"Turksib", 1969.

This interactive exhibition embodies an innovative approach to the work of the outstanding People's Artist, one of the founders of Kazakh fine art, Abylkhan Kasteev. It also demonstrates a unique product of the company, on the screens of which the famous works of the master are animated. In the Art Store application, fans of A. Kasteev's work can get acquainted with other works of the outstanding artist.

The album-catalog is the result of many years of scientific work of the museum specialists in studying the artist's work. The catalog includes over 400 paintings and drawings, as well as ornamental sketches from the collection of the A. Kasteev State Museum of Arts.

Kasteev's work is a unique heritage of the national culture of Kazakhstan. His works reflect vivid and memorable images of the history and life of the Kazakh people of the last century, preserved the spirit of the time of large-scale and global achievements. In each work, the artist demonstrates a virtuoso mastery of artistic material, his watercolors and paintings are deeply national in their content and epic in the form of plastic expression.

"Bride kidnapping", 1937.

"Aksai Quarry", 1967.

Abylkhan Kasteev was born on January 1, 1904, in the village of Chizhin, Semirechensk region (now the Jarkent district of Almaty region), located at the foot of the Dzungarian Alatau. After the early death of his father, he helped the family by working as a shepherd. Kasteev's natural gift as an artist began to manifest itself from early childhood. Spending long days in the pasture alone with nature, he began to carve various figures from limestone and sculpt clay crafts. For the first time, Abylkhan leaves his native village in 1926, leaving for the city of Zharkent, from where in 1928 he gets to one of the main construction sites of the first five-year plan, Turksib (Turkestan-Siberian Railway), where the "proletarian re-education" of Kazakh rural youth was carried out. From here, the 25-year-old Kasteev goes to the city of Verny (now Almaty) to improve his skills. In Alma-Ata, for two years he studied at the art studio of N. Khludov, mastering the basics of drawing and painting. Under the guidance of a talented teacher, such as N. Khludov, Abylkhan received initial skills in artistic craft, forever retaining some naivety, spontaneity and poetic perception of the world around him. These years include such works as "Kolkhoz Toy" (1937), "Milking Mares" (1936), which depict changes in the life of the Kazakh village in the early years of Soviet power. During these years, A. Kasteev begins work on a series of graphic and pictorial compositions united by the name "Old and New Life". In 1940, A. Kasteev participates in the First Congress of the Union of Artists of the Kazakh SSR. During the Great Patriotic War, A. Kasteev works in KazTAG, creating posters and compositions on the themes of war and the labor of collective farmers in the rear. In 1942, the first personal exhibition of A. Kasteev took place in Alma-Ata, which exhibited 143 works by the artist. In 1944, for recreating the image of Amangeldy Imanov for the first time in the republic, Abylkhan Kasteev was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Kazakh SSR. In the creative heritage of Kasteev, the portrait genre occupies a significant place. The portraits of Ch. Valikhanov, D. Dzhabayev, A. Imanov, G. Muratbayev, written by A. Kasteev, are distinguished by expressiveness and the desire to reveal the features of a person's character and his appearance, to present the personality in its correlation with historical events and the spirit of his time. In the 1950-60s, A. Kasteev created several watercolor cycles, such as "New Kazakhstan", "On the Kazakh Land", "The Wealth of Kazakhstan", "The Land and People of Kazakhstan", in which he captured the large-scale economic transformations in his native republic. Abylkhan Kasteev passed away in 1973, leaving behind a large creative heritage, a significant part of which is in the collection of the State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which was named after him in 1984. The works of A. Kasteev are also in many museums and private collections in Kazakhstan and abroad. Each work of A. Kasteev is an inspired story about his native land and its people, an expression of his hope for a better and happier life for his people, to whose service he dedicated all his work.

The exhibition opens on May 24, 2024 at 16:00.