Jamol Usmanov - Inspired by the Eastern medieval poetry of Rumi, Navoi, Nizami and others, Usmanov’s oeuvre is filled with references to Sufi philosophy. Sufis used introspection as a method to unite with God. Thus dreams, as a state of meditative ecstasy, become a significant mode of turning away from the outer world toward one’s own spiritual journey. Usmanov’s paintings are a reflection of the artist’s conception of this journey. Imbued with harmony of form and colour, they exude a feeling of tranquillity that invites the viewer to be transported into their own fantasy world.(...)
( text comes from the catalogue Sotheby's At the Crossroads: Contemporary Art from the Caucasusand Central Asia)
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2013/central-asia-selling-exhibition-l13009/lot.26.html
Sufi
Parable and the Contemporary Art
Dildora Zainitdinova
Djamal Usmanov’s project “The Valley of
Knowledge’’ was awarded the special prize of the Foundation ‘’Forum of Culture
and Arts of Uzbekistan’’ that together with the Academy of Arts of the RUz
supported the National Festival of Fine Arts of the country in November 2004.
The God shows Himself only to the extent In which the searcher is able to endure His aureole.
Hiraz (1, p. 32 – 34).
The God shows Himself only to the extent In which the searcher is able to endure His aureole.
Hiraz (1, p. 32 – 34).
In 1990, when our society activated its
interest towards traditional ideals, philosophical and religious fundamentals
of the Uzbek culture, one could be witnessing the whole unique layer starting
its original embodiment in the creative works of the artists.
Strive for heritage sources in Djamol
Usmanov’s works was prompted by the interestedness in Sufi Philosophy. He
perceived its fundamentals by studying works of the medieval poets of the East
such as imam al-Gazali, Attara, Navoi and Rummy. Works of the Sufi-poets in
Usmanov’s perception present an amazing alloy of religious ideas, Philosophy
and subtle poetry. Through them the author discovered in his creative
consciousness the possibilities to express mystical ideas and undercover
thoughts.
Initially Dj. Usmanov depicted personification
of the divine source and manifestation of its highest power through nature.
“Like in mystical poetry it bears the most important semantic meaning, but its
meaning in the artist’s pictures becomes even more significant due to its
poetical, purely lyrical intonation filled with the emotional revelations”,
remarks N. Akhmedova (2, p. 150). The series of the artist’s works “Loneliness
Valley”, “Contemplation Valley”, “Cognition Valley” and “Sweethearts” are
dominated by the bird’s image – symbol of the Sufi soul according to the Muslim
poetical tradition. The interest Dj. Usmanov started displaying towards Alisher
Navoi’s poetry has been later on developed in his new works. A.Navoi’s poem
“Lisonut-tair” (“Language of Birds”) (3, p. 401 – 402) served the basis for his
new pictures filled with the complicated religious and poetical symbolism. It
is based on one of the most famous Sufi parables telling about thirty birds
symbolizing the mankind.
They undertake the spiritual trip in search of
the God. Seven valleys of Action, Love, Cognition, Indifference, Unanimity,
Confusion and Renunciation are the metaphors of the Cognition steps and
spiritual purification. The birds should overcome them on the road that they
could not have found when they started their search in the Valley of Searches.
However when they understood that they had made a mistake, they started looking
for the clue to all mysteries and world secrets in the Valley of Love, which
they thought to be their end target. But at the end of the Road they understood
that the clue to the world secrets is neither in the process of Searching nor
in Love, it is in the Cognition of the Truth. Dj. Usmanov has symbolically
implemented this legend in seven pictures.
In the end of the 90th, Dj. Usmanov began to
develop his ideas in the forms of the contemporary art, or in the actual art.
As has been marked by N. Akhmedova, the researcher of post modernism in the
contemporary art of Central Asia, the artist’s searches were connected with the
original synthesis of post modernism principles with the philosophic and poetic
trends of Islam. Transition from the traditional fine art (easel) picture to
the conceptual experience was for the first time revealed in the artist’s
project called “On the Way to Spirit Cognition” (2001). It was the first
experience of large project (environment) in Uzbekistan that has included fine
art, installation, assemblage and spatial objects. Dj. Usmanov made the
installation in the hall: alive, tender and juicy grass, autumn leaves are next
to it, then follow coal and ash that in the mind of the artist should reveal
the ideas of the cyclic world, human life and nature. Then he produced the
projects “Mirage” and “Thirst” (2001), which showed the definite exit of the
artist beyond the traditional art’s forms, and started his transition to bold
ideas in installations, environments reflecting the search of the expressive
forms of mystical and mystery most adequate for Sufi philosophy.
Being more and more absorbed by these ideas
Dj. Usmanov understood that it was not enough to create a separate object, it
is important to achieve synthesis of plastic forms, music and light to help the
disclosure of covert symbolism, and create the atmosphere of submersion into
the mystery of cognition of the existence essence. The artist has successfully realized
these ideas and principles in the spatial-and-visual project called “Cognition
Valley” presented at the national festival of fine arts of the republic in
2004.
...A small black enclosed place lit with the
blinking light in the huge Central Exhibition Hall of the Academy of arts of
the RUz caused enormous interest of the public. There are strange figures of
the blinds inside. Their postures express surprise, disappointment; each of
them seems to feel fear, rapture, non-understanding, astonishment and terror.
The project is based on the parable heard by the birds in the “Cognition
Valley” (from A.Navoi’s poem “Language of Birds”. Thus, through the new forms
the artist continues development of the ideas that have been absorbing him
before.
According to the parable, one of those who
were meeting the blinds returning home from India asked them, ‘‘if you have
seen the elephant, and if you have done it, tell us what does the animal really
look like’’. The paradox of the question and its sense is in the fact how could
the blinds have seen the elephant? Each of them has touched the parts of this
big animal. The blind man that touched the feet of the elephant compared the
animal with a pillar (with a column or a pole), and the one who touched the
elephant’s belly liken him to the Behiustun rock. The blind man that touched
the trunk noticed that it bore the similarity with the dragoon; it seemed to
the one that was lucky to pat his tusks that the animal consisted of two bones
only. The blind man that felt the tail compared him with the snake. And another
one who managed to touch the head of the animal likened him to the top of the
mountain. The blind man that was touching the elephant’s ears compared them
with two large fans fluttering in the wind.
Every blind person had his own opinion about
the elephant; each opinion was correct enough but it did not give the general
idea of the animal.
The wise philosopher who knew elephants well
enough and came from India himself listened to the blinds and did not blame
them. He understood that they have known only those things that their blindness
allowed them. Therefore, the philosopher approved everything said by the blinds
without any hesitation.
With the help of the new forms Dj. Usmanov has
convincingly showed the feel of touch sharpened with the blind people but also
their touch of mystery, spatial and timely length of the process. It was difficult
for the artist to depict such a feeling in his easel painting. He depicted it
in the installation, but went farther on in his search. Usmanov continued the
idea of synthesis of the forms by creating the composition that allows
submersion into a special space and atmosphere of secrets and mystics. The
spectator who suddenly found himself in the darkness among the blind people
dawned upon with the light of cognition, shall be plunged in thoughts following
the idea of the artist that anything in the world is related, and the blind
people serve the metaphor of such recognition.
By tuning to the parable the artist seems to
relate its essence to spiritual searches in the complicated reality of the
existing world. Many ideas of the parable are eternal and universal. Like in
the earlier times a human strives to reject the limitations of the ideas in the
search of understandings of the genuine Truth. Without pausing on his
interestedness in the decorative elegance of the heritage, Dj. Usmanov managed
to find vivifying sources in the tradition that proved to be modern and lead to
progressive spiritual searches. And new conceptual ideas allow their new
comprehending, understanding and transferring in a form congenial to a
contemporary man.
...Coming out of the black square, the
spectator gets charged with the additional energy of search, ponders of the
sense of living, understanding of the trueness and non-existence of anything
happening in the world. Due to the original project of Dj. Usmanov this far
away parable became concordant to the feelings of the human of the early 21st
century, when somewhat earlier eternal and unshakable values turned out to
become relative and losing their sense. Dj. Usmanov’s creative work presents
meditations on all these things and much more else ...
http://www.sanat.orexca.com/eng/2-05/sufi_parable.shtml