The Concept of a Romantic Hero in the Sculpture of Argentina in the 20- 40s of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century
The interest in the history and culture of Argentina in the Russian Federation today has a special character. It is believed that the presence of a huge number of immigrants from Europe, including from Russia, distinguishes Argentina culturally from other countries of the New World, makes its culture more understandable. There is a perception that this is the most Europeanized country in South America. To a large extent, this ideologeme is the result of foreign policy pursued by Argentina itself. At the same time, the process of the formation of national identity in here was complicated and did not end until the 40s of the 20th century. The relevance of the study is to reveal the inconsistency of this process on the material of sculpture as a document of the era, to show the rejection by masters from a remote region of the country, the province of Chaco, the prevailing ideas about the barbarity and savagery of the Indians and Gauchos, the original population of this province and part of other territories of the state. The novelty lies in the comparative comparison of the positions of the academic art history of Argentina and academic art in the understanding of Indian themes and in how it was interpreted by regional masters - K. Dominguez (died in 1969), C. Schenone (1907-1963), J. de la Mena (1897-1954), as well as in the art history analysis of significant works of the considered problematic and the romantic tendencies manifested in them. It is advisable to correlate the process of “Europeanization” of Indians, bloody and long-term hostilities in order to expel the gaucho and Indians from their ancestral lands with the understanding of who was the true hero of history in the creations of their descendants. The works of the sculptors Chaco, romantic in spirit, are related to the great J. Hernandez’s poem “Martin Fierro”. Today they are kept not only in the capital of Chaco, Resistencia, but also in museums in Buenos Aires and foreign collections