The Ribbon Dance, 1976.

Panel with copper relief.

Firdausi Republican Library, Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

 

 

The revival of independant art

 

Following centuries of apathy, sculpture as an independent form of art was only revived after the October Revolution. The old traditions found themselves alive in the work of a great number of sculptors of the time who followed the example of a panel entitled The Ribbon Dance (opposite). This low-relief in copper executed au repoussé represents young girls dancing among spectators. The dancers’ figures and their poses recall the caryatids of Panjikent with their exaggeratedly thin waists.

 

The absence of relief which characterised this panel repeats the low-reliefs in wood pieces from Panjikent and Kalai-Kakhkakh and the applied art of the 6th and 7th centuries.

 

In his work Hospitality, the sculptor Khabibuline takes his inspiration from another artistic epoch. He represents a young Kyrgyz girl whose straight face and figure recall megalithic sculptures. Even though her face is impassible, as required by national etiquette, she looks affable. The forms of her body, although very schematic, depict a juvenile grace. The cup she holds in her hand is not a ritual attribute but, rather, a cup of fresh koumys, that she presents to a host or a tired traveller.

 

Here, the sculptor gives a new view of humanity to an ancient plastic representation bringing it a humanitarian vision of the 20th century world.

 

The potters Omar Khayyam of Samarkand, Gafour Khalilov of Oura-Tioube, Khamro Rakhimov of Bukhara have executed several hundreds of baked clay works, among which are some very expressive dragons, fantastic birds, and horses designed with naive humour. In these works, primitive plasticity united with rich fantasy gives an astonishing attraction to all these objects.

 

In recent years professional sculptors have shaped a new type of baked clay statue, profoundly national in spirit and modern in theme. A. Moukhtarov of Samarkand created a series of compositions in which scenes of everyday life and people are represented with a humour full of kindness, characteristic of Central Asian folklore.