Paintings by Sabyrbek Akylbekov In the paintings of Sabyrbek Akylbekov, the color palette is restrained but built on complex subtle shades. The landscapes are soft and harmonious in color, and although the artist avoids bright colors, his painting palette is tense and accurately expresses the majestic, strict hues of the native nature. The canvas "In the Fields of Kyrgyzstan" (1953) is the pinnacle of his creativity during this period. In this work, the features of the new life of
Outstanding contemporary artist Semyon Afanasyevich Chuykov In the post-war period, as in previous times, painting achieves significant success. The interest of artists in genre works reflecting the labor and everyday life of Soviet people increases even more. The theme of labor reflected the creative pathos and labor enthusiasm of Soviet people engaged in the restoration of the national economy. The most significant achievements in the field of genre painting, not only in Kyrgyzstan, are
VISUAL ART 1945—1960 After the end of the Great Patriotic War, Kyrgyz visual art developed successfully based on the common methodological principles of Soviet art. The artists of the republic aimed to depict Soviet reality in all its diversity and to shape the personality of the new Soviet person. Their attention was primarily focused on revealing the spiritual world of the historical hero shaped by socialism, and, as will be shown further, not only in thematic paintings but even in
Artistic and Stylistic Range of Young Artists' Works Possessing a gift for painting, most of them take their professional culture seriously, focusing on the tasks of realistically reflecting the life of the people. In their work, there is a search for thematic direction, and a unique plastic language is being developed. A characteristic feature of contemporary youth art is the peculiar interaction of various figurative-emotional elements — expressive-dramatic when addressing
An original master of landscape is Naryn Turpanov. Unlike most artists, he immediately found his theme and style. While artists of his generation began to move away from nature, aestheticizing formal techniques, Turpanov presented landscapes in which the objectivity of the world resonated with particular pathos. His unexpected perspective on familiar scenes of nature, along with a naive-childlike impartiality towards nature, led the artist to a paradoxical result at first glance. The detailed
Kyrgyz Masters of the Easel In the 1970s, Murat Bekdzhanov established himself as a fine portraitist, not shying away from formal explorations. The logic of the formally spatial solution (the clear rhythm of various tones of color-coordinated planes organizing the space) in his portraits creates a certain psychological mood related to the character and spiritual appearance of the models (“Portrait of Sculptor E. Mergenov,” 1974; “Girl Lit by the Sun,” 1974). The artist also addresses spatial
Tursunbek Koichiev addressed the revolutionary theme in a monumental and generalized manner in his triptych "Women of Kyrgyzstan. The 1920s" (1968). The left part of the triptych, titled "First Letters," depicts two young women and a child in national attire. One of the women holds a pencil and a notebook, symbolizing the pursuit of education. The central part, "At the Meeting," features a short-haired woman in a leather jacket, a revolutionary soldier, and a
The creative program of Nurdamir Kongurbayev is clearly manifested in his studies. In terms of their solutions, they do not differ from compositions made in the studio without a model. In the studies, the artist actively and consciously transforms the real forms of nature into the given forms of artistic language. For him, the combination of objects to create a new, aesthetically meaningful reality is more important than the motives or objects themselves. The artist uses a given palette, the
The contradictory search for Sapara Torobekov. In his painting, two lines develop: tonal-plein air, lyrical, and decorative-formal, in which he addresses figurative tasks through the means of textural painting, with an overt aestheticization of the color layer. The first line, close to the formal-figurative system of the founders of Kyrgyz painting, is characterized by independence and completeness of artistic solution, while the second, to which he gives preference, has a more experimental
Thematic Painting Aman Asrankulov works in the field of portrait and thematic composition. In such paintings as "Mulberry Cutting" (1974), "Tobacco Pressers" (1974), "Mowers" (1974), the process of labor is depicted directly, allowing the artist to convey the character of the natural environment and the uniqueness of labor rhythms. It should be noted that he is primarily attracted to manual labor, where mechanization has not yet replaced humans and where a person
The working days and traditional way of life are the themes of Mukhtar Mukambetov's creativity. He did not immediately find his own style. After creating several works in the manner of E. Moiseenko, he sharply distanced himself from it in his intimate portraits of children. His life drawing revealed the strong side of the artist's talent—his compositional intuition. As for the color solution, the artist struggles greatly to overcome the darkness of the palette, the dull colors
Success was more easily achieved through traditional means of plein air painting, especially landscape or mixed genre, when a particular plot was depicted in a landscape setting. It was more difficult for those who sought an artistically expressive image through creative experimentation, primarily concerning artistic form and a specific system of visual language. And this did not always bring success. For instance, in the portrait of S. Karalaev, painted by Suimenkul Chokmorov in 1966, the
Jumabay Umetov is an applied artist by nature and profession, who engages extensively in landscape painting, finding in the living nature a source of his creative fantasies. In the landscape genre, he seeks original motifs of nature, demonstrating his heightened sensitivity to the plastic and color decorative qualities of natural realities, processing them according to the task at hand. And although painting in Umetov's work serves a certain purpose, in terms of its artistic merits, it
If A. Voronin early established himself as a realist artist with a distinctive creative face, then Alexey Nikolaevich Kamensky worked for twenty years in easel painting both in a conventionally decorative style and in a realistic manner, never refusing from working from life. In the formal structure of the painting "Oodarysh" (1970), the artist's fascination with ancient Russian painting is evident. On a neutral conventional background, several groups that are not plot-related
The monumentalist artist Vladimir Georgievich Butorin most vividly and originally expressed himself in easel painting. Unlike Bakashev, his easel works do not show the influence of monumental art. He works in various genres— thematic painting, portraiture, landscape, and still life. Butorin rarely works from life, possessing a vivid creative imagination, artistic taste, and a strong academic background in drawing, composition, and painting. This allows him to realize his fantasies not only in
Sabitjan Bakashev places great importance on the beauty of pictorial texture and the brightness of color in his paintings. The essence of the depicted theme appears in his works as starkly unambiguous, largely abstractly schematized, yet always sounding solemn and festive due to the significant decorative merits of form. Like most Kyrgyz artists, he enjoys depicting nature; however, it appears in a transformed, highly decorated guise, with a realistic, professionally executed drawing serving
Joоmart Kadraliev also resorts to the language of allegory, but his allegories have a more elaborate, narrative form of expression. For example, in the painting "Today. A Day Among Days" (1984), two seated giant figures are depicted, frozen like stone statues against the backdrop of an immense earthly landscape. The meaning of the painting is revealed in the interpretation of the global landscape and the cosmic scale of the figures. In many of his works, Kadraliev resorts to
Satar Aitieva took his own path in stationary painting, having obtained a degree as a film set designer at VGIK. At the beginning of his creative journey, he still relied on the experience of film masters, creating sketches for an unrealized film based on K. Dzhusubaliev's story "The Sun Has Not Finished Its Self-Portrait." In these sketches, the psychology of pictorial convention emerged, along with a love for pure painterliness and a delicate organization of color composition.
Mels Akynbekov is the closest to the creative program of B. Jumabaev. He turned to the memories of his childhood spent in the mountains and created several talented works in which he demonstrated a keen sense of composition, decorative use of color, and a profound understanding of the laws of constructing Kyrgyz ornamentation. His best work, "In the Alai-Ku Valley" (1969), provides a generalized image of high-altitude Kyrgyzstan with an indispensable attribute: a pasture covered like
Belek Jumabaev, endowed with vivid imagination and sharp observation, was the first to paint thematic works without an etude basis, rejecting plein air painting. The choice of themes also changed. While Chuykov, Aitieva, Akylbekov, and subsequently artists of a different generation depicted themes of everyday life, labor, and history with a high degree of realistic authenticity, as they calibrated each image with live observations recorded in sketches, B. Jumabaev mainly materialized his
Paintings by Kubanychbek Amankozhoev As mentioned earlier, the first artist to somewhat depart from traditional themes and the characteristic formal solutions of the older generation of artists was Kubanychbek Amankozhoev. The painting "Heat" is a typical landscape image in which the genre motif plays a significant role. The state of nature is revealed through the pictorial texture and coloristic structure, which, despite its decorative nature, is still connected to the solution of
Academicism of Kyrgyz Painters Kulchoro Kerimbekov, Jakul Kozakhmetov, and Altymysh Usubaliev, who underwent academic training, did not significantly influence the overall stylistics of Kyrgyz painting. Rather, they themselves were influenced by the founders, preserving certain features of academicism in their work. Academicism manifested mainly in the character of color solutions and compositional structures of the works; however, all of them aimed to work within the framework of established
Artists of the Mid-20th Century For the centenary of Kyrgyzstan's voluntary accession to Russia, Viktor Stepanovich Tyurin painted "The Meeting of the First Russian Settlers with the Kyrgyz" (1963). For this work, Tyurin gathered a large amount of study material, created portraits of the descendants of the first Russian settlers suitable for the painting in terms of type, and made studies of Kyrgyz life and ancient utensils. The painting is narrative in nature, where all details
Leonid Fedorovich Deimant primarily worked in the genre of thematic painting, often without any study material, relying on his imagination. Deimant was perhaps one of the few artists in the republic who was interested in the narrative aspect of painting, developing a detailed script in advance, where each character was assigned a specific role. This was followed by the process of constructing mise-en-scènes that would accurately reflect the artist's intent, and finally, searching for
Until the 1960s, Ignatiev's work predominantly featured Kyrgyz themes, primarily related to rural life, which led to a traditional blending of genre with landscape ("The Horsemen", 1960). This allowed the artist to address the problem of plein air painting, emphasizing the state of nature, which imparted a poetic contemplativeness to genre motifs, typically interpreted as eventless. Working alongside artists of strong and vivid talent, Ignatiev maintained an independent vision
A remarkable phenomenon in Kyrgyz visual art was the creativity of Sabyrbek Akylbekov. His thematic range was not extensive. He was a born landscape painter, possessing a rare gift for noticing and conveying the almost elusive aspects of nature. For Akylbekov, the most beloved form of creativity was working en plein air. He perfectly absorbed the lessons of his teachers (N. Krymov and I. Petrovichev) about the necessity of harmony in the tone of color planes when working outdoors and applied
The creativity of Gapar Aitiev in the 1960s and 70s was exceptionally fruitful: it was the peak of his landscape artistry. For Aitiev, as well as for S. Chuykov and other artists of the older generation in Kyrgyzstan, the foundation of the creative process was the work on plein air studies, which, due to their meticulous execution, could be equated to paintings, and often surpassed them in freshness of painting and emotional resonance. For his compositional landscapes, Aitiev typically used a
The restlessness of the creative interests of artists, sensitive to the most important aspects of art — to poetry and truth, to true artistic expression, that is, to the aesthetic modeling of the real lives of people and their spiritual quests, testifies to the life-giving nature of the process of development in Kyrgyz painting. This process encompasses the entire dynamic of contradictions both between form and content and within the very issues of form creation. Spiritual needs, reflecting
Integration of Artistic Cultures The international integration of artistic cultures has deepened and expanded, based on the commonality of the economic and spiritual life of the peoples of our country. This process, which has accelerated in pace, does not eliminate the differences between nations, which, as V. I. Lenin pointed out, "will persist for a very long time even after the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat on a global scale." The differences, determined by
Since the mid-90s, artists have increasingly participated in exhibitions both in the republic and in neighboring and distant countries. Among the most significant exhibitions are: the all-Union "Our Contemporary" (Moscow, 1982) and "Watercolor Exhibition" (Moscow, 1984); exhibitions of Kyrgyz art in Morocco (1995), India (1987), and Cuba (1989). Among the recent international exhibitions, the following stand out: "Ecology - Woman" (Bishkek, 1995),
Before the revolution, the Kyrgyz people knew visual arts only in its folk, applied form. The art of ornamentation was developed: it adorned felt and pile carpets, wooden, leather, and metal objects. The "ram's curl"—a stylized depiction of a ram's horn in various variations—was particularly widespread.
