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2024  N5-6(231-232)
ART
THE STANDARD OF HANDMADE ART
The history of the Turkmen art of carpet making goes back many millennia. The carpet in Turkmenistan probably has the strongest connection with life, with all the diversity of its manifestations. Indeed, since ancient times and to this day, people have lived their lives on carpets and with carpets in villages, nomadic settlements and cities. Turkmen carpet makers jokingly say that if all the carpets they have made were spread out, they would have covered the entire country.
The patterns of Turkmen carpets resemble a conversation between a man and his ancestors. This is the history of his people, a conversation with nature. The Turkmen carpet adopted the amazing colors of nature, following the natural laws of collateral subordination and complementarity of colors. The blossoming of desert pastures, warm glare of hearth and shepherd’s campfire, gold of the sun and sands, colors of animal skins and scarlet shades of ripe pomegranate grains moved to the Turkmen carpet and fused with the melody of its pattern.
Carpets have always been an integral part of life of the Turkmens. The richest centuries-old traditions that have developed in national carpet making are carefully preserved and developed. Yet, the ratio of usefulness and beauty in a product is somewhat different nowadays. The emergence of new types of folk art is a striking sign of modernity.
More and more carpet artists have recently turned to depicting landscapes, plot scenes and portraits on carpets. This is largely facilitated by high-tech equipment that makes it possible to establish the location of each knot and the color gamut with the finest nuances of tone. Carpet pictures are made according to all the technological and artistic canons of Turkmen carpet making, but at the same time they acquire new qualities inherent in a pictorial painting – dimensionality, aerial and linear perspective, light and shade elaboration of volume.
People’s Artist of Turkmenistan Ada Gutlyev is one of the founders of the new direction of professional carpet making. The products created by this master can rightfully be called carpet picture. Relying on the basics of ancient carpet making and using the latest computer graphics technologies, the artist creates a new kind of art. The master has radically changed the general perception of Turkmen carpet as a subject of handicraft production. As a true artist looking for new means of artistic expression, he mastered the synthesis of painting and decorative art. The two-dimensional plane was replaced by a deep space composed of color, light and air. The carpet was transformed from a household item into a self-sufficient work of art, built according to the principles of pictorial painting. Original images, compositional variability, subtle sense of color, accuracy in making the artist’s sketches, combined with the filigree skill of Turkmen carpet makers give birth to modern masterpieces of pictorial carpet art.
“The desire to exlore the beauty and harmony of the surrounding world and reflect one’s feelings and thoughts through images is a distinctive feature of the artist’s work,” art critic Azat Annaev said. “The carpets-portraits created by the author present not only the external appearance of the model, but also the inner world of a person. Ada Gutlyev works a lot to create landscape carpets, where the state of light and air environment conveyed with great skill takes the viewer’s eye far away to the mountain peaks and vast expanses. Despite the elaboration of the smallest details, the carpet picutre does not lose its integrity. Everything is based on a subtle combination of color nuances”.
According to experts, Ada Gutlyev is highly skilled as a designer in the compositional construction of the painting, when all parts are subordinated to the main idea of the work. The artist often turns to depicting architectural monuments and modern buildings. “Gekdepe Mosque” is one of the best works in this genre, where the graphic clarity of architectural volumes elevates the building above the surrounding space.
If earlier the coloring of a pictorial carpet depended on a certain set of colors that corresponded to the traditional range, then in the works of this master the entire palette of the pictorial part of the carpet depends only on the pictorial skill and preferences of the author. Ada Gutlyev is a subtle colorist who meticulously selects different shades of the same color, achieving the right tone of wool threads. Many of the artist’s works compete with paintings in terms of quality of execution. Indeed, the works created by Gutlyev are not carpets or even souvenirs by their function and appearance, they are a new kind of painting, where the carpet itself is a pictorial canvas, and ornamental borders framing the central part serve as an integral frame, a kind of baguette, which emphasizes the beauty of the work. The transformation of a decorative, conventionally symbolic beginning into a pictorial form of expression is the vitality of the ancient art of carpet making.
Relying on the ancient traditions of carpet art, Ada Gutlyev still remains a painter. A hardworking person, persistent in achieving his goals, he is improving the production technology of a double-sided carpet, which is one of the most complex carpet making technologies. It was the study of the ancient carpet making system that allowed the artist to solve the difficult task of creating a double-sided image.
“Carpet art is in constant development,” People’s Artist of Turkmenistan Ada Gutlyev said. “I set a goal to create a stand-alone work based on ancient traditions that is built on the principles of easel painting. My carpets are a unity of painting and decorative and applied art. Yet, at the same time, they retain all the standards of Turkmen craftsmanship. This is a high density of knotting, which is a guarantee of quality, durable dyes of artificial and natural origin. Each subject I choose is connected with the cultural heritage of the Turkmen people, the richest source of their philosophical and spiritual views. The centuries-old wisdom preserved in ancient carpet ornaments nourishes my creativity.”
Being demanding of his works and constantly creating, the artist is always in the process of exploration and interesting discoveries. Inspiration never leaves the master. He is in constant creative search. The artistic career of the master was highly appreciated in Turkmenistan. His carpet pictures occupy a worthy place in museums and government institutions of the country.
The idea of producing picturesque carpets is now being implemented on an industrial scale. “The Ashgabat experimental enterprise of artistic carpet making has achieved great mastery in the production of pictorial carpets – landscapes made of wool and silk,” carpet production specialist Bayram Byashimov said. “The craftswomen of this factory make exclusive carpets with the most diverse plots, and this experience is spreading throughout Turkmenistan. The craftswomen have achieved amazing accuracy and realism in creating portraits and landscapes. The work of the state association “Turkmen carpet” is largely aimed at popularizing the best traditions of carpet making, both ancient and modern. The association’s carpet products occupy a special place in the European market for their high-quality, for which they have been awarded national and international prizes.”
It should be noted that new samples of picturesque Turkmen carpet art as well as ancient specimens are displayed in the largest museums of the world. They are part of exhibition halls and galleries of private and public collections in many countries, which eloquently speaks of the high level of development of ancient and eternally young carpet art, for which there is no limit to perfection.

Alexandrina EVSTIGNEEVA


©Turkmenistan Analytic magazine, 2005