The State Museum of Arts named after A.Kasteev - one of the oldest museums in Kazakhstan - keeps unique paintings of Kazakh artists, whose life and creative fate were connected with Uzbekistan.
The collection is quite representative and diverse in genres and styles. The artists reflected in their paintings and graphic works the originality and uniqueness of the Uzbek culture.
Galina Syrlybayeva, Head of the Foreign Art Department of the museum, presented the collection. She is also the author of an illustrated book-album about the cultural heritage of Central Asia stored in the A. Kasteev State Museum of Arts. The World Society for the Study, Preservation and Promotion of the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan is working on the publication of the book.
According to Galina Syrlybayeva, today the museum stores the works of 14 masters who have already become classics of the Kazakh art of the 20th century. Their interest in the Uzbek theme was reflected in 68 works of various genres.
Kazakh artists were also attracted by the historical past of Uzbekistan, the grandeur and uniqueness of architectural monuments, nature, everyday life and customs of the Uzbek people. Most of the works were created in the 1960s.
- In the 1960s, Kazakhstan witnessed an extraordinary flourishing of graphic art. During this period, many artists who then became famous masters began to work actively, and in their work they also turned to the theme of Uzbekistan. The graphic collection is distinguished by a variety of techniques. The works are preformed in the technique of linocut, woodcut, monotype, lithography, water color. As an example, I can mention the series Across Uzbekistan by Andrey Dyachkin and Portrait of an Uzbek Girl by the outstanding graphic artist Evgeny Sidorkin. The oldest graphic artist of Kazakhstan, Valentin Antoshchenko-Olenev, made several series of linocuts dedicated to Khiva, Bukhara, as well as wonderful sheets united in the Bukhara Folk Fun series. The largest master in the field of Kazakh watercolors, Uke Azhiev, repeatedly visited Uzbekistan, as evidenced by his characterful watercolor sheets dedicated to the ancient cities of the republic.
The artists of Kazakhstan have contributed to the creation of a collective artistic image of Uzbekistan, managed to show the traditional themes from new perspectives, in their own individual interpretation, Galina Syrlybaeva said.
Head of the Foreign Art Department of the State Museum of Art named after A. Kasteev also mentioned the unique works created by Uzbek artists. This collection is the most numerous and representative among the Central Asian republics. It is distinguished by a wide range of creative personalities and genre diversity. These are portrait and landscape, still life and thematic compositions.
The skills of several generations of Uzbek painters are presented in the museum collection almost in full. These are paintings of different years by A. Volkov, a native of Ferghana, U. Tansykbaev, a Kazakh who became the People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR, N. Karakhan, who lived in Tashkent from early childhood, Ch. Akhmarov, who moved to Samarkand in 1927 at the age of 15. The path of the older generation was continued by artists who came to art already in the 1950s-1960s - R. Akhmedov, B. Babaev, V. Burmakin, Yu. Taldykin.
All these unique paintings will soon be released under a single cover in a new illustrated book-album under the working title Collection of the State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan named after Abylkhan Kasteev of the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections series. As noted, the author of the book is Galina Syrlybayeva, Head of the Foreign Art Department of the museum.
- We are grateful for the invitation to take part in such a large-scale international project - the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections. This gave us the opportunity to delve into the study of the heritage left by Uzbek artists, to feel the peculiarities of each of them, to trace and analyze the ways of creating this wonderful collection, the author of the book-album said.
Firdavs Abdukhalikov, Chairman of the World Society for the Study, Preservation and Promotion of the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan, stressed that the volume on the collection of the State Museum of Arts named after A. Kasteev will be included in the series of books-albums Masterpieces of Central Asia. These publications will be dedicated to the museum collections of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan.
– The World Society together with the International Institute of Central Asia is working on a series of books called Masterpieces of Central Asia, based on the roadmap for the implementation of proposals and initiatives that the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced at the third Consultative Meeting of the Central Asian Heads of State. Due to the geographical proximity, our countries have much in common in terms of their cultural development. As a result of trade and other kinds of contacts, the museums of the Central Asian countries have become the custodians of art objects created on the territory of Uzbekistan. In the past, however, our territories were part of the same state formations. Monuments of such periods, which are now the heritage of the owner states, will also be of interest to our readers, as evidence of the commonality of borders and cultures in the historical past, Firdavs Abdukhalikov commented.
The project is sponsored by the oilfield service company Eriell Group, which has been supporting scientific and cultural initiatives and projects implemented in Uzbekistan for many years.
