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THE HISTORY OF THE COLLECTION

AND THE FORMATION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S

SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS

If we learn anything from the history of economic development,
it is that culture makes almost all the difference.

Max Weber

The collection of Kazakh fine art gathered by the A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts is the
largest and the most significant in our country in number and quality. It includes over 11,000 pieces
of painting, works on paper and sculpture. The publication of the catalogue of the painting of
Kazakhstan has become a long-awaited event for the Museum’s staff and interested public. It will
consist of two volumes: Volume I (A-K) and Volume II (L-Z).
The catalogue provides a comprehensive overview of the key stages in the formation of
Kazakhstan’s professional school of fine arts from its beginnings to the present. It focuses on the
school’s leading artists and their work.
The history of development of fine art in Kazakhstan covers less than 100 years. During this
historically short period of time, a form of art new to the region appeared. Art institutions were
organized, a professional school of painting was formed, several generations of talented artists
were raised up, and finally, artworks were created that formed the collection of the Republic of
Kazakhstan carefully preserved by the employees of the A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts. The
collection fully and integrally reflects the stages in the formation and growth of the art by Kazakh
artists such as Abylkhan Kasteyev, Aisha Galimbayeva, Kanafia Telzhanov, Moldakhmet Kenbayev,
Gulfairus Ismailova, among many others.
The basis for the museum’s collection was laid by the exhibition of 1935 dedicated to the 15th
anniversary of the formation of the Kazakh SSR and the 18th anniversary of the October Revolution.
A government policy directed at the support of fine art consisted in target purchases on a systematic
basis. Contracts were established with the artists for the execution of thematic paintings and the
subsequent transfer of those paintings to the Museum. Thus, the fund of painting of Kazakhstan was
formed with its further replenishment and scientific research being now one of the key priorities of
the Museum.
The catalogue includes paintings by noted artists whose work has defined the milestones in the
development of the Republic’s professional school of painting. The main stages of this development
can be conditionally divided into decades. Due to the state policy aimed at strengthening the
professional base in Kazakhstan, the Union of Artists was organized in 1933, the Art Gallery was
established in 1935, the School of Art was opened in 1938, as well as the first travelling and permanent
exhibitions were organized. Training was a particularly urgent issue. Invaluable for the creative
atmosphere was the arrival, by the invitation of Kazakh government, of the Russian artists including
Feodor Bolkoyev, Sergey Bogdanov, Aleksey Bortnikov, Yury Zaitsev, Valery Kapterev, Nikolay
Krutilnikov, Olga Kuzhlenko, Leonid Leontiev and Abram Cherkassky. The art and teaching of
these masters had a profound impact on the development of professional skills by local artists who
were taught to academism and the classical understanding of drawing, painting and sculpture.

ИЗОБРАЗИТЕЛЬНОЕ ИСКУССТВО КАЗАХСТАНА. ЖИВОПИСЬ 19