WHEN THE BRUSH IS IN THE HANDS OF THE MASTER ...

The Museum of Fine Arts hosts exhibitions of works by two artists - Dzhumadurdy Bekdurdyev and Robert Khakimov. These are two Turkmen artists of the same age. The year of their birth is 1941. Unfortunately, Dzhumadurdy Bekdurdyev is no longer with us, and Robert Khakimov also moved to Russia. But their paintings, reflecting the rich creative world of Turkmen artists, who would celebrate their 80th anniversary this year, remained in the museum.

The work of these talented artists is of great interest. Moreover, parallel expositions of their paintings inadvertently reveal a lot in common. However, there is an explanation for this. Both artists were educated at the Turkmen State Art School, they had the same teachers, the same requirements were imposed on them, they lived the same events with society. Both Dzhumadurdy Bekdurdyev and Robert Khakimov are outstanding representatives of the painting of their time, that is, socialist realism, an obligatory genre that kept artists within certain limits. One of the most valuable achievements that came with the independence of Turkmenistan is to paint as the artist's heart suggests.

And, nevertheless, the realistic genre had a positive effect on the formation of several generations of artists - after all, it is the basis for all other areas of painting. Even today, most teachers require their students to first master the realistic proportions of the world around them and only then try themselves in other genres.

The exhibition begins with a self-portrait by Jumadurdy Bekdurdyev. A young guy with an inquisitive purposeful gaze is looking at the visitors. The national red shirt is evidence of his inextricable bond with the Turkmen people. However, all his work is about this. Take, for example, the painting "Seeing Off". A huge dry tree symbolizes time, life patterns and puts nature and man on the same plane. As chicks leave their nests in due time, so people see off their sons to an independent life.

The direction of symbolism in painting has, as a rule, a sacred character.

Livestock breeders became frequent heroes of Dzhumadurdy Bekdurdyev's paintings. The painting "Sheared" tells about the shearing of camels. It would seem that it is an unremarkable moment in the life of livestock breeders, but the artist saw and managed to produce a highly artistic transmission of this working process. The monochromatic sand coloring enhances the originality of the canvas.

"Water Hole" - a picture where cattle and small cattle came to quench their thirst. And again, the artist presented this daily routine in animal husbandry in an unusual way - in the form of a flower. As a true Turkmen, he cannot ignore the topic of children. So, his work "Family" appears, from which there is an air of love and adoration between dad and children. And then another one - "The game of alchiki". And if in the first picture elements of monumentality can be traced, then in the second one an unusual angle from above is used. The peculiarity of Jumadurdy Bekdurdyev's work is that each of his paintings, no matter what the artist writes about, has its own flavor.

Robert Khakimov, unlike Jumadurda Bekdurdyev, is a purely urban artist. And, nevertheless, he could not deny himself the image on the canvas of a plant, popularly nicknamed "the goitered bowl", which saves the inhabitants of the desert from exhausting thirst. The artist often resorts to still lifes in his work. And most often these are still lifes-dedication. For example, "In Memory of Mamed Mamedov", where one of the central subjects of the still life is a book dedicated to this wonderful artist.

One of the interesting works presented at the exhibition is the painting "Old Age". The artist depicted a wrecked tree, but pink and blue highlights play around it as memories of a once beautiful life.

For students of the Academy of Arts, this exhibition is a visual teaching aid that tells that realism in combination with elements of other directions gives excellent results if the brush is in the hands of the master.

Tamara Glazunova

Photo: Yuri Shkurin

When the brush is in the hands of the master ... (turkmenistan.gov.tm)