Zhumabaev Tuman

Biography

Born in the village of Karasu, Kirghizia

1981-1985 - studied at the Institute of the Repin Academy of Art, the Neprintsev's studio. The graduation work "Refugees".
1981-1985 - studied at the Serov Art College, Leningrad
Since 1983 - the artist has been taking part in a number of exhibitions around the country
1996 - a personal exhibition, Private Gallery, Austria
1999, 2000 - a personal exhibition, the Central Artists' House, Moscow
2001 - a personal exhibition, the Artists' Union Exhibition Center, Saint-Petersburg
2001 - the personal exhibition "Tuman's Light", the Artists' Union Exhibition Center, Saint-Petersburg
2002 - a personal exhibition in the exhibition hall of Moskovskiy district, Saint-Petersburg
2002 - a member of the Saint-Petersburg Artists' Union
2003 - the personal exhibition "Tuman in Vietnam", the Artists' Union Exhibition Center, Saint-Petersburg
2003, 2004 - a personal exhibition, the Central Artists' House, Moscow
2004 - the personal exhibition "Winter in Staraya Ladoga", the exhibition hall of Moskovskiy district, Saint-Petersburg
2004 - the formation of the artists' association "Argonauts", the group exhibition "The ways of Argonauts", the Artists'Union Exhibition Center, Saint-Petersburg
2004 - a personal exhibition in Hanoy, Vietnam
2005 - the group exhibition "The ways of Argonauts -3", the Saint-Petersburg Artists'Union Exhibition Center, Saint-Petersburg
2005 - a personal exhibition, the Marshan Gallery, Samara
2005 - the group exhibition "The ways of Argonauts -2", the Central Artists' House, Moscow
2005 - the personal exhibition "Victorious Red Poppies", the Naiv Gallery, Saint-Petersburg
2006 - the personal exhibition "Rembrandt's Light", Column Hall of the House of Unions, Moscow
2006 - the personal exhibition "Rembrandt's Light", the Samara Regional Museum, Samara
2006 - the personal exhibition "Rembrandt's Light", the department of the State Hermitage Museum: the Menshikov Palace
2006 - the personal exhibition (within the framework "The days of Saint-Petersburg culture in Isphakhan), the Iran Museum of Modern Art, Iran
2006 - the group exhibition of "Argonauts" "Little Winter", the Art Center "Abris", Saint-Petersburg
2006 - the group exhibition of "Argonauts" "Flowers and fruits", the Art Center "Abris", Saint-Petersburg
2006 - the personal exhibition "Rembrandt's Light", the Saint-Petersburg Artists'Union Exhibition Center, Saint-Petersburg
2007 - the group exhibition "The ways of Argonauts", Gallery "Na Chistykh Prudakh", Moscow
2007 - the personal exhibition "A sunny wind" (sketches), the I.I.Brodskiy Museum, Saint-Petersburg
2007 - the personal exhibition "Tumannaya rhapsody" within the 6th E.Obraztsova Young Opera Singers International Competition, Saint-Petersburg
2007 - the group exhibition "Tsvet ne Tsvet", Russian-Chinese project in Hanzhoy within the framework of "The year of China in Russia", China.
2007-2008 - the personal exhibition "Red China", the Center of Book and Graphics, Saint-Petersburg
2008 June - a personal exhibition in "Anna" Gallery, Saint-Petersburg
2008 May - the personal exhibition within the framework of the international Music festival "At Larisa Gergieva's place", the Tuganov Art Museum, Vladikavkaz
2008 April - the personal exhibition "Tuman with Vietnamese friends" Thang Long Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam
2008 March - the personal exhibition in "Restoration Club", Moscow
2008 - the personal exhibition "The Awakening", the Samara Regional Art Museum together with the art gallery "Marshan" (Saint-Petersburg), Samara
2008 - the group exhibition of "Argonauts" "Three in a boat", Gallery "Na Chistykh Prudakh", Moscow
2008 October - the group exhibition of Argonauts association "Montenegro sketches" in the Saint-Petersburg Artists' Union Exhibition Center, Saint-Petersburg
2008 December - the group exhibition of Argonauts association "Montenegro meetings" in the Moscow Central House of Artists, Moscow
2008 September - a personal exhibition "Flowers of Luciano Pavarotti", a part of the International Competition of Tenors in memory of Luciano Pavarotti; the Saint-Petersburg Shostakovich Academic Philharmonic.
2008-2009 "Holiday in the family circle": Tuman Zhumabaev, Joan Zuma, Isal, ilar, Jean-Ralli-Nil. The Boook and Graphics Center Exhibition Hall, Saint-Petersburg
2009 "The ancient Russia Snow" - a personal exhibition in the exhibition hall of Moskovskiy region, Saint-Petersburg
2009 - "Tuman in Vietnam" - a personal exhibition in the Samara Regional Art Museum.
2009 April - a personal exhibition "The ancient Rusisia snow" in the Central Artist House, Moscow
2009 June - a personal exhibition "Journeys with the wind" as a part of "Volvo Ocean Race", Saint-Petersburg
2009 July - a personal exhibition "To the jubilee of the opera star", Tosno city, Leningradskiy region.
2009 July - a personal exhibition - "Many words of thanking and admiring"

TUMAN ZHUMABAEV

We can find a quality in Tuman Zhumabaev’s painting that is rare nowadays – the combination of a powerful temperament with subtle and delicate technique. Put these together with a thorough training and a willingness to explore new paths, and you have a good foundation for success and originality.

A talented draughtsman, in the early 80s Tuman studied at the Serov College, where fundamental art techniques have always been well taught. He went on to graduate from the Institute of the Repin Academy of Art in 1991. While Tuman’s brushstrokes may seem light and delicate they are driven by a special kind of single-minded dedication. He has been able to retain the artistic culture of his homeland - Kirghizia, but, after his arrival in Leningrad, he quickly learnt the Russian language and also the visual language of modern European art. Zhumabaev has remained professional and honest, and these qualities have come to protect his fate as an artist. The large panel, “Refugees, ” which became his graduation work (in the Y. M. Neprintsev studio) combines decoration and real drama, expressed in an exact and elegant rhythm, where the planes of the picture are preserved without losing the sense of scale and space.

In periods of social upheaval it is not easy to hold on to the will to work, to stay true to traditions and also to oneself. Especially when those who pursue fashion and success for its own sake are more highly regarded than real artists. Painterly skills are being forgotten in the rush to be commercially successful, and the values and concerns of the past have evaporated. Artists no longer feel members of a special heroic community facing a common enemy. Now instead, they face disappointment in their own victory, poverty, the cooling interest of western art-lovers and buyers – and it is all enough to make the thinking young artist of today feel desperate, apathetic or simply exhausted. It has also become clear that some pictures, praised as “brave” in recent years – didn’t really have any lasting artistic value.

Zhumabaev has become a universal artist. He may limit himself to three classical forms – portrait, landscape and still life, but he works within these genres with enough freedom to express abstract metaphorical depths as well as a traditional representation. Looking at the refined trace which he leaves on the canvas – thick or delicate and transparent, with its extraordinary harmonies of colour and tone, we can detect the influence of Alexander Ivanov and the impressionists. There’s an influence, but it never becomes imitation. Zhumabaev gives the tradition his own distinctive intonation and a unique artistic value of its own.

I feel that his pictures have a musical logic and elegance which comes of the perfect quality of draughtsmanship which lies deep inside them. It gives them focus. As an artist, he does not give approximations. Thanks to his accurate colouring and strict taste, even the most poetic and attractive subjects retain their clarity. When Zhumabaev paints from nature he enriches a quickly seized impression with a compositional structure and leaves the sort of palpable painterly surface which, in the 20th century, we saw in Cezanne. This happens even in paintings which, at first sight, seem to be light-hearted and almost as transparent as watercolours.

This is an artist in the instant between now and the future…with knowledge and abilities but also a feeling that what has been achieved so far is incomplete. Zhumabaev has done a lot. This is not to be measured only in quantity, although everybody knows that in order to do good work you need to work long and tirelessly. It’s a long and difficult road without short-cuts, but Tuman Zhumabaev has the talent and the courage to make it to his destination.


Michael HERMAN
Professor, Doctor of Arts,
Academician of the Academy of Humanities,
Member of International Association
art Critics (AICA),
Chief Scientific Officer
The State Russian Museum