UZBEKISTAN
Clare Brett Smith
UZBEKISTAN ART, ARCHITECTURE AND ARTISANS
Clare Brett Smith 1
UZBEKISTAN, Art, Architecture & Artisans by Clare Brett Smith Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 978-1-4675-8995-6 All rights reserved
Some of these photographs have previously appeared in HAND/EYE magazine
Clare Brett Smith 80 Mountain Spring Road, Farmington, Connecticut 06032 United States of America
2
Khiva Rainy Street
2010 Khiva
2010 Tashkent
4
2010 Bukhara
2010 Khiva
2010 between Khiva and Bhukara
2010 Tashkent 8
2010 Tashkent 9
2010 Khiva
2010 Bukhara
2010 Samarkand’s Registan
13
2010 Khiva City Wall
14
1998 Bukhara
2010 Khiva
15
2010 Samarkand, Bibi Khanym Mosque
2010 Tashkent
17
2010 Samarkand, Shahi Zinda
2010 Samarkand, Gur Amir Mausoleum
2010 Samarkand
2010 Samarkand
2010 Tashkent, Ceramic Tile, Carved and Painted Wood, Carved Plaster (Ganch))
22
From 1996 to 2010, through Aid to Artisan’s
Uzbek artisans usually work in family enterprises,
programs, I visited Uzbekstan often. Under a
where generations work together, and skills and
development program that was broadly intended to
methods are passed down the line. Much of this
“build democracy” and develop private enterprise,
systematice sequence, a transfer of skills and high
we worked with Uzbekistan’s highly skilled artisans. There are few places in the world with such a richness of traditional crafts: ceramics from pots to entire buildings, carved plaster, handmade paper,
s tan d ar d s , was l o s t d u r i n g th e “ S o v i e t Time” (1922-1991) when family workshops were forbidden and crafts were moved to collective
chased, forged and hammered metal, textiles,
factories. Machine embroidered caps, for example,
especially textiles!, jewelry, painting, calligraphy. It’s
from the factory in Shakrisab, even though the
as though the whole of the Silk Road trade was
machines were guided by hand, were in no way as
concentrated there. Just the sight of the gleaming
refined as before. Master artisans, known by their title
blue tile mosques set in the sand-colored desert is
Usto, had to work secretly at home, but all was not
enough to take your breath away. Helping artisans to
lost and, since 1991, when the Soviet regime
develop marketable crafts was inspiring, although export procedures, taxes, regulations and government oversight made it very complicated.
collapsed, artisans have enthusiastically and publicly reclaimed their traditional ways. Clare Brett Smith, October 2013
23
DAILY LIFE More about the artisans and everyday life than about architecture
Handprint of Master Metalsmith, Shakir, in the wall of his forge in Bukhara.
He calls his forge a “Pot of Gold� becaue it represents the skills that he has passed along to his sons, rather than the fantasy pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
24
2010 Bukhara, Uzbek style is not afraid of color 25
26
2010 Samarkand
2010 Fergana
27
28
2010 Tashkent, Rakhimov Studio
2010 Tashkent, Rakhimov Studio
29
2010 Tashkent, Rakhimov Studio & House Museum
30
2010 Gidgduvon, Olimjon Narzullaev
31
32
2010 Gidgduvan
1996 Gidgduvon, Abdullah Narzullayev
33
2010 Rishtan 34
2010 Rishtan, in the Studio of Rustam Usmanov 35
2010 Bukhara Market, Watering the Pottery Offering
2010 Samarkand, Mulberry was stacked for paper production; Samarkand was one of the first places in the world to develop paper and this mill, encouraged by ATA, is reviving the art of fine handmade mulberry paper.
38
2010 Samarkand Paper Mill Equipment; Zarif Muhtarov, President of Meros, Samarkand’s Craft Association; and an Ancient Koran on Mulberry Paper in a Tashkent Museum.
2010 Bhukara, Mirfayz Ubaydov, the Spice Man
39
40
1996 and 2010, Bukhara Metal work: Brass Chasing, Shokir’s Forge and Shokir at his Anvil
2010 Bukhara, Shokir Kamalov and his sons, Shavqiddin & Zavqiddin
42
2010 Margilan Warp
2010 Margilan, Warp Threads
43
44
2010 Margilan
1996 Margilan
2010 Margilan, in Fazlitdin’s Workshop
1996 Kokand, Dowries include at least two fine silk ikat dresses, thus maintaining the local market.
1998 Margilan, Warp Tied for Ikat Opposite page, in Margilan in 2010 48
49
2010 Margilan
1997 Tashkent, Suzani; 2010 Margilan, Rasuljon’s Ikat Velvet; 2010 Samarkand Embroidery and Shoes in Bukhara
51
2010 Fergana Valley Silk Ikat Artists, Fazlitdin Dadajonov and his son. 52
1998 & 2010 Tashkent, Master Block Printer and his wife
53
2010 Margilan 54
1998 Melons, Bread and Apricots
55
56
2010 Bukhara
2010 Bukhara
57
2010 Near Khiva
2010 Near the Amu Darya River
1996 Kamchik Pass 60
61
1998 Instrument Maker Playing his Kashgar Rabab
2010 Bukhara, Miniatures Painter
63
64
1996 Bukhara Puppet Maker
2010 Samarkand Dancer
65
2010 Samarkand Fashion Show by Valentina
1997 Urgut Market
2010 Urgut Market
68
2010 Uzbek mono-crop, Cotton, as embroidery motif. and Shokir’s daughter cutting the leather backing
69
Bukhara, Gold Embroidery in 2010 and in 1997
70
1997 Tajik Vendor Urgut Market 71
2010 Sufi Festival
72
2010 Urgut Market 73
2010 Urgut 74
2010 Urgut Market 75
1996 Bukhara 76
2010 Urgut 77
2010 Urgut 78
2010 Chenar Park Picnic 79
80
2010 Bukhara Summer Palace, Interior
2010 Bukhara Summer Palace
81
82
1996 Bukhara, Chopans
2010 Old Man in Chenar Park, and in Samarkand, Master Tile Maker
83
1998 Bukhara, Imam Jon 84
1996 Bukhara 85
2010 Urgut 86
2010 Uzbek men in Bukhara, Khiva and Margilan
87
2010 Gidgduvon Potter’s Mother and Russian Tourist 88
2010 Samarkand Bisque Pottery and Fashion Show Model 89
Appendix
The next pages show a few of the project participants
90
1996 in Samarkand, Raisa Gareeva, of Salom Travel, ATA’s representative in Uzbekistan; 2010 in Bukhara and 2007 in Santa Fe, New Mexico
91
92
In Bukhara: Top row 2010 Jim Mohn, Penny with knife maker; Bottom, 1998 ATA Travel group, Dolly McKinney, Richard Smith, Mimi Little; in 2010 Keith with the Spice Man
2010 Samarkand, Penny Pilkington, Ed Addeo, Clare Smith, Keith Recker and Jim Mohn in Khiva, Ed Addeo’s photo of Clare & Camel; Penny in Bukhara; Keith in Urgut Market
93
1998 Bukhara, Margaret Shepherd with the Imam, also a Skilled Calligrapher
94
1996 Bukhara Crafts Center: Master craftsman, with Clare and John Smart, Peace Corps volunteer Karla Hostetler, ATA Field Director with artisan in Bukhara Gay Ellis, ATA consultant, with embroiderer in Bukhara
95
1998, Clare and Richard in costume at the “House of the Rich Merchant� in Bukhara 2010 in Samarkand, Clare with rug factory owner
96
2010 Bukhara, Ed with two favorite shopgirls; Ed photographing ikat loom process; Keith and Jim in chopans; Natasha, a notable entrepreneur, owner of restaurants, galleries and a printing press, with Keith and Penny 97
1997 Hillary Clinton visited ATA projects in Samarkand and Bukhara
98
2010 in Bukhara, for Tourists
99
100
Clare
My last trip to Uzbekistan in 2010 was the first one on which I was not really working. The Aid to Artisans projects were finished and our small group was preparing an issue of HAND/EYE magazine featuring Uzbek crafts. Ed Addeo was the primary photographer and I was one of the writers, and only peripheral as a photographer. I loved being able to see more and hear more than in the ATA days of responsibility for “program implementation”. C.B.S.
© 2013 Clare Brett Smith