Soviet Art

USSR Culture

Soviet sculptor Omar Eldarov

Soviet sculptor Omar Eldarov (born December 21, 1927). Portrait of a student. 1970, gypsum

Soviet sculptor Omar Eldarov (born December 21, 1927). Portrait of a student. 1970, gypsum

In Baku, Nakhchivan, Kirovabad and other cities of Soviet Azerbaijan were dozens of monuments to poets, revolutionaries, scientists, generals. Azerbaijani sculptors decorated their cities with such taste and skill that they were invited to other republics of the USSR. Azerbaijan has formed a sculptural school, which developed under the influence of Russian sculpture, because most of the sculptors studied in Moscow or Leningrad. But the identity traits manifested themselves more and more insistently. This is evidenced, in particular, in the work of one of the representatives of the Azerbaijani sculpture Omar Gasanovich Eldarov (born December 21, 1927). Soviet sculptor Omar Eldarov – Academician, member of Academy of Art of the USSR (1984), awarded Silver Medal of the USSR Academy of Arts (1962), the USSR State Prize (1962), Cavalier of the Order “Badge of Honor” (1980) and Order of Red Banner of Labor (1980).

Omar Eldarov. Monument to the fallen soldiers of the 77th division of Azerbaijan, the participants of the assault of Sapun Mountain. Fragment. Bronze, aluminum and granite. Sevastopol. 1974-1976

Omar Eldarov. Monument to the fallen soldiers of the 77th division of Azerbaijan, the participants of the assault of Sapun Mountain. Fragment. Bronze, aluminum and granite. Sevastopol. 1974-1976

From 1942 to 1945 he studied at the Azerbaijan State Art College. In 1951 he graduated from the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of Ilya Repin. His teachers were the great Soviet masters such as AT Matveev, MA Kerzin, VB Pinchuk. Among the most famous works of the master – the monument-ensemble Aini in Dushanbe (1979, the USSR State Prize), PA Japaridze monument in Baku (1980, the State Prize of Azerbaijan SSR), a monument to Fizuli in Baku (1962, the Silver Medal of the Academy of Arts of the USSR), Natavan monument (1960, Baku), a monument to soldiers of 77th Infantry division in the Crimea, a portrait of the conductor Niyazi (1984), “The head of the laughing worker” (1984), “Mahatma Gandhi” (1987), “Avicenna” (1980), “Rabindranath Tagore” (1987), portraits of Aysel (1988) and Aytan (1988).

Monument-ensemble to Tajik Soviet writer Aini in Dushanbe, the most famous work of the sculptor. There has been rescheduled a large urban area, set up underground passages, wide staircases and ramps. Among them powerful on granite slabs, stands, leaning on a stick, elderly, carefully looking at us Aini. A bit further in an unusual rectangular structures settled his heroes – with superhuman effort tearing chains, transcending slavery stones young farmer, cowardly shooting from behind the corner Basmach, the Red Army soldier and the peasant, carrying the banner of the new government, the murdered woman with the dangling lifeless hand … , as if history itself on Tajik land, the tumultuous first decades of the twentieth century, which led the republic to radically change.

These are monuments of Eldarov. We see a great thinker and healer Avicenna, proud and brave revolutionary Alyosha Japaridze, beautiful and sad poetess Natavan. Link to the character, the desire to tell the most important and significant define all works of Eldarov. His composition “Four Ages” – the young woman, well, as if in a dance, spreading out her hands, all is in impulse and movement. Calm and regal pose of middle-aged woman. The group is a “story”, continuing in time. It is distinguished by the features of life, realistic methods of plastics. And generalized, symbolized gradually thickening contents, right rhythm – a dynamic, hurrying time and space of youth and shrinking, slowly waddling old age …

Soviet sculptor Omar Eldarov

Omar Eldarov

‘Four Ages’. Fragment. Wood. 1973

Omar Eldarov

Alexander Japaridze. monument of Bronze, granite. Baku. 1977

Omar Eldarov

Avicenna. Fragment. Bronze, granite. Dushanbe. 1980

Omar Eldarov

The memorial ensemble devoted to Sadriddin Aini. Fragment. Bronze, granite. Dushanbe. 1978

Omar Eldarov

Fizuli monument in Baku, 1962 (in collaboration with Tokay Mamedov)

Omar Eldarov

Natavan, Baku, 1960

Omar Eldarov

Natavan. Bronze, granite. Baku. 1960

Omar Eldarov

Memorial headstone to artist S. Bahlul-zade. Bronze, granite. 1977

Omar Eldarov

Sculptural group Liberation. The memorial ensemble devoted to Sadriddin Aini in Dushanbe. Bronze, granite. 1978

Omar Eldarov

Sisters. Copper (Electroforming). 1975