Few days ago, the showroom of the World Society for the Study, Preservation and Popularization of the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan (WOSCU) was visited by Sharofiddin Isomiddinovich Yusupov - Soviet, Uzbek potter, naqqosh master ceramist, laureate of the Komsomol Prize, UNESCO diplomat, full member of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan.
We could not help but take advantage of this opportunity, and took a short interview from the famous master.
- How did your interest in the pottery art begin?
- When asked this question, I always answer that my interest began when I was in my mother’s womb, because I am a hereditary potter. All my life I remember myself engaged in pottery, and now I am 78 years old. And I never thought of another profession and never tried it. Pottery is everything to me.
- So, can you say that the pottery art is your destiny?
- Yes, I am the seventh generation potter in my family. My eighth son, my ninth grandson and great-grandchildren and a great-granddaughter are also engaged in pottery. I am 78. Somewhere around 10 of them can be safely removed, leaving 68 years. And all these years I have been engaged in pottery art and craft. When I started walking, we had a workshop at home, about 20 by 25 in size, where I kept trying to break into, disturbing, of course, my parents.
- I think you did help.
- I thought I was helping, but in fact I was in the way, that's for sure. I have been working with clay all my life. My dad was a good ceramist, yet not so famous. And my mother was an artist; she drew embroideries, joy namaz, all sorts of belts. My talent as a draftsman comes from her. Therefore, probably, my works are in many world museums: the Hermitage, the Kuskov Museum, the Museum of Oriental Art, and the Museum of the Peoples of the World in Moscow. They say there are my works in the New York Metropolitan, but I have not been there.
- Would you like to visit museums where your works are exhibited?
- Of course, who wouldn’t?
- What are the differences between European and our Uzbek ceramics?
- European ceramics has already lost to ours. They have a good professional school, but there is no pottery as a folk art. This is rare all over the world. In Russia they say in some places they still have it, they still make it.
- But we still have more soul in our Uzbek ceramics than the Europeans, don’t we?
- Yes, yes.
- What are your impressions of the ceramics exhibited in our office?
- Here I can see classic pottery items, what claims can be made to such objects? These works are already 100-200 years old, then people were different, their worldview was different. When looking at modern ceramics, you can see many incomprehensible drawings that do not allow this plate to breathe; you cannot look at it for a long time. You stare for a minute and your eyes start to hurt. And when you look at our folk pottery items, you can gaze at them for hours, and you don’t get tired of them.
- You met with Shavkat Mirziyoyev, what can you tell about this meeting?
- He surprised me. I told him that we wanted to present him with a gift from the Rishtan masters, and asked: “How do you feel about this?” And he asked, smiling: “What kind of ceramic product do you want to give me?”
And we went to look at them together, I began to show him and explain the meaning of the patterns, and he himself explained to me in the same way as people who have expertise in art history explain. The two of us smiled and laughed a lot. He explained my work to me, can you imagine? There should be such presidents - as a craftsman, as a folk craftsman, and as a man I wish him great success.
- Have you met young professionals in Uzbekistan, whose works have a soul?
- Well, there is something in Uzbekistan, there is someone, but I have a claim to young specialists.
- Which?
- They just want to earn money faster, buy a car faster, build a house. That's not how a master reaches a high level, it's a long story.
- What advice can you give to future potters?
- Well, advice, they do not need advice… If they want to reach heights, they must know history. The history of these drawings, which are in museums, archives, books, they should study this. Watch, make sketches. We all took and take something from someone, so we need to visit museums more, read, get acquainted with art, ceramics, while money and fame - they will come.