Origins of Uzbek Fine Arts

The house museum of the renowned People’s Artist O’rol Tansiqboyev is surrounded by noisy multistory buildings in Tashkent. The memorial house museum, opened in 1981, has a studio, reception room, bedroom, a study, balcony and a terrace demonstrating a greenhouse with a diversity of plants and flowers.

Gulfia Fametdinova, senior scientist of the house museum of O’rol Tansiqboyev, tells: “It took a while for the aptitude for drawing revealed in the painter. Working in vine plantations, the young amateur artist eagerly absorbed his impressions from the environment, made some notes and sketches in the notebook. A versatile process of the human activity and cognition of nature unfolds in him to become a favorite subject afterwards. It is crucial for a painter to discover his own subject area, and O’rol Tansiqboyev did not have to search for it as his native land suggested him the topic. The profound notion of life helped the painter to see enchanting Uzbek landscapes.

At present, the exposition of the house museum comprises 400 works by O’rol Tansiqboyev. The memorial studio study opened in 1976 in commemoration of the great artist who lived in this house. The studio demonstrates the exposition of artist’s works compiled of the collection from the State Museum of Fine Arts of Uzbekistan, the archive with a huge documentary about life and creative work of the artist, and his working accessories: easels, stage for paints, small plastics, documentary photographs, reproductions of the artist’s paintings kept in foreign museums. The exhibition of pictorial canvases is built in the chronological order, from 1935 to 1973 and it represents the works of different periods of O’rol Tansiqboyev’s creativity: From the Work (1944), Winter in Almaty (1949), The Native Land (1951), Fall in Mountains (1954), and the last, incomplete painting Chorvoq in 1973. The studio displays not only the exposition of the eminent artist’s works, but also the show case with his state awards and other documents.

It is worth to mention another important component of the house museum – the reception room, where O’rol Tansiqboyev received his guests in a cozy atmosphere. He invited eminent sculptors, art historians, painters to speak about the art, literature, music and exhibitions with a cup of tea. The living room’s interior has been preserved as it was in the lifetime of the artist. There are still life pictures, several small sketches, and a photo portrait of O’rol Tansiqboyev. The still life Flowers arises an admiration. According to the senior scientist of the house museum, the piece of art was drawn for two hours on 9 May, 1949.

The museum’s exhibition hall regularly hosts some subject exhibitions. For example, the current exposition is in commemoration of the artist O’rol Tansiqboyev. It represents photos, pictures and portraits reflecting the life and creative work of the artist in different years.

The acquaintance with the house museum finishes in the little yard and the garden with a vineyard. Starting from the early spring and finishing with the late fall, flowers blossom there, one after another: violets, tulips, various kinds of roses, wisteria. There are some rare trees there, such as Pyramidal oak.

The creativity of O’rol Tansiqboyev is the entire epoch in the history of Uzbek fine arts. The master is fairly called “a singer of the native land”, this is his second name. O’rol Tansiqboyev used to say: “Only he deserves a high title of an artist who serves people, giving them everything he possesses.”