Alexander Akilov (b. 1951) Tajik/Russian, Genre Painting Oil on Canvas. Depicts a group of Tajik women collecting rice with a sheet in the midst of paddies near a row of homes and forests. A brilliant sunset and surrounding mountains in the distance. Signed, titled "Evening," and dated '97 on the back in Cyrillic. Unframed. 

Size: 29 x 37 3/4 in. 

#4448 

Alexander Akilov was born in 1951 in Dushanbe, the capital of the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The country is now known as Tajikistan, a land-locked area in Central Asia between Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China. Like many of the Russians born in the Central Asian countries absorbed by the Soviets, Akilov grew up with a strong appreciation for the culture and nature of the mostly Arab region. He studied at the Republican Art College in the late 1960s, as well as taking private lessons at the Kuzmina Art Workshop under Malik Alimov and graduated in 1971. While developing his style he discovered Western film and fell in love with the medium, eventually moving to Moscow to study at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography, the oldest continuously operating film school in the world. After graduating in 1977 he began to divide his time between his home country and Russia, eventually starting to incorporate sculpture and poetry into his oeuvre. He continues to paint and exhibit in both countries, as well as Britain, France, the United States, and China, where his unique combination of Russian and European symbolism with lyrical and mystical Muslim imagery has made him sought after by collectors. His works are on permanent display in the Tretyakov Gallery and the State Museum of Oriental Art, both in Moscow, as well as the Museum-Reserve Ples, the National Museum of Behzod, and in private collections around the world.