Kyrgyz Monumental Sculpture of the Sixties (1960s)
Multi-figure monuments in monumental sculpture.
In the 1960s, the development of multi-figure monuments in monumental plastic art began. In 1963, V. A. Puzirevsky (with the participation of G. Tupoy) created a two-figure monumental composition — a monument to the heroes of the Komsomol of the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars on the Young Guard Avenue in Frunze. In the rhythm of a marching step, a Russian Red Army soldier from the 1920s and a soldier of the Great Patriotic War — a son of the Kyrgyz people — are depicted here. The composition's structure and the techniques of figure typification reflected the trends of Soviet monumental sculpture of the 1950s with its affirming pathos, typage, and attributiveness.
Monumental sculpture did not remain aloof from the problem of immortalizing the memory of the heroes and victims of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 that faced the Soviet people in the 1960s and 70s. By the end of the 1960s, the entire country was engulfed in the construction of monuments and memorial ensembles, playing an important role in the ideological and moral education of new generations of Soviet people.
Young Kyrgyz sculptors who began their creative journey in the 1960s, such as A. Mukhtidinov, Z. Khabibulin, and V. Shestopal, joined the work in this direction. They created a number of monuments to fallen soldiers in various regions of the republic. These monuments were constructed from concrete. Among the best created during these years are the monuments in the Ilyich Collective Farm in the Kalininsky District (Z. Khabibulin, 1967) and in the village of Jangi-Dzher in the Sokuluk District (A. Mukhtidinov, V. Shestopal). The authors of the monuments sought to plastically express the greatness of the people's feat during the Great Patriotic War, as well as to find ways to convey the characteristics of specific Kyrgyz reality through typage and characteristic details.
In the 1960s, a small group of Kyrgyz sculptors was not yet adequately prepared to fully meet the social needs of the time and to fulfill numerous orders for the creation of monuments to those who fell on the fronts of the Patriotic War. As a result, in these years, dozens of monuments were erected in Kyrgyzstan by sculptors and architects from Moscow, Georgia, Armenia, and other republics, as well as by individuals lacking sufficient qualifications. In the overwhelming majority, these works were characterized by a poverty of plastic ideas, uniformity of plots, and illustrative interpretations. Hastily made concrete monuments, reliefs, and obelisks, executed at a low professional level, appeared in the republic up until the 1970s, which ceased when the construction of monuments was brought under the control of the party and government of the republic, the Ministry of Culture, and the Union of Artists of Kyrgyzstan.
