Kerimbekov Kulchoro (1922-1989)

Painter

Honored Artist of the Kyrgyz SSR/Kyrgyz Republic 

Kerimbekov K.K. was born in 1922 in Frunze oblast, presently Chui oblast of KR. Great Patriotic War veteran (1941-1945). 

Kerimbekov K.K. studied at the Samarkand Art School (1946-1947). In 1953 graduated from Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin (painting and portrait studio of People’s Artist of the USSR, active member of the Soviet Academy of Arts, Professor V.M. Oreshnikov).

Since 1947- participant of many republican, all-Union and international exhibitions. In 1955, became a Member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. From 1953 to 1984 – painting teacher in Frunze Art College named after S. Chuikov. Many of his students are now well-known painters and artists of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The art of Kulchoro Kerimbekov became an integral part of the history and the culture of the people. He is one of the brightest national classic masters of realistic and impressionistic painting. 

            Author of historical, thematic and genre paintings, portraits, landscapes and still lifes. He always attached a great importance to plein air work, traveled around Kyrgyzstan, and repeatedly visited the Crimea, the Baltics and the Moscow region.     He created beautiful lyrical, mood landscapes – “Neighborhoods of Przewalsk”, “Evening in Issyk-Kul”, “Twilight in Issyk-Kul”; coloristic and expressive “Port Klaipeda”, “Port Kretinga”, “Gurzuf”, “Ai-Petri”; series of industrial landscapes for the construction of the Toktogul hydropower plant, as well as urban landscapes.

He created expressive, thoughtful and psychological portraits of his contemporaries: “Herdsman Alymkul”, “A. Usenbaev”, “Portrait of the conductor K. Moldobasanov”, of historians S. Toktogonov and S. Tabyshaliev, veterans of the Great Patriotic War and heroes of socialist labor, portraits of children. From the historical and thematic works, the emotional content, energy and technical skill noted in the works: “Signature under the Stockholm Appeal”, “Rally in the Oak Park” etc.

K. Kerimbekov’s works are in the Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts named after G. Aitiev in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in public and private collections in Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Finland, England, Germany, France and USA. 

In 2000, at the request of the Union of Artists of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Union of Writers of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Council of Veterans of the Great Patriotic War, one of the streets of Bishkek (Frunze) named after Kulchoro Kerimbekov.