For the first time, the album will feature the Uzbek collections of the two largest museums at once - the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan and the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan.
It should be noted that Kazan and the cities of Uzbekistan have long-standing historical and cultural ties. Since the beginning of the 20th century, they have taken place in the format of various ethnographic and archaeological expeditions, thanks to which handicraft items and finds from the ancient settlements of Uzbekistan came to Kazan, the largest city in the Volga region.
As for interactions in the field of fine arts, they developed thanks to the artists, in whose destinies both regions were equally significant. These are P. Benkov, Ch. Akhmarov, B. Urmanche and others. As a result, the museum collections of Kazan have remarkable collections of art objects created on the territory of Uzbekistan or dedicated to the Uzbek land.
Experts from Tatarstan actively participated in the creation of the album. Alisa Lvovna Vyatkina, Director of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, and Rozalia Mirgalimovna Nurgaleeva, Director-General of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan supported the initiative of the World Society to create an album.
For the staff of the museums, the purposeful identification and clarification of the dating of objects of Uzbek origin stored in the funds has become a kind of research work. Work in the funds continued for a long time. Inter alia, Bukhara jewelry has been found in the collection including women's jewelry, ceremonial pieces of horse harness. Besides, the collection includes men's and women's silk clothes, elegant velvet belts.
Among the rare exhibits are also silk bons (money orders) of Khorezm from the collection of Dobrosmyslov dating back to 1920. The second museum is famous for the paintings created by artists born in Uzbekistan, in particular, by Chingiz Akhmarov. The paintings of a native of Kazan, whose name is inextricably linked to the formation and development of fine arts in Uzbekistan, Pavel Benkov, are also of great interest.
The authors of the albums are Lilia Ilevna Sattarova (National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan) and Dina Diasovna Khisamova (State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan).
The project is supported by the international oilfield service company Eriell Group.
New book-albums of the series will be presented at the 6th Congress of the World Society for the Study, Preservation and Promotion of the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the summer of 2022.
