National Art Museum opens exhibition dedicated to country's first female painter

The National Art Museum has opened an exhibition themed "Vajia Samadova-100: Pages of the Artist's Life", Azernews reports.

The exhibition was timed to the 100th anniversary of the outstanding artist, Honoured Artist Vajia Samadova (1924–1965)

The museum director, Honoured Cultural Worker Shirin Malikova, Vice-Rector of the Azerbaijan State Academy of Arts, People's Artist Salhab Mammadov, and grandson of Vajia Samadova Agshin Feyzullayev, spoke at the event about the life and work of the master of the brush, the country's first female painter.

Co-organized by the Culture Ministry and National Art Museum, the exhibition presents 60 works of painting and graphics created by the artist in various genres.

In landscape works, the mysterious nature of the Azerbaijani land comes to life, which the artist reflected on canvases based on her observations.

And the art works created after a creative visit to Bulgaria demonstrate compositions dedicated to nature, architecture, and the people of this country.

The artist's paintings are distinguished by their depiction of vivid feelings and emotions, excellent compositional solutions, and female images.

The concept of the exhibition is given special meaning by the video material about the charming image of the author together with his beloved life partner, artist Latif Feyzullayev (1918-1987), as well as about his personality and creative world.

When his spouse died, Latif Feyzullayev was 45 years old. He lived with her for 22 years. It was unbearably difficult for him to endure separation.

Through his paintings "Old Cemetery", "Lonely Grave", "Portrait of the Artist Vajia Samadov," and "Morning", Latif Feyzullayev reflected his love for his wife and longing for her. After his death, he was buried next to his beloved.

Vajia Samadova lived a short life, only 41 years old, but this life contained unimaginably much - hundreds of canvases, several generations of artists trained by her, beautiful and talented children she raised, and the exhibition centre of the Azerbaijan Artists' Union bearing her name. That is why the memory of her continues to live in the hearts of lovers of Azerbaijani painting.

The freshness of colours and originality of composition inherent in her works reflect a special view of the world.

She was not afraid of colours and feelings - the variety of colours logically followed the circumstances of her life, the Baku environment, and a happy childhood spent in the ancient part of Baku - Icherisheher, which the artist considered the concentration of beauty.

Her canvases are a constant joy of recognition. All the main signs of Baku are here: pomegranate seeds dripping with juice and colourful bouquets painted with large strokes, sea foam marked with powerful white strokes on the Caspian shore; and an emerald palette of greenery in the courtyard.

The exciting landscapes of the pearls of our native nature - Goygol, Kura, Kapaz, Absheron, beautiful portraits of contemporary women - smart, educated, self-confident, strong-willed beauties, but with the tenderness, modesty and even shyness characteristic of an eastern woman, Bulgarian motifs, full of national flavour paintings about the lives of rural workers, self-portraits - all this is so naturally, sincerely, and movingly conveyed on the canvases that it is impossible to describe in the most beautiful words.

The exhibition "Vajia Samadova-100: Pages of the Artist's Life" will last until November 25.