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 are meant to provide insight into the past and reveal the artist's thought about the fellowship of peoples that emerged a hundred years ago. Among Tyurin's successful works on contemporary themes are "On the New Road from Frunze to Osh" (1965) and "At the Winter Pasture" (1967). V. S. Tyurin, a participant in World War II, painted "Salute of Victory" (1985), depicting Red Square illuminated by the flashes of fireworks and searchlights, recreating the atmosphere of May 1945, which he witnessed as one of the searchlight operators.
He resolves all his paintings in a mixed genre, combining narrative with landscape.
In the historical genre, Alexander Ivanovich Dukhanin worked in the 1960s, creating the painting "Strike in Sulyukt" (1968-1969), in which, unlike L. Deimant, he diligently relied on documentary and study material.
Compositionally, the work is divided into two planes: the first, shaded plane unfolds a multi-figure scene, revealing the meaning of the event in a narrative manner, while the second presents a brightly sunlit landscape with a crowd of workers rushing to help the arrested strikers.
Through carefully crafted details and compositional techniques in thematic paintings, Dukhanin aligns with the academicism of the late 1940s to early 1950s. His paintings on contemporary themes, such as "Electrification" and "Electrification Continues" (1969), are painted in the same manner.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Dukhanin began to prefer landscapes, depicting the vast expanses of mountainous or Issyk-Kul nature, striving for figurative generalization while maintaining his favorite style of smooth painting with an accurate depiction of the state of nature and its materiality.
An artist working in various genres is David Naftulovich Fleckman. In his works of the 1960s and 1970s, thematic paintings, portraits, and landscapes continue to be present. Distinguished by exceptional diligence, Fleckman typically works simultaneously in various genres, most successfully in portrait studies that are painted lightly and harmoniously, as well as in landscapes that are always true to the state of nature and portraiture.
In his thematic works, he presents a generalized-symbolic image of Kyrgyzstan ("Among the Mountains," 1984), youth themes ("In the Youth Workshop," 1960; "In the Mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Geologists," 1963) with a desire for monumental artistic solutions.
In his portrait gallery (studies and compositional portraits), Fleckman shows interest in socially significant models. Most portraits are resolved in a chamber style, with attention to the inner world of the depicted individuals ("Portrait of the Hero of Socialist Labor A. Makishev," 1978). A portrait that has become part of the main collection of Kyrgyz painting is "Kumuz Player Osmonov" (1964).
Painting