Javlon Umarbekov

Javlon Umarbekov, born in 1946 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is one of the key figures of contemporary art in the country. Any conversation about the art of this country will indicate how prominent the master is in its cultural make up. He is the People’s Artist of Uzbekistan, an active member of the Academy of Arts of the Republic, a full member of
the Academy of Arts of Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine and Professor of the National Institute of Arts and Design named after K. Behzad, the legendary founder of the Herat miniature school. 

Since the 1970s to the present day, Umarbekov has successfully represented his art in prestigious exhibition centers and museums, both in Uzbekistan and outside. His personal exhibitions have been held in the Tretyakov Gallery
in Moscow, at the UN headquarters in New York and in the famous galleries of Kuwait, Japan, Austria, Germany, Turkey, China, among other places. Today, his work is ranked among the classics. 

He began boldly by crossing boundaries and rigid norms of the past. He offers an original interpretation of Uzbek heritage and calls for a free dialogue between the cultures of the West and the East. In all of this, the creative freedom and the spirit of innovation are seen.
Paintings of Umarbekov from various points of time demonstrate that the artist is constantly in search of new ideas. He is a true modernist who seeks an original look and a new plastic language that refers to simple and poetic subjects. His unfailing tendency to stylistically metamorphose always attracts the viewer.

 Many of the motives and inspirations of his paintings are taken from childhood memories and intertwined with the collective memory of the people. As this is so, his history and work is intimate and understandable to many. Relying on traditional images and eternal values, Umarbekov avoids postmodern intellectual games and glamorous but fake attractiveness in his work. The creative handwriting of Umarbekov is an individual interpretation of Cubist principles, with bright and sonorous colors. In his paintings there is a kind of retro–memory that can be read in nuances and has connections with the rebellious experiments of modernism as well as with masters of the avant garde of the twentieth century.

“As a student in Moscow, I was fascinated by the variety of Eastern and Western art I saw in the museums there and did a lot of research on the styles and techniques of different artists. But I have always tried to develop my own individual vocabulary. I have never copied any style or followed any ‘ism’. I just try to depict what I see,” – Javlon Umarbekov