Page 20 - Живописи

In the first decades the fine arts were developing under the influence of the historical
processes of the twentieth century and Soviet ideology, which defined the main directions taken by
the young national school of art. Realism became the main and the only officially recognized method
within which artists could create. The main themes were as follows: the pathos of the struggle for
the ideas of the October revolution, the victory in the Great Patriotic War against fascism in 1941-
1945, the poetry of labor of workers and farmers, the launching of factories and plants, the growing
industrial power and the development of virgin lands. Along with the entire country, the artists
experienced the years of hardships during the WWII. In the meantime, the state art school promoted
the depiction eternal themes and values as the beauty and grandeur of nature, happiness, love and
motherhood, that is, the spiritual-moral themes
In Soviet times, the fine arts and culture in general were fully subordinated to the
ideological principles of building a developed socialist society, to the communist ideology and
realistic truthfulness of art. Figurativeness, organicaly link with the life and labor of Soviet people
corresponded to the socialist form of public consciousness and ideas about the social function of
art. The study and creative development of realistic traditions in cultural production ought to be in
line with Soviet ideology, and therefore, invested in revolutionary transformation and the national
character. Those qualities ought also to be set in contrast to the so-called ideology of imperialism and
bourgeois directions in art. Accordingly, the world outlook of Soviet artists were initially formed
and defined by the socio-political tasks of building. The artists glorified the working class as the
hegemonic and the main builder of the bright future of the people. Therefore, the depiction of life
and labor in towns and villages was life-asserting and full of optimism.
Construction of the socialist state and the building of giant industrial plants were rendered
in the works by Feodor Bolkoyev (1886-1965), Yury Zaitsev (1898-1972), Nikolay Krutilnikov
(1896-1961) and other artists, who arrived in Kazakhstan from Russia. They featured large-scale
transformations in the mid-1930s – the giant «constructions of the century». Bolkoyev produced
‘The Construction of the Bridge Over the Irtysh River in Semipalatinsk’, while Zaitsev depicted
the construction of the giant copper plant in Balkhash. The artists strove to convey the poetry of
labor, to depict working instruments, locomotives, scaffolding and power lines. In glorifying labor,
they found bright forms of expression, the memorable characters and features. For example, Sergey
Bogdanov referred to Kazakh national images.
Kazakh painting, which originated during socialism, developed in the direction common for
all Soviet republics. Simultaneously, each artist had his own peculiar manner of making the fine arts
of Kazakhstan an original artistic phenomenon significant on both international and national level.
Among the first artists to support the national school of painting was Abylkhan Kasteyev,
the first Kazakh artist in honor of whom the Museum was renamed in 1984. His narrative paintings
and drawings and desire to realistically depiction of nature appeared in his devotion to the life of
the steppe nomad people and their indissoluble unity with nature. His great talent, sensitivity to
everything happening in the country and in the world, a passionate temperament and exceptional
workability, as well the willingness to express himself in different art forms have secure a unique
place for him in the culture of Kazakhstan. The artworks by Kasteyev, as one of the founders of the
fine arts in Kazakhstan, are of great significance for the museum’s collection, which reflects different
stages in the artist’s creative evolution in the period from the 1920s to the 1970s. Another large
section is the art of Aisha Galimbayeva, the first female Kazakh painter and founder of the national
still life. Aubakir Ismailov created a series of monumental, epic paintings devoted to the diversity
of nature landscapes of Kazakhstan. That is, the creative activity and artistic flair of the first Kazakh
artists were based on the best examples of traditional folk art close to them.
Adherence to the traditions of European and Russian academic art has defined the generation
of artists in the 1950s. The most talented graduates from the Gogol School of Art opened in 1938 in
Almaty continued their education at the leading art academies in Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov and
other cities. Upon returning back to Kazakhstan, they enthusiastically began to produce works related
to their national roots – native nature, traditions and customs and the traditional Kazakh way of life.
A galaxy of talented artists entered the Kazakhstan art at that time. Among them was Gulfayrus
Ismailova, whose life and work were inseparably connected with theatre and cinema, so many of
her landmark pictures were dedicated to the images of women – actresses, singers and dancers.
Active at that time were Moldakhmet Kenbayev, Kanafia Telzhanov, Uke Azhiev, Ali Dzhusupov
and Mukhit Khalimov. Their bright works have greatly contributed to further development of fine
arts in Kazakhstan. It is worth emphasizing that this period was characterized by a huge increase
in the development of national culture as a whole in Kazakhstan. The artists’ accumulated potential
and professionalism were expressed in thematic paintings, portraits and landscapes. The large and

20 ИЗОБРАЗИТЕЛЬНОЕ ИСКУССТВО КАЗАХСТАНА. ЖИВОПИСЬ