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 traditions, which was most vividly reflected in landscape painting, to which all the painters of the republic pay tribute.
The most consistent academician was A. Usubaliev, who created a large portrait gallery of contemporaries. He had a free command of drawing and masterfully conveyed portrait likeness, but approached color locally, without caring for the coloristic and pictorial harmony that is so important for the local painting school (“Academician B. Jamgerchinov,” 1967; “Academician K. Ryskulov,” 1968). One of the most picturesque works is the portrait of O. Manuilova (1969), in which the image of the oldest sculptor of Kyrgyzstan is recreated with heartfelt warmth in a somewhat sketchy manner.
J. Kozakhmetov, after the painting “In the Detachment with M. V. Frunze” and the group portrait “Akyny” (co-authored with G. Aitieva), did not create works of the same level, but left a large number of masterfully painted landscape and portrait studies, as well as thematically interesting sketches.
In 1968, he painted “For the First Time” — a response to Ch. Aitmatov's story “The First Teacher.” The literary nature of the original source was reflected in Kozakhmetov's painting through the illustrative solution of the popular plot.
Kulchoro Kerimbekov is a landscape painter, so sketch work occupies an important place in his creativity. His landscape sketches captured various corners of the republic — the shores of Issyk-Kul, the Chui Valley, collective farm fields in Southern Kyrgyzstan, and the highlands of Pamir. The sketches are characterized by compositional and pictorial completeness and have independent artistic significance.
In 1967, Kerimbekov created his most significant canvas “Twilight on Issyk-Kul,” in which a love for Russian landscape painting, especially for I. Levitan, and knowledge of the characteristic features of the native nature are programmatically combined.
In 1969, he painted a cycle of Lithuanian landscapes (“The Neman River,” “Gray Day in Palanga,” “Klaipeda,” “Autumn in Palanga”), executed in a bolder decorative manner than all previous works, which influenced the character of the artist's painting in the 70s and 80s (“Construction of the Toktogul Hydroelectric Station,” 1972; “Cotton Harvest,” 1981).
Summarizing what has been said about the work of painters of the older and middle generations in the 60s and 70s, it can be said that the artists mainly continued to work within the framework of the trends that emerged in Kyrgyz painting in the late 40s and 50s, preserving their creative individuality and affirming such general principles as fidelity to life’s truth in creating an artistic image, and a thoughtful approach to the problems of form, which prepared the ground for the creativity of a new generation that brought the spirit of bold and serious experimentation in its tasks.
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