Uzbekistan

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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

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Khiva Rainy Street

2010 Khiva


2010 Tashkent

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2010 Bukhara


2010 Khiva


2010 between Khiva and Bhukara


2010 Tashkent 8


2010 Tashkent 9


2010 Khiva


2010 Bukhara


2010 Samarkand’s Registan


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2010 Khiva City Wall


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1998 Bukhara


2010 Khiva

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2010 Samarkand, Bibi Khanym Mosque


2010 Tashkent

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2010 Samarkand, Shahi Zinda


2010 Samarkand, Gur Amir Mausoleum


2010 Samarkand


2010 Samarkand


2010 Tashkent, Ceramic Tile, Carved and Painted Wood, Carved Plaster (Ganch))

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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

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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.

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2010 Bukhara, Uzbek style is not afraid of color 25


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2010 Samarkand


2010 Fergana

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2010 Tashkent, Rakhimov Studio


2010 Tashkent, Rakhimov Studio

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2010 Tashkent, Rakhimov Studio & House Museum

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2010 Gidgduvon, Olimjon Narzullaev

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2010 Gidgduvan


1996 Gidgduvon, Abdullah Narzullayev

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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.


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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

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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


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2010 Margilan Warp


2010 Margilan, Warp Threads

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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


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2010 Margilan


1997 Tashkent, Suzani; 2010 Margilan, Rasuljon’s Ikat Velvet; 2010 Samarkand Embroidery and Shoes in Bukhara

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2010 Fergana Valley Silk Ikat Artists, Fazlitdin Dadajonov and his son. 52


1998 & 2010 Tashkent, Master Block Printer and his wife

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2010 Margilan 54


1998 Melons, Bread and Apricots

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2010 Bukhara


2010 Bukhara

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2010 Near Khiva


2010 Near the Amu Darya River


1996 Kamchik Pass 60


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1998 Instrument Maker Playing his Kashgar Rabab


2010 Bukhara, Miniatures Painter

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1996 Bukhara Puppet Maker


2010 Samarkand Dancer

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2010 Samarkand Fashion Show by Valentina


1997 Urgut Market


2010 Urgut Market

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2010 Uzbek mono-crop, Cotton, as embroidery motif. and Shokir’s daughter cutting the leather backing

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Bukhara, Gold Embroidery in 2010 and in 1997

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1997 Tajik Vendor Urgut Market 71


2010 Sufi Festival

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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


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2010 Bukhara Summer Palace, Interior


2010 Bukhara Summer Palace

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1996 Bukhara, Chopans


2010 Old Man in Chenar Park, and in Samarkand, Master Tile Maker

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1998 Bukhara, Imam Jon 84


1996 Bukhara 85


2010 Urgut 86


2010 Uzbek men in Bukhara, Khiva and Margilan

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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

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1996 in Samarkand, Raisa Gareeva, of Salom Travel, ATA’s representative in Uzbekistan; 2010 in Bukhara and 2007 in Santa Fe, New Mexico

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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

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1998 Bukhara, Margaret Shepherd with the Imam, also a Skilled Calligrapher

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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

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1998, Clare and Richard in costume at the “House of the Rich Merchant� in Bukhara 2010 in Samarkand, Clare with rug factory owner

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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

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2010 in Bukhara, for Tourists

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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



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