The hall of the Department of Art Exhibitions of Turkmenistan hosted the opening of two exhibitions at once: a personal exhibition of Rustam Abdullaev and a gala exhibition of works by 27 artists from Lebap province.
The opening received a huge response among artists and art lovers, which immediately affected the number of visitors. And literally, everyone was amazed by the freshness of ideas, brightness of colors, and charm of the characters in the presented works.
One of the first works that started the personal exhibition was Rustam Abdullaev's painting "By the Water". The unusual perspective - from a bird's eye view, at night - depicts a river with sharp bends in its course. The view in general resembles lightning flashes or the Milky Way in the night sky. Lebap landscape artists often resort to the theme of "Amu Darya", depicting a full-bodied river lined with dense vegetation along its banks, as evidenced by the exhibited works, but this presentation of the river in Rustam Abdullaev's vision is unparalleled.
Rustam Abdullaev is the author of a series of paintings called "Family". An old arba, which served as a means of transportation in ancient times, is presented in the artist's series as a family hearth, which is quite natural for a nomadic way of life. From time to time, the artist returns to this theme and presents a new story from the happy life of a young, close-knit family that lived many years ago on Turkmen land.
There are many good paintings at the exhibitions. Sculptor Bairam Jumaniyazov succeeded in his work "Portrait of Merjen". The master accurately conveyed the character of the girl - slightly spoiled, a bit capricious, but very charming.
The photo exhibition attracted visitors to itself. Remarkably, it never remained unnoticed by the audience for a second. The author, Ahmet Khalliyev, feeling a craving for the ancient Dutch art, presents his characters with brightly lit faces. As a backdrop, the master uses objects that were used to adorn the paintings of Dutch artists. Ahmet is a painter, and he presented several paintings at this exhibition, but photography is his hobby. However, his photo portraits are so good that one wonders if his hobby and profession may change places. It should be added that Ahmet is the holder of the "100 Best Photographers in the World" certificate, awarded to him in the still life category by the International Society of Photographers in 2020.
Women's portraits are interestingly presented at exhibitions: "Capricious Woman" by Rustam Abdullaev, "Thoughtful Woman" by Rakhman Umarov, and a self-portrait by Khizhran Gulamova. It is important that the portraits are psychologically well-balanced - they accurately convey the model's current mood.
There are attractive Lebap landscapes, such as "Early Snow" by Babamyrat Muhammedov, "Autumn Landscape" by Rakhman Umarov, "Etude" and "Our Workshop" by Dilaram Khojainova. Ykhlas Allanazarov’s paintings "In Summer" and "Chabans" captivate visitors.
It is noteworthy that out of the 260 works presented at the exhibitions, 110 belong to Rustam Abdullaev’s brush.
"There are approximately the same number of paintings in my collection, which also 'ask' for the judgment of the audience," he says. "But as the chairman of the Union of Artists of Lebap velayat, I wanted all the artists of Turkmenabat to have the opportunity to share their creativity with colleagues and art lovers.
"The Lebap artists surprised everyone, except me," Nuryagdy Yagshimyradov, Vice-Rector for Science of the State Academy of Arts of Turkmenistan, declared unexpectedly and proudly added, "Almost all of them are graduates of our academy, and I did not expect any other result from them."
The exhibitions have provided great aesthetic pleasure to everyone and a desire to visit them again, to review the works exhibited by the artists, this time in the silence of the hall.
