A PERSON IN A PERSON

A solo exhibition by Merited Artist of Azerbaijan, Professor Arif Alasgarov, has opened at the Azerbaijan State Museum of Art. This event is timed to coincide withthis talented artist's 70th birthday.

Self-portrait

If we take a quick look into the eyes of the person depicted in the portrait, then it appears that we have before us quite a good-natured person who is content with life, someone who belongs to those who it is customary to refer to as Epicureans. That is people who passionately love life in any of its manifestations. But at the same time he looks very much like Colas Breugnon, [French writer] Romain Rolland's protagonist, a master cabinet-maker. The actual artist hates drabness and triviality.

Each of his works is therefore a work of art. Colas likes to relax with friends with a little carafe of Burgundy wine and some tasty food. He enjoys every day that he lives; he lives in harmony with himself and tries to get on with the whole world. At the end of the novel, after losing his own home and his wife, he sits at the head of the table in his daughter's home, to which all his children and grand-children have moved and on his head he wears a pie tin as a crown. He is drinking and very happy. This is because any Frenchman, just like the artist, is born a king. Here he is the boss, and this is where his home is. Roughly the same ideas go through your mind while you are studying this self-portrait. But your gaze is caught a little longer by the expression of the eyes in the portrait. It begins to appear that the smile is only on the lips. The eyes reflect sorrow and stress. Why is this?

The 1980s were not so long ago

Judging from the number of works painted at that time, for the artist the 1980s were the happiest and most productive period in his artistic career. Each of his works is a hymn - to people living in the Old City, to the way of life and the traditions, the continuity of generations passing down from century to century the best things that have been developed by intellectual, moral and culture-related trends. 

"The Skilled Cobbler At Work".1982. This depicts the daily life, a calm life, of a person who knows exactly what life will be like today and tomorrow. For the professional cobbler everything is quite simple: the day consists of measured work and domestic worries, concentrating on the craft in which he is engaged, a serene confidence exhibited in the way he sits and moves. In this graphic work there is something that convinces you of the unshakeable nature of the feelings and thoughts of this skilled craftsman. It is what you might call confidence in tomorrow.

"The Potter". Here is another character, whose body exudes strength and good health. Surrounded by clay vessels, with the potter's wheel at his feet, he is smoothly moulding the shape of the pitcher. This is a craft that this person has had passed down to him by his ancestors. It is a craft that makes him happy. This simple, apparently prosaic truth conceals the very greatest of ideas, namely that a person is born and comes into this world in order to be happy. It is good when the work he likes doing makes him happy.

"The Master". A little old master sits in his workshop, in socks and slippers, wearing a papakha [Caucasian fur cap] and leaning on a staff. His overworked hands are resting on the top of the staff, reminiscent of the oriental mystery recounted to King Lear by the fool about the ages of man's life: the morning of man's life is spent crawling on all fours, the day of that life on two legs, the evening with two legs and a support, and the sunset of the master's life is spent in mere oblivion, not clouded by anything. He is surrounded by the fruits of his creative efforts, metal-ware decorated with chiselled folk ornaments. He is passing on to his descendants not simply his craft and not only tradition. The master craftsman is maintaining the bond between the ages. His work forms a link between the past and the present, between the present and the future.

"The Tightrope Walker". From time immemorial the land of fires [Azerbaijan] has boasted not only of skilled craftsmen and artisans, but also of singers, musicians, strong men and wrestlers, fire-eaters and tightrope walkers. These skills have also been passed down from generation to generation just like the craft skills. Dexterously, as if in play, the father and sons soar between the sky and the Earth, intrepidly moving along the rope towards the future. Their sculpture-like figures are beautifully outlined, stressing the ancient Romans' idea that a healthy spirit can only reside in a physically healthy body. This reveals the joy of life, it is a hymn to the happiness of creating something with others.

"Novruz" [Spring festival in Azerbaijan] 1983. This is the most joyous and favourite festival in the country. Novruz embraces the joy of socialising with family and friends. While the women are preparing the festive fare, the men are relaxing, spending the time drinking tea from the samovar and singing songs. Here there are little boys putting up the notice "Icari Sahar" [Icheri Sheher, Old Town] on the roof of the bath-house! One boy has been dispatched by the women to the relaxing men, carrying a tray of Novruz treats.

Some of these little boys are interested in the sweetmeats on the tray, while something is happening to someone in the bath-house. Life is going on as usual. And everything in it is in order and harmonious. The moment has been captured by the artist for centuries to come! It is precisely from such works that the people of the future will get an idea about those who lived before them and what was worthy and interesting in that life…

"Icari Sahar". 1989. Life itself is varied and splendid, as are the past, the present and the future. It embraces homes and people, birds and pets, women, children, men and the elderly. They live from age to age, from generation to generation, and, after living their allotted time, they pass away into another world. Imperceptibly replacing one another, the Baku serfs (the colloquial name used to refer to those who live in the Old Town) are passing on the so-called baton of moral law, the traditions, and customs of the way of life there.The continuity makes Icari Sahar not simply attractive, but like a magnet. It has its own unique atmosphere. The dynamic way of life of many generations has turned this place into a unique one, where everything seems to be special, both architecture and people.

The border zone

"The End of the World". 1991. The world has collapsed, that warm, tangible, harmonious world where everything was clear and understandable has disappeared. The energy that created it has been abandoned. In forsaking this energy has deprived this world of its strength. And the world has become a flat structure like a life in which a lack of spirituality, pragmatism and sober calculation have been substituted for the energy of the spirit. It is a world in which there is no longer any place for the Ten Commandments, because they are no longer needed. Human sins have replaced them in the guise of virtue, occupying the key positions in forming the spirit and spirituality, just as the feasting dilettantes occupied them in an unbridled manner. 

"The Silk Road". 2008. The artist is speaking to his audience in the language of artistic symbols. In the expanse of artistic memory objects conveying information to the future emerge like shadows from the past that has left us. These include carpets, books, kilims [pile-less woven rugs], the outlines of people's dwellings in the background and two wheels, a big one in the foreground and a small one in the background. The wheel is a symbol of the human world and the conveying of information accumulated by different generations. Culture, which has been developed by generations over the centuries, should be an absolute necessity, just as all the information accumulated by our ancestors, to fortify our roots and preserve our own history in centuries to come, should be an absolute requirement.

"The Antiques' Shop". 2011. Many different types of samovars are heaped up at the back of the old trader at the antiques' stall. These antiques are gazing at us patiently and indifferently from behind the string barrier bearing the word "Antiques". These are silent witnesses to the ages, to the distant and recent past. They are reminders of the material and non-material world, of transient values, and of what is most important, namely that only the soul,only the very spirit of the soul, cannot perish in this world,.When something is expressed in solid, material form, it is a reflection of the work of the creative spirit, of the intellect, of the imagination and the mind. This only happens when an ordinary, everyday object like a samovar becomes an object created by the artist, on which he has left his mark for centuries to come.

So, why do the eyes of the smiling artist in the self-portrait look so sad? What is he trying to tell his audience? It is about the bonds between the ages. It is about the values, material and non-material, which need to be preserved for the sake of furthering the human race. He is showing us man's place in this life, how to preserve what is human in man, what he himself has managed to preserve within himself.

ABOUT HIM 

Arif Alasgarov was born and grew up in Baku. He graduated from Leningrad's V. I, Mukhina Higher Artistic-Industrial College, which is now called the Alexander von Stieglitz Art and Industry Academy. He was not yet 28 when he started to show his works at different exhibitions in the country and abroad. At the age of 33 years, he became a lecturer at the State University of Culture and Arts [in Baku], to which he gave 24 years of his life. He was head of department at the State Academy of Arts for seven years, from 2001 to 2008. Since 2008 up to the present time, he has been professor and head of department at the Arts Faculty of the Karadeniz Teknik Universitesi (Turkey).