Diyora Tukhtamuradova,
Student of the National Institute of Arts
and Design named after Behzad
Every artist seeks to find his own path in the art. Such search results into emergence of the unique language and inner philosophical world of the artist. Just so, abstract images and the problems associated with the epoch and life in the works of Sanjar Jabbarov convey the hidden spiritual quests and emotional experiences.
After the graduation (in 2008) from the Department of Industrial Design of the National Institute of Arts and Design named after K. Behzad, S. Jabbarov as part of the creative group “5+1” (formed under the State Institute of Arts of Uzbekistan) started his journey from addressing to such modern forms of art as performance art, video art, installation, graphic art and painting. Many of his creations have found their fans also abroad.
S. Jabbarov is keen on the abstraction of the contemporary German artist – Gerhard Richter. These are, for example, the works of the young artist as “A Mirage in the Desert”, “The Rain”. The first project of video art by S. Jabbarov – “Two Square Meters” (2008) was displayed in 2009 and was dedicated to the works of Jalaleddin Rumi, “Mesnevi-ee Manavie”, where the poet advises: “Taste an apple and look at it: what happened to it. Such is the life – brief and fleeting.” The meaning and content of his religious and philosophical and at the same time moral teachings can be expressed as follows: moments of life and death are so close to each other that they are like inseparable links of the same chain. In one snapshot there is life, in the other – death. As soon as a human being is born, a place in another world is already waiting for him. In the first cadre of the video art by S. Jabbarov there is a boy looking in the mirror, behind him is an open door of the room. That means that he has already stepped on the path of life. Then the boy is already depicted in old age. The door is closed behind him. The second snapshot shows people digging his grave. Not by accident the human image is shown through the mirror. It is like the idea of realization of one’s mistakes and refraining from committing sin and a lack of fear in the face of death, for the end of the path of each person is predefined by the Heavens.
Most often S. Jabbarov refers to the video art for expression of his ideas. Watching several blind people sitting and enjoying a light breeze, the artist decides to shoot them for the video picture, in which their state is transmitted through facial expressions and gestures. People may have different opinion about the image of a city. Thinking about how can the blind persons imagine a city, the artist created his video picture “Invisible city” (2009). To this end, he took video of his character in the workplace, teaching in the school for the blind people. In the beginning of the cadre is the black and white image. While at the end he shows the face of the character as a hint of what will be told later on and who the character is. S. Jabbarov often experiments, as if avoiding a chosen topic, by expanding the cadre to the other side and resetting it once again. According to the artist, the video picture allows the viewer to feel in this place and in this situation.
Interesting is the work presented by the artist at the Fifth Tashkent International Biennale of Figurative Art under the project of remake of Turkestan’s “Metamorphosis” (2009). At its core is the photo from the “Turkestan Album”, where the merchant sitting in the center of the picture more resembles a sage man. Selling the skullcaps, he encourages people to do good. The headdress that is worn during the prayer protects people from sin. In order to feel the spirit and atmosphere of that period, the artist has inserted a picture of his own head instead of a head of the merchant. To simulate the trading process he demonstrated a gradual decrease in the number of skullcaps: as soon as one consignment of goods is sold, there comes a new one. Similarly one epoch replaces the previous one…
Starting from 2011, S. Jabbarov is seriously engaged in painting. In her first pictures, he chooses the light and bright colors, clearly defining the size of his paintings: 110õ160 and transmission of ideas in motion. Thus, in the painting “The Red Dress” (2011) dynamics of a female body is in her footstep. A girl in the red dress, full of energy is walking confidently towards her future and, as a symbol of devotion and pure intention; she leads a white dog on a leash. Her face and her gait reflect her satisfaction with life. In the theme and the style of painting of S. Jabbarov one can feel his affinity with surrealism – “The Dream” (2011), “Sorrow” (2011) and “The Bifurcation Point” (Separation).
If his painting “Sorrow” represents the physical hedonism, that is the philosophy of immersion into a sensual world, his picture, “Dream”, suggests that touching an object one can feel it.
The artist’s creative works are often imbued with sadness. Even his paintings of joyous, cheerful subjects awake the dreary, mysterious thoughts: “Birthday” (2013), “Ballerina” (2013), “The Cellist” (2013).
The originality of interpretation in the works by S. Jabbarov is most clearly seen in his creations of the so-called “active subjects”. Genuine painting by the artist – “Dervish” (2013), is depicting a dervish outside of the material world. Colorful lines in the artist’s paintings symbolize dissolution, disintegration of the tangible world.
Some works of the pieces by S. Jabbarov only portray the heads of the characters without a face. For the artist it is important not the image of a man, but his place in the human world. In his painting “Thief” (2014), for example, emerges a silhouette of a man compositionally located in the left corner of the picture. “Thief” is a stealer of appearance and the soul of a man, sometimes of his identity and thoughts, no matter man or woman, youngster or an old man. That is why the artist dressed him in the mask, emphasizing his negative character and his position among the people and not a specific person. This is being conveyed by the artist through a play of colors and shades. So, a warm yellow background contrasts with the cold color of the negative character. There are no such bright contrasting colors in the early paintings by S. Jabbarov. Yellow color brings the whole image to the foreground, while enhancing the emotional impact on the viewer. There are no superfluous elements in the picture. It is also a testament to the off-beat approach of the artist to the composition of the painted subject.
The harmony, which was interpreted in the ancient art as the basis of the concept of the beauty, and still is considered a classic aesthetic law. However the images of the works of S. Jabbarov do not follow this standard, forming a solid composition, which is a kind of pivot on which it rests. This is one of the specific features of the artist’s creative work. His ideas S. Jabbarov embodied both in the video art and painting. The basis of the compositions of his art works make up the lines and the plastics, where there are distracting movements, abrupt exit from composition, and destruction of templates. Through them the artist conveys a specific interpretation of his inner feelings.