The city as an artistic vision in the paintings of Kazakhstan: The period from Soviet realism to contemporary art

Abstract

Introduction: The article is devoted to study the problem of the artistic icon in the painting of Kazakhstan in the 20th and 21st centuries. Materials and Methods: The vision of the city became one of the most popular, important and noticeable even at the stage of formation of the Kazakh painting school in the thirties of the twentieth century. Then the ideas of progress were concentrated and visually manifested in it. Results and Discussion: Optimism and faith for the future were visualized in numerous storylines of industrial landscape, as a new genre of Soviet art that arose within the framework of Soviet realism. Along with the changes taking place in the history of the country, the picturesque image of the city in the works of Kazakh masters developed and was filled with new meanings. From the naive idealization of the urban landscape in the images of A. Kasteev, to the emotional impressions of the urban seasons in the works of A. Cherkasskiy; from the symbolic-conditional dreamy-romantic image of the city in the art of the "thaw" by S. Mambeev, A. Dzhusupov, K. Mamakov to the abstraction and iconic sketchiness of M. Bekeev, G. Madanov and others. Conclusions: The image of the city as a semantic and philosophical category in the painting of Kazakhstan turned out to be a vivid indicator of the social, cultural and artistic evolution of our history. The picture of the world, the rhythm and pace of different periods of time are clearly revealed in the urban landscape genre, as many conceptual, cultural, aesthetic and even moral imperatives are intertwined here.