OREANDA-NEWS. July 07, 2008. ”Kyrgyz wonder” – this name was given to the book that invariably arouses delight with everybody who has ever seen it, reported the press-centre of AsiaUniversalBank. 

Planned and sponsored by AsiaUniversalBank the book was published in 2000 copies only – in Russian and in English. By its luxury and perfection of printing this edition excels the best book samples currently available in Kyrgyzstan. Grand prize and the first rate award got at “Book art” international contest proves the book’s leadership. The contest, which involved CIS countries, took place in Moscow, on June 5, 2008.

While evaluating publications the jury of the contest took into consideration the following: book’s content, illustrations, design, and the level of scientific and reference information. The qualities of printing, its public and professional significance were evaluated especially captiously. Granting the award, the jury fairly acknowledged the book a unique and fundamental publication that had become the most important event in book publishing within the contest year. It also attracted attention of the international book community.

At the presentation ceremony Nurdin Abdrazakov, AUB Chief Executive Officer, said: ”The art of the country is notable for such an impressive national identity, that one could speak about “Kyrgyz socialist realism”, “Kyrgyz vanguard”, “Kyrgyz academic painting school”, also a high concentration of new ideas, projects and events turned Kyrgyzstan into a brilliant part of global cultural content”.

It took more than two years to accomplish the work on the book. After long and thorough work, it was presented in September, 2007. The book happen to be the first such a large-scale public  ation on the national visual arts, containing more than 400 works of art, accompanied with art criticism comments.

The collection differs from other similar books in order of placement of its content – it is a “democratic order” – not according to the artists’ merits, analphabetic, not dividing the works of art into types and kinds but according to the principle “one artist – one work”. The makers’ ambition was to give the readers the fullest conception of the history and modern development tendencies of Kyrgyz painting, graphic arts, sculpture and art projects, and to support and popularize the national culture, i.e. create a kind of Republic’s visiting card.

After its publication the book “Art in Kyrgyzstan. XX-XXI centuries” attracted attention of many local art critics; they believed that the copies of the book might be distributed among the world museums in order that people might have an opportunity to learn this unique collection. As a result the given art history publication was presented to 70 most popular world museums.

The Louvre, the Tate Gallery, the Vatican Museum, the Vincent Museum, the Hermitage Museum, the Two Seas Museum, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Mimar Museum, the Delphi Museum, the Modern Art Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress and the Russian National Library were among the institutions that got a copy of the book. The last one has a great success with the foreign art critics too.

Some of the responses:
“There need be no doubt that this book will be a substantial informational resource for our visitors. The book is included in our library’s collection now. Let me one more time express our gratitude for your liberal gift,” wrote the director of Lettish national Museum of Art.

“This acquisition is very valuable for our library. I entered this book in our catalogue, and from now it will stay in British Tate Library. The book is available to all Tate staff, as well as to any researcher who has access to our recourses. Besides, everybody has access to it on the Tate website. Again, thank you for your generous gift,” wrote the Director of the Tate Museum.

“I’m writing to you on behalf of our Director who was very impressed by your publication “Art in Kyrgyzstan. XX-XXI centuries”. He expresses his gratitude for the book sent”. The Modern Art Museum, Vienna.

“The publication was estimate at its true worth by our art critics. I’d like to add, that due to it we discovered Kyrgyzstan for ourselves,” wrote the General Director of Guggenheim Museum, Spain.

Some copies of the book were also sent to Kyrgyz diplomatic missions abroad, to Universities, Ministries and Departments.

In short, luxury, refinement and beauty feature the above edition both as artistic and printing object. Eugene Boikov and Farkhat Tursunov became the originators of the concept and the curators of the project, Gamal Bokonbayev was the maker and the author of comments, and Sergey Zanin acted as the editor.

By publishing the book “Art in Kyrgyzstan. XX-XXI centuries” AsiaUniversalBank continued its charitable cultural projects. They include design of the national electronic library “Kyrgyzstan’s golden fund”, restoration of paintings of Semyon Afanasyevich Chuikov, renovation of halls of the National Museum of Art, guest performances and concerts of some prominent performers and “Epoch” art project. Finally, publishing the mentioned book is one more substantial contribution to patronage of art traditions development.

Obviously, all these activities will be properly appreciated by descendants in decades, but we believe that supporting culture, we can rehabilitate the economy and improve our life quality in whole.