page_title: Kazakh art
section_title: Modern period
hierarchical_section_title: Kazakh art / History / Modern period
caption_attribution_description: English: Golden Man on winged snow leopard on top of the obelisk one of the main symbols of independent Kazakhstan. The figure of the man is based upon a 5th or 6th century BC Sacae warrior's golden armor discovered in the Issyk burial mound near Almaty in 1970.
context_page_description: The art of Kazakhstan covers all forms of art created throughout history by the peoples living on the territory of modern-day Kazakhstan. Throughout most periods, much of the population of Kazakhstan was nomadic, or at least moved regularly across the vast country. The great majority of the art of Kazakhstan is applied art: the decoration of practical objects, including household utensils and patterned harnesses, through art forms such as carpet-weaving, pottery, and leatherwork. The art of Kazakhstan also includes architecture, fine arts, and sculpture.
  Although modern Kazakhs are often keen to assert its national character, Kazakh art has at most times been intimately connected with wider artistic styles, in particular the Scythian art of the first millennium BC, and Islamic art from the 8th century AD onwards. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Russian art was the dominant influence.
context_section_description: In Kazakhstan, fine art in the classical sense has its origins in the 19th century and the influence of Russian artists Vasily Vereshchagin and Nikolai Khludov, who travelled in Central Asia and portrayed what they saw. Khludov had a particular influence on the development of the local school of painting, becoming the teacher of many local artists. The most famous of these is Abilkhan Kasteyev, after whom the State Museum of Art of Kazakhstan was renamed.
  The Kazakh school of art was fully formed by the 1940s, and flourished in the 1950s. Local painters, graphic artists and sculptors, trained under the unified Soviet system of artist education, began active work, often using national motifs in their art. The painters O. Tansykbaev, J. Shardenov, K. Telzhanov, and S. Aitbaev, graphic artists E. Sidorkina and A. Duzelkhanov, and sculptors H. Nauryzbaeva and E. Sergebaeva are today counted among the key figures of Kazakhstani art.
  
  An avant-garde movement formed in Kazakhstan in the late 1980s, aiming to find fresh ideas and protest against established forms and images in art. Various principles of plastic art began to appear, for example in B. Tulkeev's highly complex psychological compositions, A. Sydykhanov's mystical graphic compositions, A. Akanaeva's Picasso-like improvised compositions, and D. Aliyev's chaotic figurative pieces. K. Duisenbaev used principles of plastic art in expressive formalism to convey the inner forces of nature and the soul. K. Akhmetzhanov's canvases optically assemble colored pieces to produce a picture of the world that reflects surrounding realities. The works of A. Menlibayev and E. Ghazaryan exemplify a revival of interest in the folklore and ornamental style of a range of historical, regional and cultural tradition.
  Mythological symbolism is significant in Kazakhstan's modern art. It is expressed, for example, in the visual searching of artists Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev's "TransSiberian Amazons" (2005) and multi-channel video art "A New Silk Road: Algorithm of Survival and Hope” (2007), and in the performance and photography of Victor and Elena Vorobievs' “(Non)Silk Road” (2006).
  Since Kazakhstan's declaration of independence, on 16 December 1991, there have been cardinal changes in all spheres: political, economic, social and art. The monument to Ablai Khan in Astana (sculptor N. Dalbai, architect Sh. Valikhanov) made a considerable contribution to approval of the idea of independence of Kazakhstan. 
  Other landmarks of modern monumental sculpture of this time are the equestrian monument to Isatay Taimanov and Makhambet Utemisov in Atyrau (sculptor B.Abishev and E.Sergebaev), and the monument to Sultan Beibars in Atyrau (sculptor K. Kakimov).
  The Independence Monument in Almaty (sculptors: A.Zhumabaev and N.Dalbai, architect Sh.Valihanov) is a particularly well-known modern sculptural and architectural complex of this era. Located on Almaty's main square, the Independence Monument combines Kazakh cultural heritage and tradition with universal elements, and has become a symbol of statehood, and of Kazakhstan's past, present and future. The granite stele is crowned with the statue of a young warrior, styled after the "Golden Man", with a mythical winged leopard his feet.
caption: Golden Man on top of the Independence Monument
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