Ural Tansykbayev, the beloved and respected painter of Kazakh descent was born in Tashkent in 1907. His paintings never fail to translate a love for nature, for the land we live on, through time and space. Transported to today’s world, he seems a real romantic. The Ural Tansykbaev Memorial Museum is the home he lived in after the devastating Tashkent earthquake of 1966 for the last 7 years of his life. After he passed away, his wife Elizaveta Yakovlevna turned their home into an abode of artistic memory. The museum holds a variety of his works, from early to ones from his last years.
Apart from seeing sketches and paintings of an exceptional painter of local origin, the museum is a time capsule showing the way of life led some of Tashkent’s intelligentsia in the 60s. The furniture, a few carpets, a television set, the way two beds were pushed together – all these demonstrate how life was for educated people of culture back in the day. A special delight is two pieces of modernist-style furniture made by Tansykbayev himself. Even the garden, which the painter took care of daily, has been mostly maintained the same way as in his day. This is quite remarkable in Uzbekistan since there is a tendency to “renew”, and sometimes erase the true face of, historical places.
As often happens in cultural institutions, the guide who showed me around is an incredible source of knowledge. Narineh can give tours in Russian, English, and French.
