The last of the Mohicans?

The elite collection in the Kasteev Museum opens with a little-known and rarely shown engraving by the classic Abylkhan KASTEYEV. And if we talk about graphics not just as laconic drawings, often black and white, but as specific techniques, then in fact there are literally only a few masters left in Kazakhstan.

Artists say that there used to be a lot of orders for book illustrations, the same epics, now publishers are saving. And the technologies are complex and require special equipment. It is necessary to cut out a “negative” of the image on something like linoleum or stone, then print, work with chemicals... So it turns out that artists are less and less engaged in graphics, and it has always been elite, designed for aesthetes and connoisseurs.

Therefore, the exhibition “National Epic in Book Graphics of Kazakhstan” is both a tribute to academic art in the pop age and an opportunity to show the best of what the museum has to offer. In addition, it turns out that such exhibitions have special requirements. Paper sheets do not tolerate sunlight well, so according to the canons of museum business, graphics are not shown in the summer and in rooms where there is access to sunlight.

- Indeed, now literally only a few, the last of the Mohicans, work in this genre, the art of graphics is in decline and in decline, - complains art critic Kulzhazira MUKAZHANOVA. - And it is good that the museum organized such an exhibition, it motivates young people and will help support the genre.

Many works are really familiar from books, textbooks, popular albums. Next to the canonical Evgeniy SIDORKIN, no less in skill are Isatay ISABAEV and Konstantin BARANOV. A total of 90 works are presented, which transfer viewers to the world of batyrs, beauties, feats and the beautiful steppe.

Ksenia EVDOKIMENKO, photo by Timofey EVDOKIMENKO, Almaty