ASTANA – “We are together,” the exhibit of Russian artists Alexei Talaschuk and Latif Kazbekov, has been on display at the Kazakh National Museum with the aim of deepening cultural ties between the two countries.
Launched Dec. 11, the show ended recently with a round table discussion among Russian and Kazakh artists, museum administrators and businessmen.
Kazbekov was born in Almaty and gained fame as a painter in Russia. “After the collapse of the Soviet Union the republics were somewhat estranged from each other. It is time to restore the connection and for people come together more on a cultural level,” he said.
“Cultural cooperation between our countries enriches us. Our main task is to understand each other through art and see our deep cultural roots. I think that now it is very important. This exhibit shows that we, our countries are together. There was some temporary pause, but we did not leave each other,” added Talaschuk, the People’s Artist of Russia.
During the round table, experts discussed the promotion of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg in Kazakhstan and the work of Kazakh artists in St. Petersburg in collaboration with the project, “Free Artists of Petersburg.”
“We can already make further plans. This exhibition is only the first step; we are planning to bring works of many contemporary artists from St. Petersburg to Kazakhstan and hold exhibition exchanges. Believe me, after a year or two this museum will endeavour to get the best artists in the world. The exhibition’s title, ‘We Are Together,’ is not only because it combines the work of two artists, but also because we are together with Kazakhstan. We are friends and neighbours,” said project head Yuri Saulidi.
“Free Artists of Petersburg” sets the task of preservation and promotion of artists who create works in the tradition of the city’s academic school of painting and those of the 1960s whose work was at odds with the declarative cultural policy of socialist realism. Their works were rarely exhibited and therefore virtually unknown to the general public. The national museum supports the project and in the future will continue to cooperate in the formation and development of a common cultural space for the two states.
The artists gave some of their exhibited works as a gift to the national museum. Kazbekov presented his painting titled “Swift,” while his work “Steadfast” was purchased and donated by Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kaspi Bank Vyacheslav Kim to the museum. The museum acquired Talaschuk’s “The Boatman” and the artist donated two other works titled “Kiss of the Goldfish” and “By the Window.”
