Visual art in kazakhstan

The Kasteyev Museum in Almaty offers visitors a representative overview of works by Kazakh visual artists from the 1930s. Visual art is a relatively young form of art in Kazakhstan. The realistic works of the classic AbylkhanKasteyev (1904-1973) show a country full of contradiction. On the one hand, they include lyrical descriptive testimonies of a wanderer in the land such as the portrait of folk minstrel Zhambyl, the image of people crowding at the natural ice skating site Medeu or the panorama of the Talas plain. In sharp contrast to those stand progress-oriented works like Turksib (railway construction across steppes and mountains) Kapshagay (construction of a dam on the Ili River). What the works have in common is a high level of drawing precision. For forty years, Kasteyev accompanied the development of Kazakhstan with its paintings.

Many paintings from the 1940s and early 1950s can be described as «socialist euphoria». Painters like Bortnikov were driven to glorify Soviet power. After the ideological account of Stalinism had been settled, the arts were also engaged in efforts to find an identity of their own. Works of people like Telzhanov, Shayakhmetov and Ismailova show a cautious trend away from uniform ideological positions. The 1960s and 1970s generated a vast variety of both critical and less critical social-realist paintings. A wonderful example is the painting «Festivity Day» by Aralbayev, which hangs in the Kasteyev Museum. During the 1980s, realism went over the top and paintings could be qualified as «satirical realism». The paintings of Aliyev should be mentioned in this context. In addition, two Kazakh sculptors should be highlighted, whose works strikes attention by their impressive expressivity. The first is Rakhmanov, whose work is also exhibited in the Kasteyev Museum, whereas the second is ShokanTolesh with his small emotional bronze and stone sculptures. In independent Kazakhstan a wide variety of artistic schools and trends coexists. From picturesque landscapes and political portraits to mystified historic and national themes, often shrouded in veils of oil and chalk, from surrealistic representations of a changing world to still lives anything can be found. A good place to look into modern visual arts is the Tengri-Umay gallery in Almaty. The highly motivated staff of this gallery in 2002 organized the Kazakh artistic biennale. What strikes attention in the paintings of most Kazakh artists is their colorfulness: the magic of their strong, warm, earthly colors can hardly escape.

Post-reading tasks

1. Write a short summary on the text (no more than 5 sentences).

2. Search the Internet and find more information about art in KAZAKHSTAN.

3. Write a magazine article about art in KAZAKHSTAN.

GRAMMAR EXERCISES

1. ‘You two, come on, help in the kitchen!’

‘We’re sorry, but we’re __________ very busy now.’

2. __________ us (= my wife and I) covered our ears when we heard the explosion, but the people sitting at the next table didn’t.

3. I’ve got two sons, and __________ them leave their beds unmade in the mornings. I have told them a hundred times not to leave their beds unmade, but they keep doing it.

4. __________ them (= Hugh and Angus) pull the toilet chain when they go to the loo. It’s very irritating.

5. __________ them (= Hugh, Angus and Ray) flush the toilet whenever they go to the lavatory. It’s very irritating.

6. There were four sofa beds, and __________ them was worth a bag of beans, so we threw them away.

7. They __________ (= they two) spent three years in gaol because they had robbed a bank.

8. __________ spiders eat insects.

9. Peter and John have declared their love to her, but she told them that she wasn’t in love with __________ them.

10. You __________ (= you three) need a bandage. Come this way and I’ll put you one each.

11. We __________ (= our sister and I) are trying to make a living, so don’t bother us.

12. They (= our three daughters) are __________ grief-striken at the death of their granddad.

13. We saw three pythons, and __________ them was alive/and __________them were lifeless. Someone had killed them with a sheath-knife.

14. She says that she’s gone out with some fifteen boys and that she has loved them __________ deeply.

15. ‘They didn’t take __________ the digital watches in the shop window.’

‘But there are three missing!’

16. ‘How many tulips have you picked?’

‘__________.’ (= I haven’t picked __________.)

17. __________ lovers said goodbye to each other with tears in their eyes.

18. I know there are two cash dispensers in this area, but I haven’t seen __________ them.

19. __________ the farmers here usually pay in kind, as they don’t usually have money to pay in cash.

20. __________ Alice __________ Timothyare as poor as a church mouse, so they won’t be able to lend you any money.

21. Not __________ girls make up their faces, but most of them do.

22. They ate __________ the cheese. They left __________. They love cheese.

23. __________ the rice pudding was fit for consumption. He had kept it in the fridge for a long time.

24. When the forest ranger saw them __________ climbing over the fence, he said, ‘Where are you two going?’

25. We have two kids, and they __________ like tiger nut milk.

26. We __________ have lentils once a week. My husband isn’t very fond of them, but the children adore them.

Module 2 Unit 11

FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND THE WORLD CULTURE

GRAMMAR

Linkers of contrast (Although, however, in spite of, despite)

• Although introduces a clause and is followed by a subject and a verb.

• When the although clause comes first, it is followed by a comma.

• The linker however starts a new sentence and is followed by a comma.

• However is much more common in written English than in spoken English.

• The linkers in spite of and despite are followed by a gerund (-ing form) or by a noun.

• In spite of is more common than despite.