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In our days in the
ceramic workshop in one of Samarkand streets,
named after this outstanding master, his
followers cherish the traditions of ceramic art
of Afrasiab. Amazing riders on donkeys and
horses, statuettes imitating the situations that
one can watch in chaykhanas and bazaars, clowns-maskarabozes
and, surely, miniature dragons - all these
terracotta articles are the best souvenirs, the
keepsakes to remind the tourists of their trip
to Samarkand.
Many
craftsmen make toys from clay but only few of
them are able to make these simple articles a
perfect work of art. Whistle-toy once brought
world popularity to outstanding hereditary
ceramist Hamro Rahimova from an old village Uba.
Today her follower, Kubaro Kabaeva, teach her
own apprentices to model many-headed horses and
lambs, brightly painted and able to produce a
high-pitch whistle.
Near Uba, in forty kilometers from
Bukhara, in a small town of Gizhduvan which once
was popular throughout the whole Great Silk Road
by its ceramics, there lives a well-known master
Alisher Narzullaev, full member of the Academy
of Arts of Uzbekistan, master-ceramist in the
sixth generation. Lyagans - big shallow dishes,
pialas - oriental cups for drinking tea, kosas -
big cups for drinking soup, vases decorated with
the patterns that resemble peacock feathers -
these are just few of the works of this master.
Bright colors, which are blurred with thick
layer of glaze, get softness and expressiveness
of watercolors. The secrets of potter's wheel
workmanship, of original forms of clay articles,
the techniques of ceramic painting were handed
down to Alisher by his father, Ubaydullo
Narzullaev.
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Near Uba, in forty
kilometers from Bukhara, in a small town
of Gizhduvan which once was popular
throughout the whole Great Silk Road by
its ceramics, there lives a well-known
master Alisher Narzullaev, full member
of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan,
master-ceramist in the sixth generation.
Lyagans - big shallow dishes, pialas -
oriental cups for drinking tea, kosas -
big cups for drinking soup, vases
decorated with the patterns that
resemble peacock feathers - these are
just few of the works of this master.
Bright colors, which are blurred with
thick layer of glaze, get softness and
expressiveness of watercolors. The
secrets of potter's wheel workmanship,
of original forms of clay articles, the
techniques of ceramic painting were
handed down to Alisher by his father,
Ubaydullo Narzullaev. |
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At the
pottery |
In Khiva, one of the oldest towns of the
world, there has developed the Khorezmian school
of ceramics remarkable for its monumentality of
clear geometrical ornaments. The patterns of
ceramic articles have much in common with
majolica decor, that covers the walls of famous
architectural monuments of ancient Ichan-kala,
because present-day craftsmen are the direct
descendants of the ancient masters who decorated
the ancient palaces and mosques. For making the
glaze - ishkor they use the same components that
were used by their ancestors for getting
unfading blue, azure and turquoise tiles.
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Wall
patterns at Khiva |
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In
any place of the Republic a lover of the
pottery will find original style of
painting, clarity of decorative forms,
the real feeling of master's creativity.
The true connoisseur of the blue
ceramics will long to get to Ferghana
valley, to Rishtan.
According to historical facts, pottery
craft emerged in Rishtan about one
thousand years ago. Rishtan ceramists,
kuzagars, consider themselves to be the
descendants of the founders of ceramics
as well as the advocates of old
traditions.
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In the middle ages the art of Rishtan
craftsmen gained popularity in many towns and
countries, which lay along the Great Silk Road.
After the powerful empire, Movarrounnahr, had
been established by Amir Temur, the best
commodities from all over the world could be
found in the markets of the empire. The finest
white Chinese porcelain with cobalt blue
painting was among the most valued goods. But
the secret of its manufacture the Chinese
craftsmen kept to themselves.
It is well known that at the end of 14th
century Amir Temur sent several masters from
Samarkand to Rishtan. It was at that time that
the attempts were undertaken to reveal the
secrets of Chinese porcelain manufacture. These
attempts failed because in Fergana Valley there
were no deposits of high-quality kaolin clay.
However, in Rishtan there was invented the
techniques of making from local sorts of clay of
semi-faience pottery, covered with white glaze
and blue painting, so-called "chini" -
"Chinese". This style of painting got a rather
original evolution in Uzbekistan To tell the
truth, the Rishtan potters were making "chini"
ceramics in the 19th century. According to the
ancient oriental beliefs, aquamarine symbolizes
happiness because it is the color of water and
sky.
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Ceramics
of Rishtan |
Nowadays in Samarkand, Gizhduvan and
Tashkent national craftsmen mostly use
factory-made or home made leaden glaze for
ceramic articles decoration. Rishtan potters
still use enamel "ishkor", which is made from
ashes of the bushes known only to them.
Craftsmen add stannum, oxides of cobalt, copper
or iron in it. Depending on the combinations of
these additives with potash contained in the
ashes, the glaze "ishkor" turns into
ultramarine, turquoise, white, black or brown
color.
Nowhere else in Uzbekistan there is such
a diversity of forms of ceramic articles as you
can find in Rishtan. The creative imagination of
local craftsmen is unlimited: lyagans - dishes
for pilaf, cosas and shocosas - bowls for
drinking vegetable soup shurpa, huge jugs -
khums for keeping grain and oil, churns, deep
vessels with lids for sour milk - koshkulok,
oftoba - jugs for ablution before praying,
pialas, kuzacha - jugs for water, vessels in the
shape of fabulous bird urdac.
Magic notions, embodied in ornamental
motives, became a thing of the past, but their
symbolic and poetic connotation is still known
to kuzagars and, as peculiar "code", it is
passed over from generation to generation. Thus
on the ceramic articles the masters still make a
beautiful picture of a pomegranate bough with
fruit, ornaments with circles and helixes -
ancient symbols of the sun, moon, and universe.
Since the 18th century in the decoration of
ceramic articles there have appeared the motives
of jugs, teapots and vases with flowers.
Contemporary works of Rishtan masters,
the real embodiment of the traditions of blue
ceramics of Temurids' epoch, are exhibited in
the museums of Italy, Hungary, France, Belgium,
Russia. In recent years the works of Nabidjon
Kadirov, follower of Usto Ibragim Kamilov,
Rustam Usmanov, Sharafutdin Ysupov, Makhmud
Azizov have been displayed in the exhibitions of
Switzerland, Germany, Japan and other countries.
Collectors from all over the world long to
purchase the samples of the handicrafts of blue
ceramics. Tourist, too, are pleased to buy in
one of Rishtan ceramic workshops a "miracle"
made of clay. Any of these hand-made works is
unique, because even one and the same master
never repeats the form or ornament of his
ceramic article.
Rishtan is said to be the homeland of
ceramic art in Ferghana valley. Muzaffar Saidov,
master from village Minor near Rishtan, keeps
traditions of blue ceramics "ishkor" in his
works; the same can be said about an old master
Gafurdzhan Masharipov from Gurumsaray village in
Namangan province, who strictly follows the
traditions of famous Usto Kenja.
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Master at
work |
It was here, in Gurumsaray village, that
several years ago the full member of Art Academy
of Uzbekistan, a well-known ceramist in Tashkent
Akbar Rakhimov perceived the secrets of ancient
technology of making the blue ceramics "ishkor".
In one of the oldest districts of
Tashkent, Kukcha, in Odil Mukhtorov street,
there is one of the places of interest - a
House-museum named after Mukhitdin Rakhimov.
This outstanding person, a hereditary potter in
the forth generation, an engineer-technologist
on ceramics, a scientist, a researcher, lived a
remarkable life. Having defended a thesis he
worked as a senior staff scientist of the
Republican Institute for fine arts study for
more than forty years. During his numerous trips
to the oldest ceramic centers, in archeological
expeditions he thoroughly studied traditional
artistic techniques of ceramics art of Samarkand,
Bukhara, Tashkent, Farghana valley. For many
years Mukhitdin Rakhimov had been studying the
ceramics of Kushan period and the epoch of
Temurds. He wrote several books and published
tens of articles on history of ceramics of
Uzbekistan and technology of ceramic processing,
interpretation of various symbols and artistic
images in ceramics.
Mukhitdin Pakhimov gave his morning and
evening hours to his life-work - the work with
clay on the potter's wheel, charkh, and
decoration of the ceramic articles with
patterns. He created a great deal of wonderful
articles many of which were reproducing the
styles of Kushan or Temurids times. On his cups
and vases there were flying birds of paradise,
symbols of the peace and prosperity. Intricate
geometrical ornament or conventionalized Arabian
inscriptions were interlacing with each other,
there were floating wonderful fishes, which from
the times immemorial symbolized prosperity and
happiness. Traditions that usto Mukhitdin had
absorbed, his skills and tendency towards
perfection were passed over to his son Akbar.
After the death of his father, this
outstanding artist-ceramist established at his
own expense a private Museum-House in which the
principal place was given to potter's workshop,
personal belongings and the books of Mukhitdin
Rakhimov. Here side by side with the works of
Mukhitdin Rakhimov there are exhibited the works
of Akbar himself and ceramic articles of the
grandson of the great master - Alisher who is
the successor of the sixth generation the
Rakhimovs dynasty. Eleven times the works of
this young talented artist were exhibited in
Uzbekistan, Japan, Germany, and France.
Cherishing family traditions, he works both in
the style of the glazed ceramics of Kushan
times, and the style of Temurids blue ceramics,
experimenting on reproduction of Tashkent carved
ceramics of 5th century, making the series of
works imitating the motives of "kashgari" style.
In the hospitable house of the Rakhimovs
everybody remembers the words of master
Mukhitdin Rakhimov, the words that have became a
kind of a precept to his descendants and other
ceramists: "Each article is made from clay. But
one should remember that artist must not only
love it with all his heart, but must make for
this clay to acquire the required form".
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