Taylor, Paul Michael and Khazbulatov, Andrey. 2018. Artists of Modern Kazakhstan. Astana: Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Kazakh Research Institute of Culture.
This richly illustrated tri-lingual volume (in English, Kazakh, and Russian) introduces the range and quality of art in modern Kazakhstan. We present a brief biography and commentary on sixty diverse artists from throughout that country, alongside examples of the artworks each has created. We recognize that any one book can only include a small portion of the vast artistic productivity within this rapidly growing and developing nation. We are very aware that many more artists are currently active in Kazakhstan, and that no possible selection within a book of reasonable size could claim to fully represent the variety and range of art produced. Yet we are also aware that despite the great recent growth of Kazakhstan's museum and art gallery sectors, very little information about Kazakhstan's modern art is currently available in English and to international audiences. We hope readers will enjoy the present selection of artists and artistry, and that they may then want to learn more or visit directly Kazakhstan's centers of art production and display. They will find a very active world of museums, galleries, studios, and creative spaces, often steeped in traditional Kazakh cultural forms and traditions, yet presented in many innovative and cosmopolitan media and formats. The compilation and production of this book is part of a larger national effort within Kazakhstan's Ministry of Culture, and particular its Kazakh Research Institute of Culture (KRIC), to enhance its partnerships with international museums, and to find new ways of introducing Kazakhstan's art to a global audience. This process is also part of a series of activities carried out within the framework of Kazakhstan's national cultural policy which aims both to rediscover Kazakhstan's own national identity based on Kazakh history and culture, while also finding a uniquely Kazakh inspiration for transformation or modernization of Kazakhstan's cultural life. Scholars and art historians who look back from the future on these decades of Kazakhstan's rapid growth and modernization will surely have much to observe and write about. They will note how the highly diverse individual artists of Kazakhstan sought out unique ways to integrate traditional Kazakh motifs, symbols, and themes, within artistic productions and media for a cosmopolitan art-market or global artistic forum. Each of the artists we have selected for inclusion within this compilation is inspired both by deep roots in Kazakhstan, and by contemporary global trends in art production. The compilation of this book owes much to the Committee of Experts recently formed within Kazakhstan's Ministry of Culture, for their suggestions about artists to be included, and about other means for recognizing and celebrating Kazakhstan's national identity through the visual arts. We received many suggestions for the selection of artists to be included here, for which in the end we bear full responsibility – only hoping that this first attempt to introduce some of Kazakhstan's pre-eminent artists to a global audience may be followed by many others. It is our sincere hope that through this volume, both Kazakh and international readers will discover or re-discover the depth and range of artistic production in modern Kazakhstan, and will be inspired to visit and experience first-hand both the depth of Kazakhstan's cultural traditions and the dynamism of Kazakhstan's cosmopolitan artistic landscapes. (Editors: Andrey Khazbulatov and Paul Michael Taylor)
