Aykhan Khadzhiev – originally from Turkmenistan
After graduating from school under the mentorship of the first Turkmen artist Byashim Nurali, Aykhan entered an art school, which was then opened in the capital of our republic. Under the leadership of S. N. Beglyarov painted the painting “The Bai and the Batrac” He told about a proud young shepherd who refused to serve the exploiter. The picture was shown at the Republican exhibition.
On January 4, 1944, Khadzhiev arrived in Moscow to enter the Moscow Art Institute, which now bears the name of V. I. Surikov. The teachers were: N. Kh. Maksimov, P. I. Kotov, I. I. Chekmazov, V. V. Favorskaya … They not only shared with students, dreaming of attaining heights of skill, deep knowledge, experience, but also inspiration.
Aykhan happened to graduate from the institute in the workshop of Pyotr Dmitrievich Pokarzhevsky – a fine, original painter, a talented teacher.
In 1947, a third-year student Khadzhiev painted a portrait of the great Turkmen poet Makhtumkuli. History has not preserved to us its appearance, as is known, the Quran forbade the image of a person.
Then a competition was announced in the republic to create a canonized image of the great singer of freedom. It was required that the portrait be close to the spirit of the works of Makhtumkuli, folk ideas about the poet. Sketches sent by Aykhan to the competition received the first prize. On this basis, and created a picture.
Diploma work at the institute was the canvas “Kovrovshchitsy”. After defending his studies, Khadzhiev entered graduate school and again studied with Pokarjevsky. It is time to start a multi-figure composition. The content of the picture he sought in the history of his native republic, in the fate of the people. This was taught by the great examples of Repin and Surikov teachers – heirs and followers of the achievements of the Russian school of painting.
He began work on a canvas about cotton growers. He traveled a lot around the republic, wrote portrait sketches to more accurately embody the images of new people.
The theme of labor, history continued in the picture “The Century Dream Come True”, which, both compositionally and figuratively, the transfer of a person’s condition is my greatest success. There, on the background of a hot desert receding to the horizon – the eternal enemy of dehkans, sits a gray-bearded old man. Having scooped up heavy, callous hands with water from the channel that had just been laid, the man wondered about the difficult past. And it is gone forever, as if washed away by this icy stream. The bright strip of cobalt blue in the foreground of the picture is the canal, a symbol of the happiness of the people.
Aykhan was always anxious about the woman of Turkmenistan. In 1966, the historical-revolutionary painting “The Communist” was written. The traits of the heroine are prompted by the character, fate, and appearance of many Turkmen. He worked on portraits of noble daughters of Turkmenistan. For example, Hero of Socialist Labor Ainabad Begencheeva, People’s Artist of the USSR Annagul Annakulieva, the oldest carpet weaver Bibi Akhmedova. The credibility of the work gave the idea of the most expensive woman – the mother. All her life she lived in the village, became a widow early, did not know literacy, but she understood with an inner maternal wisdom that education was most important for children’s happiness.
