The personal exhibition “On the warm land” by Valentine Sidorov, Chairman of Union of Artists (Russia), President of International Confederation of CIS Unions of Artists, National Artist of Russia, Academician of the Academy of Arts of Russia, Laureate of RSFSR, USSR and Russia’s State Prizes, Professor, was held in Tashkent at the Central Exhibition Hall in October 19-31, 2004. The exhibition was organized through the agency of Uzbekistan Culture and Art Forum Fund, Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan and International Confederation of CIS Unions of Artists.
The artist was given the Gold Medal of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan at the opening ceremony in the presence of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in Republic Uzbekistan, diplomats, executives, representatives of domestic and foreign mass-media. He was awarded for achievements in artistic activity and develop-ment of friendship between the peoples and Russian-Uzbek relations.
The exhibition represented about one hundred works of the Russian artist. Twenty three works from the cycle “Blue Pamir” were devoted to Uzbekistan. More than thirty years ago V. Sidorov visited our country three times, including the Fergana valley. Captured by the hospitable land and people of Uzbekistan, he embodied his love for our fantastic land on the canvases. This exhibition represented the example of Uzbek-Russian relations, friendship and cooperation going back to the far past. The most famous works are “May rain”, “The storm has been over”, “On the warm land”, “Swing”, “Sowers”, “Miron”, “The day is dying”, “The time of the cloudless sky”, “My school”, “Victory day”, “The birch wind”, “Whence the small river of Dubrovka goes”, “My quiet native land” and others.
The chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Confederation of CIS Unions of Artists, Mahsut Fatkulin told introducing the artist:
“We have brought the exhibition of Valentine Sidorov to Tashkent. He is one of the greatest artists of our days and the outstanding representative of the classic art school, who devoted more than fifty years to landscape painting.
The cycle “On the warm land” is very symbolical. The cycle was titled according to one of the pictures, where the grandmother plants the young tillers and the grand-daughter looks at this process of reviving nature with great interest. This is the autobiographical work since the author was born in the village and knows well the life of farmers and their deeply moral principles.
The exhibition became the significant event in the context of fruitfully developing contacts between our states, which form the good ground for further cooperation, particularly in the field of culture. V. Sidorov is engaged in public activity. He headed the Union of Artists of Russia more than two decades. At the same time he finds time to teach the young artists. He is the professor at the Surikov’s Institute where he teaches the students from the different countries…
I am a native of Uzbekistan and a citizen of Russia. Being a member of the Fund Board, headed by Gulnara Karimova, I consider it my honour to do the best efforts for the further development of friendship and understanding between our peoples through popularization of the works by the Uzbek and Russian artists. I think, this exhibition of the Russian artist should be considered not only as the fact of the cultural life, but also as the important political event and the bright evidence for the further development of contacts, friendship and cooperation between our peoples. It should be noted that our cooperation has a good outlook”.
V. Sidorov told at the opening ceremony:
“I would like to express my gratitude to the organizers, which did the best efforts to hold my exhibition “On the warm land” in hospitable Uzbekistan. I was captured by greatness of the Pamir and Fergana valley. For many years I have been creating the pictures, which were fixed in my mind, soul and heart for ever. Among them are “Spring has come to the valley” and others. The landscapes of Uzbekistan and Russia are associated by the same comprehension of the hospitable and “warm land”. In Tashkent I met my old friends and colleagues, with whom we studied and lived together in the Leningrad and Moscow hostels of the art institutes many years ago. Therefore I feel myself here among the close friends”.
In November 10-30, after successful demonstration of the exhibition in Tashkent, V. Sidorov’s works were exposed in the Samarkand Museum of History and Culture. The solemn ceremony at the Centre of Modern Art where Prof. Valentine Sidorov was given the title of the Honorary Member of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan concluded the representation of the Russian artist in Uzbekistan.
Prepared by:
Sergey Savchuk-Kurbanov