Among Zoroastrian burial items, there is a camel-shaped zoomorphic OSTADON lying there. It was found…
Uzbekistan’s figurative pottery center is Samarkand.
One of the old masters who left a lasting mark on the local style was Umarkul Jurakulov (1894 – 1973), who among other things was responsible for making replicas of items excavated in Afrasiab. Afrasiab was the capital of the Sogdia in the days of Alexander the Great. This toy made by an artisan consists of brightly colored yellow and red terracotta figurines depicting fairytale animals and birds as well as horsemen. The richly loaded camels and their riders hark back to Uzbekistan’s great past at the time of the Silk Road. Over time a transition took place from folk art to handicrafts. Instead of strict frontal and static modelling, real and imaginary animals were shown in dynamic motion.
The Saxonian State Collections of Ethnography (SES) were formed in 2004 from the three ethnological museums in Saxony – Leipzig, Dresden and Herrnhut. All three museums have their own collection traditions corresponding to their different histories. The focus in Leipzig is more on ceramics, and in Dresden on textile products, while the small collection in Herrnhut includes only a few objects from Uzbekistan. The majority of the pieces were originally purchased from the private collection of the Leipzig graphic artist and painter Gerd Thielemann.
Some of these animal figures were presented to Gerd Thielemann as gifts from the artisans themselves, in particular from Hudoiberdy Hakberdyev (b. 1949), a pupil of the Samarkand master artisan Jurakulov. In the small village of Urgut, 30 kilometers southeast of Samarkand, the ceramics master Mahkam Ablakulov and his son Numon make plates and jugs with carved or engraved ornamentation (chizma). This, too, is a very old tradition, whereby the decoration consists of primarily geometric elements, rhythmically organized and enlivened with goldgreen glazes. Water pitchers and an oil jar in the collection are examples of such objects. The artisans Hudaikulov and Muzaffarov from Shahrisabz favor warm, bright shades for their ornamental plates.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Collections of the Federal Republic of Germany" (volume XI) in the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.
