ASTANA – The Almaty Museum of Arts has opened a major exhibition exploring the development of Kazakh sculpture over seven decades.
Photo credit: almaty.art
The exhibition, titled “Müsinder: Sculpture in Kazakhstan from the 1950s to the Present Day,” opened on Sept. 8 in the museum’s Saryarka Hall and brings together more than 50 works by several generations of Kazakh artists, reported the museum’s press office. The project is curated by art historian Aliya Tiesenhausen and is part of the museum’s first-anniversary programme.
Among the artists represented are Khakimzhan Nauryzbayev, Isaac Itkind, Erkin Mergenov, Madina Zholdybek, Rysbek Akhmetov, Moldaqul Narymbetov, Yerbossyn Meldibekov and Aruzhan Zhumabek.
Rather than presenting a strictly chronological history, the exhibition examines how the language of sculpture has changed from the Soviet period to contemporary Kazakhstan. The works explore themes including the human body, memory, family, identity and social change.
Photo credit: almaty.art
The title refers to the Kazakh word “musin,” which can mean both “sculpture” and “human figure.” The human body therefore becomes a central element of the exhibition, allowing artists from different periods to reflect on society and personal experience.
The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections. One of them, “Game of Opposites?”, focuses on sculpture from the late 1950s through the early 1990s and examines the tension between officially accepted artistic practices and more individual approaches developed by artists in their studios. Works by Isaac Itkind and Erkin Mergenov demonstrate the emergence of more personal forms of sculptural expression during the Soviet period.
Later sections turn to contemporary approaches to the human body and its relationship with politics, culture, gender and personal experience. The exhibition thus connects works created under very different historical circumstances, highlighting changes in artistic materials, techniques and interpretations of the human figure.
According to curator Aliya Tiesenhausen, the exhibition presents sculpture as a “living artistic process” rather than simply a historical record. Soviet-era academic works are placed in dialogue with contemporary pieces to show how both artistic language and perceptions of sculpture have evolved.
“The history of sculpture is at the same time a history of society, memory, and the human being,” said Tiesenhausen.
The exhibition will run from Sept. 8 through May 2027. An illustrated catalogue accompanying the exhibition will be published in Kazakh, Russian and English, featuring scholarly texts by Tiesenhausen and art historians Valeria Ibrayeva and Alexandra Tsai.
The exhibition is also part of the Almaty Museum of Arts’ broader effort to study and present Kazakhstan’s artistic heritage. The museum, which opened in September 2025, was established as a major platform for Kazakh, Central Asian and international contemporary art.
In an earlier interview with The Astana Times, the museum’s artistic director Meruert Kaliyeva described its mission as combining the study and preservation of regional art with greater public access to international contemporary art. The museum was featured in an episode of The Astana Times exploring Almaty’s major cultural landmarks.
