic, 1996. Private collection, France.

Shamanic Imagery and Cultural Memory

Minnekaev often explores shamanic themes. In Shaman Removing the Mask (also called Bear-Man), a figure transforms into the spirit of a bear—an animal revered and hunted by Arctic peoples. Dance Teacher reflects the human longing for flight, while Shaman’s Flight to the Land of the Dead shows a moonlit figure soaring above a silent, frozen landscape.

In Whale Bone Alley, based on real ancient whale bone structures on Yttygran Island, Minnekaev turns archaeological reality into symbolic allegory. The painting Nalukataq depicts an old Inuit tradition of tossing someone into the air on a walrus-hide “trampoline”—a ritual, sport, and lookout method for spotting game.

Legacy and Recognition

Today, Minnekaev lives in St. Petersburg. His works are in museums and private collections worldwide, with exhibitions in Russia and abroad—including Beijing, London, and Santa Fe. Though he now travels mainly in southern Siberia, the Far North continues to inspire him. Recently, he illustrated a story about a Saami boy named Sampo—another chapter in the artist’s ongoing dialogue with the Arctic.

A. Minnekaev, Shaman’s Flight to the Land of the Dead. Canvas, acrylic, 1996.

As art historian V. Shurgai-Vereyskaya noted, Minnekaev’s paintings rise in a “magical spiral,” constantly returning to the theme of shamanism, generating new images while preserving deep ethnographic accuracy. Cultural scholar G.I. Dzeniskevich summed it up well: “Azat Minnekaev’s paintings are so ethnographically precise that they could serve as vivid illustrations to many pages of the history and culture of the indigenous peoples of the North.”

Source: Mikhail Bronshtein, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Chief Researcher at the State Museum of the Orient, goarctic.ru