MASTER STONE MASON

Merited Artist of Azerbaijan Huseyn Haqverdi knows how to make a work of art from ordinary stone, how to inject his soul into it. It is sufficient to just breathe life into it and give it character. The artist is working with various materials in different genres, including sculpture, painting, drawing and monumental art, being drawn towards large forms. He is the creator of the statue of the Virgin Mary, which is found in Baku's Catholic Cathedral, and the mosaic panel depicting an epic subject at the Sangachal [Sanqacal] terminal.

- Please could you tell us how it all started?

- I grew up in the family of the artist Hasan Haqverdiyev. We lived in a block for artists on Insaatcilar Avenue. The studios were located on the ground floor of this block, and we, four children - my brother Ucal and sisters Saida and Aida and I, grew up surrounded by artistic creativity. I loved to draw and make models of various figures from Plasticine. I remember how when I was a child my friend and I saw incredible models of cars in one of the American magazines that we happened to come across.

We decided to make models like that from plasticine. We moulded it for a long time and very carefully, taking each detail into account. These were not simply static figures: the doors and the boot on our little plasticine cars opened and there were seats and a steering wheel in the saloon. Then we thought of making a cavalry army like that of Napoleon Bonaparte or [Russian Field Marshal Alexander] Suvorov out of Plasticine. There were approximately 20 riders in each army. We went on modelling for days on end without taking a break, thinking things up and refashioning the models. When we were children we wanted to be cartoonists or film directors.

At the age of 12, my brother, friends and I made home cartoon films with plasticine and drawn figures, using an ordinary camera. When I left school, I entered the faculty of sculpture at Azerbaijan's Azim Azimzada Art School, and then I spent another five years studying in the faculty of architecture and decorative plastic art at the V. I. Mukhina Higher School of Art and Industry in Leningrad [St. Petersburg].

- How do you create your sculptures? Please define the place of sculpture in contemporary art.

- Conceptual, intellectual art is interesting. But if you don't have a technique, you may not be able to communicate your idea successfully. For me sculpture is primarily a totality of idea and form. It is some kind of element, a field of feelings which is connected with form. It is a certain language, a very ancient one, it lives within each of us, and each person understands it.

How does the process of giving birth to a sculpture take place? To begin with I imagine some kind of image, which I then record in stone or wood. I love to experiment and play with different materials. This spurs me on to a subsequent work. As a result, one thing may lead into another. Everything is interlinked. I can go over from stone to graphic art, from graphic art to painting, and then return to stone again. I work in different styles and using various techniques; I experiment without restricting myself to one thing. I like to work with stone, wood, material and chipboard.

- But you particularly like to work in stone. You recently had a personal exhibition called "Stone" at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Why are you so interested in that material?

- Yes, I do like stone. That is a solid and long-lasting material with a natural texture, and a variety of shades. I particularly like our Absheron sandstone. For me it has a special symbolic importance and retains within it information from the past. The stone is the history of our country, of its architecture, a kind of frozen music from the past. At the exhibition I displayed 45 sculptures, seven of which were from the cycle of embossed slabs, nine from the cycle of circular sculptures and 11 from the "Requiem" cycle, eight from the "Totems" cycle, 10 from the "Portraits" cycle and seven graphic works.

- There are some vivid items among your works, they are bursting with colour. Are you optimistic about life?

- (smiles) Evidently at that moment I was going through a stage of vivid outbursts. I experience different periods in my life, which may determine the colours: from dark and gloomy, cloudy shades to life-asserting, vivid, bright colours. Everything depends on my mood and the task that I have set myself when I start work. I like to experiment with colour and form. Sometimes, after a while, I decide to add new strokes of colour to already completed works. As a result the picture takes on another mood. 

- Which artists have influenced you?

- First and foremost, my father who set me an example. I was lucky that I was born into a creative family. I am grateful to fate that she brought me together with such Azerbaijani artists as Fuad Bakixanov, Sanan Qurbanov and many others. The works of Picasso, Henry Moore, Van Gogh, Alexander Archipenko, painter Kasimir Malevich, Vasili Kandinsky, El Lissitzkiy, Alberto Giacometti, Constantin Brancusi and Auguste Rodin, and many, many more, also influenced the formation of my view of art. In our days, we learned of what was happening in the world of European art from rare copies of the GDR [German Democratic Republic] magazines which we accidently came across from beyond the cordon. We spent our time behind closed doors, behind which life was seething. Exhibitions opened and various festivals and arts meetings were held. Today everything is so easy and simple. You just go into the Internet and surf the net for the things that interest you, just sit there, look, read and study.

- You have tried almost all materials. What would you still really like to make a sculpture from?

- (Laughs) From Martian rock. I have already experimented with all earthly materials in my work. I don't think there are any complicated materials. You can make a work of art from everything, so long as you have the desire, the talent, and well, naturally, the technical possibilities. Alas, the situation with the latter is "a rather tense one". I remember how we were working on the fountain of stainless steel in Bayil. What a lot of time and effort was spent on that! We worked, using the most primitive methods, while in the rest of the world they had long been using state-of-the-art technology, allowing them to work quickly and efficiently. Just imagine, you sketch a town's sculpture on a piece of paper, but once you start work, you are faced with loads of problems. Therefore we need a technical base, a so-called "workshop", studios, where the artist could bring his ideas and aims to life.

- What do you think, do we have talented young sculptors and artists?

- We have many talented kids, and the main thing is that a good creative environment is being created in Azerbaijan. This support for young talented people is simply a must. You see, talented young people are the future of our country.