The Museum of Fine Arts
The Atiev Museum of Fine Arts
Today marks the birthday of Gapar Aitiev after whom the Museum of Fine Arts in Bishkek is named. He was born in 1912 and so this year we are marking what would have been his centenary.
For the record: Aitiev s known as “the first Kyrgyz painter” – born in 1912 in the village 1st Tuleyken which is in the Kara-Suu rayon of the Osh oblast. He studied in Moscow in the mid 1930′s and is particularly known for his landscapes (which he preferred to paint in summer and early autumn), but he also painted portraits. His studio in Bishkek has been turned into a museum where examples of his works can be seen. Other works of his can be seen in the Fine Arts Museum itself and in the famous Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. He received many awards including Hero of Socialist Labour and was the leader of the Artists Union for over 25 years. He died on December 16th, 1984, and was buried in Bishkek.
The Museum of Fine Arts was established in 1935 as the State Picture Gallery and it’s first home was in the Church of St Nicholas in Oak Park – which later housed the gallery of the Union of Artists.
In 1974 it moved into its present home – a marble clad edifice on Sovietskaya, opposite the Hyatt Hotel.
The original collection consisted of 72 exhibits donated and shipped from Moscow – many specially selected by the chairman of the Organising Committee Semen Chuikov (who painting “A Daughter of Kirghizia” was later to become the highest priced Kyrgyz painting). These including a number of drawings made in Issyk Kul and elsewhere in Kirghizia (as Kyrgyzstan was known in Soviet times) by Vereshschagrin between 1869 and 1871 – and which were some of the earliest images of the country to reach the West.
The Union of Artists asked the authorities for the old St. Nicholas’ Church building in the centre of Oak Park for use as a gallery, and it was allocated to them. It was in a bad state of repair and members of the union rest about its reconstruction.
The seed collection had been donated by the famous Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow –and subsequently further gifts were received from other collections around the Soviet Union: from the People’s Commissariat for Education, the Hermitage, and the Museum of Oriental Art and acquisitions by the State Purchasing Commission.
Over the years, the collection received regular additions and it currently numbers more than seventeen and a half thousand items which are rotated so they are not all on display at any one time. There are about four thousand paintings, nearly ten thousand drawings, a thousand sculptures and three thousand examples of traditional crafts – embroidery, felt work, woodcarving, weaving, embossed leather, jeweller and so forth.
Today, the exhibits in the permanent collection are mainly divided into two main themes, dedicated to:
- Kyrgyz “folk and applied art” and
- Russian and Soviet Art
There is also a collection of replicas of Egyptian, Greek and classic Western sculptures – and a collection of linocuts by Theodore Hertzen based on the Manas epic.
Sometimes the works of art acquired for the collection are in need of restoration and the museum employers a number of specialist restorers. In one particular case, the museum acquired a landscape by the Russian artist Savrasov. The previous owner had tried to wash it to remove dirt and an old, dark, lacquer but, unfortunately not being skilled in the technique of the process, he only worsened the state of the picture. The Museum’s restorers set about repairing the damage, and as a result the landscape was not only restored to its original vibrant colours, but in the lower part of the picture they revealed a detail, (a pot, hanging above a fire), which preciously couldn’t be seen under layers of dirt and dark lacquer.
As well as the permanent collections the museum also houses temporary exhibitions from time to time.
The museum was later renamed in honour of the classic Kyrgyz graphic artist, Gapar Aitieva who lived between 1912 and 1984 – who was particularly well known for his portraits.
Signs are mainly in Russian and Kyrgyz – but there are some in English. The museum is closed on Mondays. There is a small shop just inside the front door with a collection of books and other objects. Sometimes there is a display of paintings for sale.
Museum of Fine Arts
Location/Address: Abdrachmanova Street 196, (Formerly Sovietskaya)
Opposite the Hyatt
Tel:
Open : Everyday except Monday – 10:00 – 15:00
Bishkek