LIFE IN THE NAME OF ART …

Artist Kamil Nacafzada is known not only in Azerbaijan but also far beyond. For a long time, Kamil Nacafzada worked for Caffar Cabbarli Azerbaijanfilm. As an art director, he worked on more than 40 well-known movies. Without confining himself to scenography and film design, he successfully demonstrated his talent in painting and graphic art.

Kamil Nacafzada is the creator of nine personal exhibitions held since 1946. His works are currently part of private collections in the USA, Japan, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Russia, Germany and France. In 1997, two exhibitions of his work were held in Washington. Another exhibition in the US capital was held four years later. In fact, it was opened by the former Azerbaijani president, Heydar Aliyev. After carefully examining all the paintings, Heydar Aliyev suddenly asked the artist, "I have seen everything except for oil here. Where is the oil?" And Nacafzada quickly answered, "The oil is in Baku!" Heydar Aliyev smiled, impressed by the artist's shrewd answer. In 2005, a jubilee exhibition marking the 75th birthday of the artist opened at the Bahlulzada art salon. During that exhibition the artist displayed his most interesting and remarkable work, including "1941", "Workers of Vietnam", "Refugees", "Mothers' Grief", "The Disabled", "The Pain of Agdam", "History is Not Forgiving", "Azerbaijan's Scream-1990", etc. An R+ correspondent has interviewed the people's artist of Azerbaijan, three times laureate of the state award, honoured artist of the Chechen-Ingush Republic, professor of Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts and holder of the Shohrat Order, Kamil Nacafzada.  

- Mr Nacafzada, do you remember your first work?

- I was at kindergarten when I took a pencil and drew my first meaningful picture. I don't remember how old I was at the time (smiles). It has been a long time! But I do remember whose picture I drew. It was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin with a red ribbon on his chest. By the way, I am a left-hander. I remember teachers trying to rid me of this habit. In fact, the teacher even advised my mother to tie my left hand so that I would do everything with my right hand, like everyone else. But that didn't help (smiles). I still draw with my left hand.

In 1944, I entered the A. Azimzada Azerbaijan State Art School. Even in the hungry years of war, when everyone was entitled to 300 grams of brown bread a day, we never stopped studying. We woke up early every morning and went to school. Now, more than 60 years on, I often tell my students about that extremely difficult period. We strived for knowledge despite the hunger and tiredness. The present generation doesn't have any needs. They have all the conditions but don't want to study. Unfortunately, young people have become inert and lazy.

- What was your life like after the war?

- In 1949, I went to Moscow and entered the art department of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography. I had great teachers - Grigoriy Mikhaylovich Shegal, Yuriy Ivanovich Pimenov, Fedor Semenovich Bogorodskiy. The works of these talented artists were displayed in many exhibition halls around the world. We learnt not only professionalism but also human qualities from them. 

We were at the institute from 8 o'clock in the morning till late at night. We would draw, make sketches, worked on ourselves to perfect our skill. As a result of hard work I graduated from the institute with honours. Professors tried to persuade me to stay in Moscow, but I refused. I had left my mother in Baku, and I missed her a lot. After returning home, I started working on films. The first film I started working on as an art director was "Black Rocks" by Agarza Quliyev.  

Based on a novel of the same-name by Mehdi Huseynov, the film dwells upon dramatic events that happened to oil workers during offshore drilling. My second work was a great film by Ilya Gurin and Ajdar Ibrahimov, "Two from One Neighbourhood". Sergey Bondarchuk featured in the film. Then I was part of a film crew for one of the best-known of Tofiq Tagizada's films, "Distant Coasts" (smiles). It was a great time! What a pleasure it was to work with real professionals!

- But you left cinematography, didn't you?

- Yes, and this is why it happened. Film director Samil Mahmudbayov invited me and several other people for the shooting of a new film based on a script by Vaqif Mustafayev. I remember preparing very carefully for the shooting, travelling to Dubai and Turkey, but when we returned it turned out that the producer could not find the money for the film. I took offence and decided, "I will never set my foot in a film studio again." This is how I left cinematography. I started teaching at the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts and a year later I was promoted to professor.

- Many of our readers will probably remember two of your latest paintings, "History is Not Forgiving" and "Azerbaijan's Scream-1990". How did they emerge?

- In the difficult 1990s I was working at the Azerbaijanfilm studio. After the tragic developments of 20 January, I remember the director of the studio, Ramiz Fataliyev, establishing a group that was supposed to go to hospitals and morgues and film the consequences of the massacre for history. I saw with my own eyes the deaths of innocent people, the tears of mothers. Naturally, this made an indelible impression on me. So I decided to let out my emotion and create a few paintings. This is how "Azerbaijan's Scream-1990", the first in a series of works, emerged. I depicted the good and the evil and divided the painting into dark and bright spaces. In the former, I drew Mikhail Gorbachev, the person who sowed death and chaos and was culpable in the January tragedy. In the right-hand corner I depicted Allahsukur Pasazada with a mosque in the background - he emphatically condemned the Kremlin's policy at the time. In the centre, above dead bodies, there is a small boy stretching his hands to the viewer as a sign of continuation of life. After finishing the painting, I put it away and decided not to show it to anyone for some time. Then I started working on the second painting of the series, "History is Not Forgiving", where Gorbachev is the central character again.

This work features Mikhail Gorbachev as an executioner of Azerbaijan. When I showed the completed picture to my friend Azad Sarifov, he recommended that I either hide it or get rid of it altogether. "If you don't want to get you and your family into trouble, don't show it to anyone again," Azad told me then. I kept the painting in my workshop until Boris Yeltsin came to power, while in 1995 it was first displayed in an exhibition at the Museum of Arts which was also attended by Heydar Aliyev.

- You have been to many countries in your long life and every time, after coming to Azerbaijan, you communicated your impressions through canvas. What foreign trips stand out the most for you?

- It was very difficult to go abroad then. The USSR was a closed country and not many people would be allowed to go outside. Besides, I was a nonpartisan. Even when I was in school I never joined the Komsomol because I never liked such useless organizations and unions. But I enjoyed respect in society, and in 1981 I became part of an Azerbaijani delegation the Central Committee sent to Vietnam. I travelled around Vietnam in slightly more than 20 days! And everywhere I went, I saw smiles on people's faces as they greeted me cordially. The Vietnamese are an incredibly friendly people. At 6.00 in the morning they were already in their paddy fields, knee-deep in water. While in this country, I gathered good material for future work, made many sketches. I decided that when I returned to Baku, I would dedicate a series of paintings to Vietnam. This is how 45 paintings emerged. It took me three good years! In 1985, I held an exhibition called "Vietnam" in Moscow, while six months later I decided to present 29 paintings to an art gallery of this country. My pictures can still be found in Hanoi. 

I also remember a visit to France quite well. We dropped into a bar after a long tour of Paris. We were sitting there with a guide and exchanging our impressions of Paris when I saw a gorgeous young girl sitting at a table next to ours. She was a little dejected and was having a martini. I enquired why a beautiful girl like that was downhearted, and persuaded the guide to go and ask her. The girl told a very sad story of her life. It turned out that from a very young age she had had to sell her body to earn a living. Now she had everything, an apartment, a car, but she wasn't happy. She was sad because she was lonely. I was so impressed by her sad green eyes that when I got back to Baku, I painted a picture called "At a Cabaret".

- Mr Nacafzada, I can see the portrait of the great Makhmud Esambayev in your studio. As far as I know, you were friends. How did your friendship start?  

- (smiles) I met Makhmud during the shooting of Tofiq Tagizada's film "I Will Dance" in Baku in the early 1960s. He then visited me several times. During those visits I painted his portraits. He was an amazing man! Honest, brave and noble. Whenever I travelled to Moscow I stayed in his one-room apartment in Gorky Street. His family was living in Groznyy, while he travelled back and forth. The doors of his home were always open to all! He would help anyone who asked for help. This is what Makhmud was like… A great man …

- You have been teaching art for many years. Do you think Azerbaijani art has a future?

- I think things are not too bad. I have several talented students who know exactly what they want from life and their profession. I have always told those who describe their so-called pictures as a new trend of the time or avant-garde painting: don't try to deceive yourself, you will never become Reubens, Velazquez and Picasso. Someone who can't compose images, combine and communicate colours is not an artist. Do something else. Reubens, Velazquez and Picasso left a mark in history because they didn't do unimportant things.