مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - “They Will Understand Me in 20 Years’ Time” Settar Behlulzade

Abstract :

For the ideologists of socialist realism, the appearing of young artists with nationalistic and rebellious tendencies in the countries under the dominion of USSR was a disturbing development. However this fact did not stop some of the young artists from Azerbaijan to yield such works with the characteristics of antisocialist realism. The reason behind their reactionary attitude against the socialist realism is, no doubt, due to their interest in their national and historical roots.Following the occupation by Red Army in April 28 1920, the contemporary drawing of Azerbaijan inevitably went under the influence of Soviet Russia. However the existence of painters who painted in the western sense of the art could not be ignored since the 18th century. Mirze Kadim İrevani,Hurşid Banu Natevan, Mir Möhsün Nevvab are some of them who were considered as such painters. The fear that the western ideas would spread within society by way of aesthetics was a great concern for Soviet ideologists. Thus,they stigmatized these artists who with an inquiring attitude towards their national roots, language and homeland, as “the missioners of the western art”. In this context, initial works of the contemporary history of drawing in Azerbaijan which are yielded in the western style had an apparent inspiration from the patterns of the 16th century miniatures, decoration, drugs and carpets of Azerbaijan.Settar Behlulzade is one of the artists who worked with unrestrained creativity and did not comply with socialist realism which unconditionally dictated repeating of the model and the still-life to the artists. This article studies the life and the creativity of Behlulzade who began painting between 1940 and 1950 and got known as the “genius walking among us”. First years of the creativity of Behlulzade coincide with the most dominant years of the socialist realism over the world of art. Behlulzade, nevertheless, bravely tackled the very old history of Azerbaijan in his works. In the 60s and the 70s, he pre-dominantly reflected his love for his homeland on his works. His unique traditional depictions and panorama is considered as a new blood to our art.