Chuikov – Record Breaking Artist
The Daughter of Soviet Kirgizia
Semen Chuikov was a lively and charismatic character who has been called the Father of Kyrgyz Art.
He was born on 30th October 1902 in Bishkek, so today would have marked his 110th birthday.
At fifteen he went to study at the Khuldov Studio in Almaty where is reputed to have said “there is no artistic life at all”. However, he stayed for three years before transferring to the Regional Art School in Tashkent for another year before returned to his home town, (which by then had been renamed Frunze), to teach drawing. He moved to Moscow in 1924 exhibiting his first piece in 1927. Between 1929 and 1932 he taught in Moscow and later in Frunze.
He was one of the founder members of the Kyrgyz Union of Artists and was chairman of the organising committee which established the Museum of Fine Arts – selecting many of the 72 works which comprised the original collection.
He painted many of his pictures in Moscow, his native Frunze, and in India (he made three trips to India – in 1952, 1957 and 1968). He work comprised mainly of pictures devoted to Kyrgyz country life, landscapes and revolutionary subjects.
Some of his works are currently in the Museum of Fine Arts in Bishkek such as: the monumental composition “The Kyrgyz rebellion of 1916” (painted in 1936), “Toktogul among the people” (painted between 1939 and 1941), “A hunter with berkut (eagle)” (painted in 1939), “Evening“, from the triptych, “A Kolkhoz suite” and sketches like “A girl with cotton“, “A boy with apricots” – including several from his Indian series. Perhaps his most famous works outside his native Kirgizia (Kyrgyzstan) are: On the Frontier (painted in 1938 and now in the Museum of Eastern Art, Moscow); the Kolkhoz (Collective) Farmers triptych (painted in the late 1940s), and especially The Daughter of Soviet Kirgizia.
The latter was painted in 1948 and executed in oil on pasteboard. Measuring 47.5 by 31.5cms, it bears the artists signature in the bottom left hand corner. The traditional version is portrays “a young confident, resolute and active Kyrgyz girl with high cheek-bones and slanting eyes seen from below, dominating her native landscape, striding towards the future with books in hand, she seeks the knowledge that will free her from the oriental “wisdom” that has kept her maternal ancestors in bondage” and was featured in many school textbooks in the Soviet Union, it was exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. A version which portrayed the girl with a basket of apples, rather than carrying books, (and which had been in a private collection since having been purchased from the artist), was sold at Auction in Moscow in 2007. The Sale was entitled “A half century of Soviet Art” and featured works by notable Soviet artists such as Vladimir Serov’s “V.I. Lenin proclaims the Soviet Power” and “In the Urals” of Boris Sherbakov. Although many of the paintings eventually attracted higher prices than Chuikov’s “Daughter”, several did not reach their original estimates. Chuikov’s “Daughter” on the other hand far exceeded the estimated price of USD25000 with bidding quickly rising from the USD15000 starting price to an eventual USD85000 – making it, not only the “star of the show” but also, probably, the most expensive Kyrgyz painting of all time.
Unfortunately some of his works have never been exhibited and some lie in the depository of the Museum of Fine Arts, waiting for rediscovery – and in some cases restoration, because they have suffered the ravages of time whilst lying in storage.
He was a member of the Academy of arts of the USSR, and awarded the Gospremier (State Prizes) of the USSR and Toktogul Prize of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic as well as the Indian International Nehru Prize.
He died in 1980.
His home in Bishkek has been turned into a small museum which hosts a continuous exhibition of his life and work, (and that of his wife, the artist Evgenia Maleina, and their children Ivan and Vasily Chuikov), including family photographs, documents as well as examples of his work (including a version of the The Daughter of Soviet Kirgizia).
Location/Address: Chuikova St 87a
Between Tynystanova and Sovietskaya, near the train station (It can be difficulat to find; the easiest access on foot from Bokonbaeva/Sovietskaya is to walk up Sovietskaya toward the railway, pass Turkish Air and a hairdressers, turn right and it will be on your right.)
Tel.: 30-33-64
Open: Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00, (closed from 12:00 to 13:00 for lunch)
Bishkek