LIGHT AND LIFE

Sculptor Mahmud Rustamov believes that visitors who come to his exhibition do not need to read the titles of his works because they risk limiting the flight of imagination. Interpretation of any artwork is one of the ways to communicate with the author, and with his dream world. And there is no better place than the Gallery of Art of the Museum Centre of the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, which hosts these days the personal exhibition of Mahmud Rustamov, Unpublished. The exhibition presents a large number of sculptural and pictorial works of the artist, created in different periods since 1990.

Dynasty

About a hundred of diverse works are displayed in four halls of the Museum Centre. They are mysterious, outrageous and attractive. They have enough encrypted messages that we need to unravel, a lot information that cannot be understood by everyone. However, they do not have a heavy destructive beginning but much light and a sense of Life...

Mahmud Rustamov was born in 1967 into an artist family in Baku, and was named after his paternal grandfather. He graduated from the Azim Azimzadeh School of Art (sculpture department), M. Aliyev Institute of Arts (1992), creative workshops of the USSR Academy of Arts under the tutorship of Omar Eldarov. Since 1997, Rustamov has been a member of the Union of Artists of Azerbaijan. He is an active participant in many national and international exhibitions, winner of the award of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as well as the Ministry of Youth and Sports "Sculptor of the Year" (2000). Together with Aslan and Teymur Rustamovs, he is the author of the grave bust of M. Javadzadeh, monument to the Khojaly tragedy (Goranboy), bust of Muslim Magomayev (Astrakhan, 2011), and the bust of Heydar Aliyev (National Aviation Academy, 2011). Since 2006, Rustamov is the co-owner of the family gallery of the Rustamov dynasty, Rustamovs Art House.

Present

Mahmud Rustamov is a friendly, outgoing person who enjoys the confidential tone and openness. Among his colleagues, he has a reputation of an extraordinary and generous person. Thus, during the first solo exhibition, which was organized in 1999 by the embassies of Great Britain, Germany and France, he presented a series of graphic works to an elderly lady who worked in asylum for children with disabilities. She wanted these works to please the children. However, the lady did not have any money, and Rustamov just gifted them (his works) to her. As an interlocutor, Mahmud Rustamov attracts people to himself thanks to his special attitude to opponents and the depth of his thoughts.

"Mahmud, usually artists say that the content of a plot comes to them almost from outer space. This has become a traditional statement. What about the plots of your paintings and sculptures?"

"I do not know. It just comes to you, and that’s it! Suddenly you wake up and realize that the process has begun and you need to start work right now. And when you start, it is already impossible to know where you are, and where is the condition that leads you through the plot. And you often don’t know how your work will be built and how it will be completed."

"Does this apply only to paintings or sculptures, too?"

"It concerns creativity in general!"

The sculptor is right. On the second day, while walking around the exhibition, we paid attention to how and what work the visitors react to. Here is one, for example, under the outrageous title Birds Carrying Donuts. People stop near it and look for a long time. They leave, wander through the exhibition halls and return again. What is do special about it? Strange “characters” live their lives in front of a woman sitting in the foreground in a relaxed pose: a long-eared rabbit, a dragon, mussels, and, of course, birds with donuts in their beaks! A wonderful intellectual rebus for lovers of pictorial creativity! In particular, if you pay attention to the claws of the woman visible on the bare feet of her legs! She looks like a predator…

War between fish and elephants

A series of works under this title are in the second exposition hall and is an excellent field for the development of creative imagination and the ability to see the essence of things not on a single plane, but much wider - going beyond the accepted concept of form. For two days, we have tried to understand what impression the visitors have from these works, where fantasy, not the real space of deserts and bodies of water is inhabited by living organisms of unprecedented forms! But it is at first glance. If you look closely, then in a bizarre interweaving of colour lines and spots, you will suddenly see human figures, faces, flowers, laughing eyes of an elephant, fish coming out of the sand, and everything that can finish your imagination! This fascinating intellectual game with imagination is somewhat similar to the optical games of clouds floating on a clear day above our heads!

12 portraits

Special attention of professionals and visitors was attracted by the sculptural works of Mahmud Rustamov, devoted to the emotional state of the Woman. Twelve sculptural female portraits are located in the centre of the third exposition hall, so that it is simply impossible to leave them unnoticed! Moving from one bronze face to another, you will notice that the nature of women's feelings, sensations, experiences and emotions has a spontaneous beginning. It is this beginning that gives the Woman a mystery that has been sung at all times by poets, artists, and musicians.

10,000 volts

This is a graphic work of the artist, which he wrote in the late 90s. It seems that the secret of the attraction of Rustamov’s works lies in this very painting. You will see a man with his hands lifted up and his electrified hair directed towards the cosmos. Here it is, the degree of the inextricable link between Creativity and the Universe. Man (especially the Artist!) is the only guide on the way to divine truth... This is how Mahmud Rustamov goes his whole creative life and looking for it. That short distance, which can reveal to him the meaning and essence of Truth. What is it in? For the artist, however, as well as for the ordinary mortal, it is in search. Search for Yourself and meaning of life...

“I am a sculptor!”

He says about himself: “I am not an artist, I am a sculptor!” This statement surprised at first. After all, in principle, there is no difference. Painter! But if the artist himself says about himself that he is not a painter, but a sculptor, then this makes some sense! What is he? Probably, only art historians can understand this, but we, as amateurs, have simply judged: a sculptor is guessed in his graphic and pictorial works. Because if you pay attention to the composition of the works, you will certainly guess the sculptor’s view on the essence of the depicted object. Even if we trace the cycle of his graphic illustrations in Yol magazine, as well as the book “When they were still alive...” by Ogtay Mir-Gasim, this look can also be found in them.