Monumental forms of art in Kyrgyzstan during the 1960s to 1980s emerged at the forefront of artistic life and actively participated in the formation of a harmonious personality of the era of developed socialism, addressing the pressing issue of environmental aestheticization. With the increasing pace of scientific and technological progress during this period, all types of ideological and educational work among the masses were mobilized, and a significant place was allocated to monumental propaganda as one of the powerful means of influencing the psychology and social activity of individuals.
Already at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, the idea of an impending rise of monumental art, which was "literally knocking on all doors," resonated from the pages of newspapers, magazines, and creative platforms.
The anticipated flourishing of monumental art, foreseen by Lenin, was heralded by stylistic changes in easel forms of art, with paintings, prints, and easel sculptures gravitating towards the techniques of monumentalism, artistic generalization, and expression. Monumental art, which had made a vibrant statement in our pre-war country through the works of I. Shadr, V. Mukhina, V. Favorov, L. Bruni, and A. Deineka, responded to the call of the time and asserted itself with even greater strength in a new historical cycle.
Centers of revival and elevation of monumental and monumental-ensemble art in the 1960s initially arose in Moscow, Leningrad, and the capitals of the Baltic republics, and then spread widely across all union republics, marking a new stage in the implementation of Lenin's plan for monumental propaganda. The vigorous formation of national schools of Soviet monumental art began, tasked with, on one hand, responding to the social demands of the time, and on the other, expressing the traits of the unique spiritual culture of each of the peoples inhabiting our country.
The commonality of ideological, worldview, and thematic settings, the connection to significant socio-political events in the life of the people (stages of socialist construction, anniversaries of the October Revolution and the formation of the USSR, victory over Nazi Germany, etc.), and the appeal to a diversity of techniques and materials—these traits are characteristic of the emerging schools of monumental art in the republics. However, the process of developing monumental art on any given national soil began and continues to this day with its own peculiarities. Here, not only the general patterns of the development of socialist art are reflected, but also the nature of historically established living conditions, the cultural heritage of the past, and the artistic experience gained during the years of Soviet power.
In Kyrgyzstan, specifically in the city of Frunze, until the 1960s, there were only a few works of monumental and monumental-decorative art. Among the most significant are the fresco portraits of the leaders of the revolution in the meeting hall of the House of Government (B. Uitz, O. Pavlenko, 1938), the monument to I. V. Panfilov (O. Manuilova, A. Manuilov, architect Mogilevsky, 1942), the monument to V. I. Lenin (G. Neroda, architect V. V. Veryuzhsky, 1948), the relief on the pediment of the building of the Prosecutor's Office of the Kyrgyz SSR (G. Arapov, S. Karpetchenko, O. Manuilova, architect V. V. Veryuzhsky, 1942), as well as the artistic design of the building of the Kyrgyz State Opera and Ballet Theater, designed by architect A. I. Laburenko and executed by a group of local easel artists in the 1950s.
At the present stage, monumental art in Kyrgyzstan is acquiring an increasingly mass character, expanding thematic and genre ranges, and enriching its arsenal of artistic means. Not limited to urban planning functions, it deepens the tasks of its figurative content, as monumental art "is called upon to fulfill, in addition to architectural-spatial tasks, its own ideological-artistic tasks related to the immortalization of the era."
The main achievements of monumental and monumental-decorative art in Kyrgyzstan during the 1970s and 1980s testify to the expansion of its ideological-thematic program and its connections with urban planning, which require the development and synthesis of the most diverse genres of sculpture and monumental-decorative forms.
In contemporary Kyrgyz monumental art, tendencies characteristic of the current stage of implementing Lenin's plan for monumental propaganda have intensified, such as the expansion of the national-geographical zone of action of monumental forms of art, an emphasis on the problems of their synthesis with the environment, and further actualization of the tasks of ideological education—international, patriotic, moral-aesthetic, etc.
In the development of monumental genres of art, alongside leading sculptors, professional monumental artists such as S. Bakashev, A. Voronin, T. Gertsen, A. Kamensky, E. Gerdyuk, V. Butorin, J. Moldakhmatov, and A. Momunkulov have contributed and continue to contribute. They specialize in various fields of monumental creativity, actively exploring new themes, techniques, and materials.
Importantly, monumental propaganda is now being carried out throughout Kyrgyzstan, reaching its remote areas. Monuments, monumental-decorative sculptures, and monumental paintings are being created in the cities of Frunze, Osh, Naryn, Tokmak, Przhevalsk, Jalal-Abad, in the territories of collective farms and state farms in the Chui Valley, Osh and Talas regions, at major reservoirs, and in industrial and resort zones.
Monumental forms of art are developing in Kyrgyzstan in close connection with the achievements in this field of creative collectives from other republics. The bearers of professional culture here are mainly graduates of central art universities in Moscow and Leningrad. International creative contacts are expanding. In the creation of several major monumental works in the republic in recent times, representatives of a cohort of outstanding Soviet sculptors such as A. P. Kibalnikov and K. I. Anikushin, Moscow sculptor I. L. Chernov, Leningrad sculptor V. E. Gorevoy, Kazakh sculptor T. Dosmagombetov, Moscow architects A. I. Pechenkin and G. G. Isakovich, Leningrad architect N. A. Sokolov, and others have participated. The technical assistance of fraternal republics in the implementation of monumental works is also significant. In Kyrgyzstan, due to the currently insufficient production base, Ural marble, Kurday granite, the uniquely colored and textured Armenian tuff, and smalt produced in the Baltic states and Ukraine are being used. The largest monuments in the republic have been cast in factories in Moscow, Leningrad, and Minsk.
