Recent exhibitions of works of art from Babasary Annamuradov's personal collection, which were launched in the gallery of the Academy of Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts, became a notable event in the kaleidoscope of Turkmen culture, opening new faces of the personality of the Turkmen national artist.
"I became a sculptor by chance," Babasary Annamuradovich said in a conversation. - I painted well from childhood, and when I came to Ashgabat for admission to the art school, the relative, from whom I stopped, dissuaded me from this idea. "It will be better," he said, "if you become an agronomist, and I will help you matriculate the agricultural institute." Without giving in to persuasion and collecting documents, I came to the school.
I met a guy who asked: "Do you want to become an artist?Better, you would go to the sculpture." I had no idea what sculpture at that time." A sculptor is someone who sculpts people from clay," he explained.
Thus, I submitted documents for the "sculpture" department.
That time I did not know that the clay the guy was talking about was not the one that formed near the water, but the special one.Before something is sculpted, you need to warm it up with your hands for a long time, subordinating it to the author's design.
The students of our department were very lucky with the teacher - Pavel Vasilievich Popov, whose fascinating tales about great sculptors fueled our youthful dreams. "If they managed to create masterpieces and enter the history of world art, why do not we get it?", we argued ambitiously.
My colleagues on the student's bench were Silap Khudaiberdyev, Mumma Seyitmuradov, Niyazmurad Annanurov, Klychmurat Yarmamedov - representatives of a bright pleiad of Turkmen sculptors. For a good education, study in an art school was a minimum program, the maximum program - the continuation of education in Moscow or Tashkent.
I chose Tashkent. Yuri Nikolayevich Kiselev became my teacher. My student work "Veteran", presented at the exhibition of fine arts in Moscow, attracted the attention of art and became an exhibit of the Tretyakov Gallery.
The work "Veteran" of the beginning sculptor became a symbol for the entire work of Babasary Annamuradov.The artist sculpted from memory his first teacher, personified the rural intelligentsia.
In a long coat, in a hat, with a cane in his hands, slightly hunched, he "walked" on the pedestal with an uncertain old gait.Babasary managed to create a compositionally and emotionally capacious image, which indicated the maturity and originality of his handwriting.
Babasary Annamuradov was lucky not only with teachers, he was lucky to visit the best museums in the world and personally see the world's masterpieces. Improving the technique, Babasary brought the classical canons of European art into the original artistic traditions of the Turkmen people, focusing on imagery.
This was the next stage of his artistic formation, in him the craving for abstract art prevailed.In England, he was lucky to visit the workshop of Henry Moore - the author of the famous sculpture "The Family".
To the depths of my soul Babasary shook the power of plasticity, the lack of sentimentality and the tremendous emotional impact of the master's works.
Perhaps, Babasary interpreted his impressions of Moore's works in his work, because after many years another landmark work by the Turkmen sculptor - "The Chair" appeared.Anyone who visited the Museum of Modern Art in Ashgabat pays attention to the eleven-meter stool, striking not with beauty and grace, but with gigantic proportions.
Next to it is a four-meter-diameter apple.Babasary Annamuradov stubbornly does not disclose the intent of this work and agrees with any view expressed by the audience.
One of them: a chair is a philosophical allegory reflecting a person's striving for a high goal, and an apple - the fruit of the tree of life - mobilizes our forces in the movement upwards.
The work of sculptor Babasary Annamuradov deserved wide recognition of contemporaries.He was awarded the title of People's Artist of Turkmenistan, Honorary Doctor of the State Academy of Arts, and Honorary Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts.
He was chairman of the Union of Artists of the country for 17 years, for 8 years he worked as deputy minister of culture of Turkmenistan.Over the years, in his author's style, the combination of a rich palette of world perception, a combination of openness and subtext, he is full of inspiration and new ideas, and we look forward to his new works more clearly...