In June 2007 the “Exhibition of Culture and Art” Gallery housed a personal exhibition of Nafisa Gilmanova, a young artist from Tashkent. The exhibition was titled “Reflected Light of the Big World” and organized by the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan and the “Exhibition of Culture and Art” Gallery of the Ministry for Culture and Sport of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
In June 2007 the “Exhibition of Culture and Art” Gallery housed a personal exhibition of Nafisa Gilmanova, a young artist from Tashkent. The exhibition was titled “Reflected Light of the Big World” and organized by the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan and the “Exhibition of Culture and Art” Gallery of the Ministry for Culture and Sport of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Nafisa Gilmanova graduated from the Department of Arts of the Taskent Pedagogical University named after Nizami; she was a student of the well-known pedagogues such as L. Salpinkidi and I. Shaabdullaev. She began her career as lecturer at the Drawing and Painting Department of the same university. In 1992 she took an advanced training course at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I. Y. Repin in St. Petersburg; Between 1997 and 2002 she taught at the Hostel-Lyceum of Fine and Applied Arts of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan; presently she is a senior lecturer at the Department of Design of the Tashkent Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering.
In parallel with her pedagogical activity, the woman-artist is an active creator; since 1995 she has regularly participated in republican exhibitions; in 2000 she joined the Creative Union of Artist of Uzbekistan. Her paintings are kept in private collections in China, Turkey and Germany.
Gilmanova works predominantly in the genre of still-life. She tends to follow the Dutch tradition in still-life genre. At the same time, while studying the experience of Dutch masters, the woman-artist has her own way of employing rich still-life painting traditions, by giving her pictures contemporary spirit and national flavour. Such is a still-life “The Pitcher”, where through the help of a minimal number of objects – a glass jar set upon a bright-yellow velvet cloth and purple scarf with traditional embroidery – Gilmanova has managed to communicate a certain state of mind and mood through the combination of colours and laconicism of pictorial language. -The chamber character of the set creates a trusting atmosphere in which the author communicates with the objects she pictures.
In her still-life paintings Gilmanova often depicts various items wrought by traditional craftsmen, such as ceramics, decorative metalwork, and the gifts of her native land – fruits and vegetables. Usually artists whose paintings are inspired by oriental theme prefer to use bright and juicy colours. But Nafisa has moved away from this approach, trying to create more serene colour chords, consonant with her own perception of the world and her inner sentiment; she tends to follow the colour choice of the European painting school. Sometimes, to achieve colour balance, she juxtaposes warm and cold colours, but usually calms loud colours down by quieter additional tints and employs glaze and sfumato technique (“Still-life with Pumpkins”, “Still-life with Lemon”, “Still-life with Pears”). For instance, the “Still-life with Pumpkins” is dominated by bright green colour in combination with ochre and whites.
At the same time, aspiring to break her own stereotypes, from time to time Nafisa creates decorative canvases where her manner differs dramatically from the earlier works. For example, in the “Still-life with Blue Carafe” and “Still-life with Little Roosters” the artist is experimenting in search for new colour combinations and new painting signature.
If one takes a closer look at Gilmanova’s still-life paintings one will notice that a piano features in many of them (“Withering Lemon”, “Still-life with Lemons”, “Moth”, “Still-life with Onions”, etc.). Its black lacquered surface provides the artist with inexhaustible possibilities to play with texture, shades and half-tints, real objects and their reflections. Each of these still-life paintings is different in its colour solution and sentiment. However, every now and then the chosen background fails the artist: sometimes the reflection of bottles and vegetables on the piano is drawn so realistically that the viewer cannot always tell the reflection from the real object.
Apart from still-life, Gilmanova also draws graphic sketches – some of them were performed in pastel during her studies in St. Petersburg. These are mainly pictures of architectural monuments in the city and its suburbs (Petergoff, Oranienbaum, Pavlovsk…). The artist dedicated some of her works to the scenic corners of her homeland. Interestingly, in these small size sketches Gilmanova unexpectedly moves away from the Dutch influence noticeable in her still-lifes. In some landscapes one can sense the traditions of Russian Classic School (“Ancient Walls of Bukhara”, “Morn in Sukok>>, “Aktash”, and in the others the preference is given to the signature of French impressionists (“Chor-Mi-nor”, “The Samani Mausoleum”).
Ravshan Fatkhullaev