Treasures of Kazakhstan take centre stage in London

16:22, 13 August 2010

ASTANA. August 13. KAZINFORM A loan exhibition of Kazakh and Russian Art from the Kasteyev State Museum of Arts and a Distinguished Kazakh Private Collection. The Embassy of Kazakhstan in London and Christie's are honored to present a special and unique loan exhibition, Treasures of Kazakhstan - Exhibition of Kazakh and Russian Art from the Kasteyev Museum and a Distinguished Kazakh Private Collection in London from 1-8 September 2010. This selection of masterpieces of Kazakh and Russian art of the twentieth century will enable visitors to discover artistic developments that have taken place in Kazakhstan over the last 80 years. 75 extraordinary works that have never before been exhibited outside Kazakhstan will be shown, including important works from the museum's permanent collection, complimented by works from a private collection. In celebration of its 75th anniversary the museum is currently undergoing refurbishment which has provided an unprecedented opportunity for Christie's to bring masterpieces from the Kasteyev Museum to London. All the works will be returned to the Museum following the exhibition and will be available for public viewing in the newly opened museum's pavilions in early 2011.

The Kasteyev State Museum of Arts in Almaty was founded in 1935. Today it is the largest museum in Central Asian region renamed in 1984 after the most renowned Kazakh artist Abilkhan Kasteyev (1904-1973). Over 200 works, transferred from the State Tretyakov Gallery, Pushkin Museum, the Hermitage and Russian Museum as part of the cultural exchange program among the Soviet Republics in the 1930s, formed the foundation of the museum's collection. For example, one of the highlights of the present exhibition Abstract Composition by a Russian avant-garde artist Olga Rozanova formerly belonged to State Tretyakov Gallery and became part of the Kasteev Museum's collection in 1936. Later the curators of the Kasteev Museum acquired paintings directly from artists' studios, exhibitions and from the private collections of a large number of people who had settled in Almaty. The renowned Still life by Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin was acquired from a German collector formerly based in Leningrad, who moved to Almaty at the beginning of the Second World War.

The majority of the museum's collection was acquired from the Republican and All-Union exhibitions. The master works by Moldakhmet Kenbayev A conversation and A game of Kokpar and On the land of our grandfathers by Kanafiya Telzhanov, never before seen outside of Kazakhstan, are highlights of the present exhibition. In these monumental pictures, Moscow-educated Kenbayev and Leningrad-educated Telzhanov fully exploit the artistic methods of the Realist School in order to convey the national spirit of the Kazakh Republic. The late 1950s was a period of transition for Kazakh art, followed by the emergence of a Kazakh national style of painting in the 1960s, Kazinform refers to the Kazakhstan Embassy in the UK.

News Kazinform's Timeline Culture