User:Hifuave/Kazakh art

Kazakh Art
Kazakh art is any ancient or modern forms of creative expressions of Kazakhstan culture by Kazakh people living in Central Asia or in countries overseas. Prehistoric Kazakh art involved stone carvings and drawings of subjects including horse riders, shepherds, hunters, deers, horses and other animals and nature relevant to their ancient life. Kazakh history of art is relatively young due to the disturbances of Russian colonisation and Sovietism in the second half of the 19th century. The turbulent times of Russian occupation had caused Kazakhstan to suffer significant long-term impacts and consequences of Indigenous massacres, forced collectivisation and industrialisation. The forced transformation of its traditional culture is reflected and recorded through their artworks displaying various changes of Kazakh styles of art over time. Ancient Kazakh arts are originated from the nomadic times of Kazakhstan, and its indigenous culture is deeply rooted in modern Kazakh society. The culture remains as a heavy source of inspiration for modern Kazakh artists. The ancient origins anchors modern Kazakh art in presenting the traceable histories of their indigenous past and highlighting the Russian influences.

Since the colonisation, social institutions were implemented to replace the nomads’ oral traditions. These institutions were enforced to project and foster socialism into the younger generations. Despite this revolution, Kazakh artists have been actively pursuing to reclaim their indigenous cultural identity through challenging Soviet ideologies and policies with art productions that embodied nomadic elements. The appreciation of the indigenous culture was not lost amongst the younger generations. Several new artists sought to illustrate their understanding of the past by experimenting with a variety of art genres and forms and new techniques they have learned from professional art schools and international artworks.

Religious influences
The Eurasian Steppe or Great Steppe was central to traditional nomadic Kazakh civilisation, culture and arts. Other than being a rich supplier of natural resources and creative inspiration to the Kazakh people, it was also the foundation of traditional Kazakh beliefs. . The Kazakhs are highly religious and spiritual people with their strong values and beliefs in Islamic shamanism and Tengriism that involves nature deities such as Tengri, the supreme god of sky and Zher-su, the god of earth and water. It was believed that Tengriism controlled the conditions of the steppe, which would subsequently determine the nomads’ living conditions. To prevent from offending the spirits of the land and nature, they would pay their respects, by making sacrifices and worships through the mausoleums built in their honour and ensure that their everyday actions are ethical and does no harm to human and nature. The value of steppe and spirits in supporting their livelihood and the making of art, are recognised by the significant reflections of it, through all their art forms. These spiritual beliefs and insights to living are deeply embedded in the process of designing Kazakh art. Ancient worldviews and nomadic culture were embedded in Kazakh literature and performance arts, and visual representations of it are found through their paintings, carpets, and household items. These items reflected their lives, worldviews, values and ideals. Kazakh style of art is mainly inspired from their steppe, traditional culture, daily lives, heroes, animals and spirits.

Political influences
Nomadic art styles and forms changed during the 1930s, when Joseph Stalin succeeded Vladmir Lenin as the Soviet Union leader. Unlike Lenin who exploited arts by using it as a tool for evoking socialist consciousness in people, Stalin saw the need to censor and ban any works that did not serve the party’s interests in socialism. He enforced greater measures on converting Kazakhstan into a socialist society through, introducing industrialism and deepening the cultural transformation with socialist realism as the only inspiration source and style of art. During his program, forced collectivisation and extreme famine had caused the death of approximately 1.75 million of ethnic Kazakhs. Among this physical execution were indigenous leaders, artisans and intellectuals whom were the guardians of traditional Kazakh art designs and practices. With the significant decrease in ethnic Kazakh artists, the traditional cultural Kazakh identity was at risk of elimination. The formation of professional art schools in the 1930s were however, a new means for young Kazakh artists to save and preserve their culture. Despite, Soviet cultural policies of censorships, a new dimension of Kazakh art begun to flourish through visual and performance arts. Artists sought to fight the suppressions of their national identity through creating works that were set in context of a Soviet World, but had inspirations and subtle representations of the ancient Kazakh culture as their spiritual core. This style of art is a synthesised expression of traditional Kazakh culture and new Soviet influences, with indigenous elements being hidden from the dominating political reflections.

Ancient Kazakh literature
Kazakh literature is the oral and written representations of Kazakh culture in Kazakhstan language. The main form of traditional Kazakh literature is folklore, supported with traditional folk music. The Kazakhs had relied on folklores to convey meanings until the development of written works in the early twentieth century. Ancient folklores were shared between each nomad group themselves, before it had become officially established during the time of Kipshak occupation of the Eurasian Steppe in the 12th century. Pre-Islamic folklore topics consisted mostly of nomadic lifestyles, traditions and customs and animals. These continued to survive and grow in huge popularity in the 15th century, with the activities of bards. There were two types of professional bards, Zhyrau and Aykns, and they often performed songs that were called kyui, along with epic poems and ballads. Bard is an occupation not exclusive to men, but most of them are male. Their significant contributions are demonstrated through the extensive amount of Kazakh folk art involving various forms and genres including epic poetry, historical narratives, lyric poetry, long poems, ballads, myths, legends, tales, stories, proses and songs.

Zhyraus
The Zhyraus generally performed historical epic poems and didactic poetry of different Kazakh genres such as terme, osiet, tolgau and dastan. Terme, osiet and tolgau are improvised genres of Kazakh epics, and Zhyraus memorise them to present improvised performances during celebrations and important events. Zhyarus are important figures, for they are responsible for keeping the traditional folklore stories and customs alive through their wisdom, counselling and leadership. They served diplomatic duties of actively maintaining foreign policy relations and providing advice and entertainment to the Sultans and Khans. They are considered by the people as elders of the tribe, so their presence and voice are greatly expected in important social and religious events. Their experiences and the occurrences of these events are turned into inspirational content for zhyrs (epic poems), and are passed on to other nomads, as they travel around the country.

Zhyraus often tell stories and poetries with traditional musical accompaniments to allow the audiences to easily follow and remember their words and help them visualise the poetic imagery. At times, they also rely on pure instrumental music to convey theirs or the tribes’ feelings and emotions. An example was provided through the research of a Kazakhstani scholar named Muktar Magauin. He discovered that the kobyz, a common instrument used to sing the song, “Aqsaq kulan” or “Lame Kulan”, was once blamed for being the bearer of bad news, and was punished to be filled with molten lead by the Khan. The song was written by a man who lived in the 12th century named, Ketbyga-Zhyrau. He had not been punished because no words were uttered during the process of conveying the bad news on Genghis Khan’s oldest son, Jochi.

Akyns
When modern Kazakh languages emerged in the 18th century, the term Zhyraus still existed, but most of them were referred to as Zhyrshy. They were described as normal storytellers who only performed short zhyrs and songs. Though they had songs to accompany their poetry, the Akyns, Olenshis and Anshis were the main song performers. The Akyns withholds a higher status than the Olenshis and Anshis. They are also ones who have passed the Aytysh, a competition that requires strong improvisational skills, knowledge and a good sense of rhythm. Due to these requirements, becoming an Akyn is a long process, as they must take time to train, travel around and gather information and experience that they could use during the Aytysh. Potential Akyns compete against each other with improvised verses to their own renditions of any music produced by a two-stringed traditional instrument called dombra. Aytysh themes are often based on defending and supporting their family’s honour and interests by mocking at the each other’s generation’s flaws and mistakes.

During the period between mid-19th and early 20th century, the Olenshis and Anshis mainly performed lyrical songs that are highly technical and restricted in form, but like the Zhyraus and Akyns, they are not confined to their specialisations. They are also able to sing various types of songs, which range from comical, everyday life to traditional rituals.

Paintings
Kazakh visual arts are cultural representations perceived by sight. They are presented in forms of architecture, drawings, paintings, ceramics and crafts. Kazakh professional arts emerged with the establishment of professional art schools in the 1930s. Young Kazakhs were imposed teachings on the Soviet centralised style of art and were instructed that any creative works should reflect socialism. Though the cultural policy sought to abolish their national culture of nomadism and pastoral nomadism, Kazakh artists fought to protect their folklores by embodying them into their Soviet productions. Among the several artists, Abylkhan Kasteev, Khodja Khodzhikov and Aubakir Ismaillov are considered the leaders of Kazakh visual arts. Kasteev is noted as the founder of visual arts, for being possibly the first Kazakh who saw paintings for its potential as the main medium of national expression. Kasteev’s dedication to transcend the traditional ornaments, which were the sole ancient visual expressions, through turning folklores and natural values into visual representations, are visible in many of his famous works including Haymaking (1934), Collective Dairy Farm (1936), Yurt (1934) and Portrait of Young Abai (1945), Portrait of Kenesary (1935) and Kolkhoz toi (1937).

Kasteev’s paintings are predominately oil and water colour based. He adopts no specific subject or genre, but he experiments with different categories of painting such as portrait, landscape and genre painting. His works highlights his attempts to maintain the indigenous spirit through featuring various aspects of Kazakh culture in the 1920s and 30s. These include farmlands, yurts, mountains, steppe and pastures.

Period between 1950s and 1960s
Kazakh art styles evolved again in the 1950s and 60s with the emergence of a new generation of artists who shared different worldviews compared to the previous generation. In a heavily industrialised and stronger socialist environment, young artists shared a worldview of a conflicted Kazakhstan with the unharmonized atmosphere between the nature and artificial structures. This conflict of form and content had forced young artists to find creative inspiration from their self-identity and imaginations. They characterised their abstractions with bright individuality by approaching the subjects with their own understanding and style of folklores and epics. These individualised styles are generalised as a folklore-epic style, and it is distinguishable through the embedded sematic philosophies, and decorative elements of indigenous ornaments. Kanafiy Tel’zhanov and Sabur Mambeyev both specialised in lyrical canvases, and while Tel’zhanov mainly explored romanticism, Mambeyev ventured into the area of intimacy. Salikhitdin Aytbayev and Eugene Sidorkin also combined elements of traditional Kazakh ornaments with European art styles to create monumental decorative panels and colourful lithographs, respectively.

Late 1960s to Early 1970s
When their self and cultural awareness grew stronger and their identities turned clearer in the late 60s and early 70s, Kazakh artists returned to concrete images and forms. They refocused on easel paintings as their main art forms, and curated refined works that reflected the past and present. They were bold and experimented with new techniques and styles learnt from international arts. This included the conciseness and the use of figurative devices such as oxymoron from traditional Japanese art, and the translation of life events into sculptural illustrations from Muslim miniatures.

Late 1970s to Early 1980s
From the late 70s and early 80s, artists adapted to the international art space that was participated by various poets, philosophers like Albert Camus, and musicians such as The Beatles. This flourishing art scene propelled Kazakh artists to further experiment on different techniques to search for their own styles. Most artists in this period were well-educated with established views and principles. Kazakh art became more intellectual, as artists adopted the concept of a hero bypassing time and space. They would characterise and alter subjects in a hyperbolic manner to reveal their raw emotions and painful reflections with no spiritual guidance. This style contrasts to the traditional spiritual worldviews, but it is through this conflicting period of battling with their own consciousness against restrictive ideologies, that they began to develop their own original artistry.

Traditional Music
Kazakhstan music is the vocal or instrumental or the practice of both vocal and instrumental sounds in Kazakhstan forms and styles. Kazakh music is significantly valued by the nomads in ancient times for its role in transferring historical and cultural information, conveying feelings and emotions and shaping cultural identities. It also supports the oral traditions and acts as an effective form of communication for the nomads who were illiterate. Kazakh music and its creators are significantly connected with mythologies. Myths and legends were a significant part of nomadic life. It offered insightful knowledge that formed the basis of many traditional customs and helped them stay spiritually at ease. Kazakh music follows the same pentatonic scale used by other countries in Central Asia to produce and play music.

The main traditional instruments in Kazakhstan are the dombra, kobyz, sybyzgy, and shan-qobiz.


 * Dombra: A two-stringed lute. It is the most popular instrument used to accompany epic recitals or play instrumental pieces called kuy.


 * Kobyz: A two-stringed bowed instrument that shares similar features to a European violin. It is a common instrument that is considered to have strong associations with shamanism . In Kazakh myths and legends, it is believed that the kobyz, is the first instrument created by a shaman named Korkut Ata . These associations are strengthened with it being played mostly by shamans to shamanism related epic poetries. Its sounds are believed to protect the player and listeners from death and drive out evil spirits seeking to possess living souls.


 * Sybyzgy: A long flute.


 * Jew's harp: Also known as a Shan qobiz. It produces sound through the mouth blowing air inside the metallic reed that is placed between the teeth.

Under Soviet influence, institutions were formed to educate Kazakhs on European music in the early 1930s. The first productions of merged European and Kazakh style of music, were made by the graduates of Russian conservatories. This blend of classical European genres and forms and traditional Kazakh music became a trend amongst Kazakh musicians. Akhmet Zhubanov is notable for establishing the Kurmangazy Orchestra, in which fostered the practice of using Kazakh’s dombra and kobyz to create orchestral pieces. Institutions were further developed in 1954, with the construction of the Kyrmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory. Based on European music schools, it is considered the leading institution for contemporary musical education in Kazakhstan. Other than the modernisation of Kazakh music, instruments such as the dombra was also remodelled through using nylon as strings for the dombra, instead of the natural catgut. As the European styles continue to dominate, this had led many Kazakh musicians to protest over the loss of traditional genres. One such musician was Nurgisa Tlendiev, who founded the orchestra group, Otrar Sazy in 1982. Over the years, the ensemble has developed a rich collection of Kazakh style of classical music created with various traditional Kazakh instruments. With the independence achieved in 1991, the support for national Kazakh music increased, as contemporary artists pursue to revive folk music, atytysh competitions and produce their own styles of national Kazakh music by incorporating it into rock and jazz genres.

Theatre
Theatre was one of the modern European genres introduced into Kazakh culture. Classical music, operas and ballet are generally performed in theatres. The earliest Kazakh drama theatre was called the Kazakh State Academic Drama Theater, and it was established in Kyzylorda in 1926. The first Kazakh operas performed were Yevegeny Brusilovsky’s Qiz-Zhibek (1934) and Er-Targhin (1937), and the first plays were believed to be Mukhtar Auezov’s Enlik-Kebek (1917) and Koshke Kemengeruly’s Altyn Sakina. Traditional stories and legends are central to Kazakh opera. Examples include Abai and Kyz-Zhibek performed by Evgeny Brusilovsky. Ballet was also another genre largely fostered during the war period. Soviet ballerina, Galina Ulanova was one of the first to promote and encourage interest in ballet. Modern Kazakhstan had fostered world stars such as Altynai Asylmuratova, a former leading ballerina with the Kirov Ballet, who became an artistic director for ballet at Astana Opera in 2015. Ballet continues to thrive in modern times with frequent performances offered at the Abay Opera and Ballet Theatre in Almaty and Baiseitova Opera and Ballet Theatre in Astana.

Applied arts
Folk applied arts are linked to the nomadic lifestyle of Kazakhstanis. Each item reflects their worldviews and needs for survival on the steppe. These necessities include portable dwellings, clothing, and furniture, and they are made with various techniques and decorated in colourful tones and patterns.

Yurt
The yurt is the main dwelling for Kazakh nomads. Its convenience in assembling and dissembling makes it easy for nomads to move around. It has a circular collapsible framework made from wooden latticework, a round wooden smoke hole (shanyrak), poles, woven cords and ropes. The interior is decorated with alasha carpets, felt carpets (syrmak), patterned felt (tekemet), felt panels (tuskiiz) and reed mats. There is a significant felt production in Kazakhstan, and most are used as material for house interiors. Animal wools are used to make household items and clothes. The yurt is a symbol of Kazakh ethnic identity and values. Their values of harmony and well-being of the family are represented by the highest point of the yurt, which is the shanyrak. In modern times, yurts are still used by a few Kazakh farmers. Those found in towns or on the roadside are likely to be converted as a café.