ICH Courier

The Silenced Tradition: A Disruption in Miniature Paintings and Lacquerware Uzbekistan has a long and rich tradition of intricate decorative arts, including miniatures and lacquerware. These artistic forms, rendered on various media such as books, papier-mâché, textiles, ceramics, and walls, utilized gold and silver pigments with organic materials. These arts, which were fundamentally an intangible cultural heritage (ICH), were an aesthetic and functional part of daily life, religion, and  rituals. However, during the Soviet era, Socialist Realism became the dominant artistic ideology, and traditional decorative arts, with their distinct national character, were systematically marginalized. As a result, this invaluable tradition faced a decade-long crisis of transmission. A Journey to Restore Traditional Crafts In this period of cultural disconnection, the revival  of Uzbek traditional art was spearheaded by Ahn Vladimir (1929-2019), a first-generation Koryoin (ethnic Korean in the former Soviet Union) artist. Born in the Russian  Far East and a victim of

forced migration, he settled in Uzbekistan and pursued an artistic career at a time when even basic civil rights were not guaranteed for his people. Ahn was the first person of Asian descent to graduate with honors from the Palekh Art College in Russia. He went on to earn a teaching certificate from the Moscow Industrial Art College and taught in the Department of Applied Arts at the Tashkent Benkov Art College from 1963 to 1988. His educational and artistic work transcended personal achievement; it marked a historic  turning point in the re-establishment of Uzbekistan’s applied arts tradition. In 1976, the Benkov Art College and Palekh Art College jointly founded the ‘Practical Science Society for Lacquerware,’ and in the 1980s, a new major in ‘Miniature Paintings and Lacquerware’ was established. This move institutionalized the revival of traditional crafts within the educational system. Palekh masters generously shared techniques like  tempera painting, gold and silver decoration, and material knowledge, while Ahn Vladimir encouraged his students to creatively blend these skills with local culture. His early  collaborative works with his students, which included visualizations of Kamal al-din

Bihzad’s art, his school, the literary works of Ali-Shir Nava’i, and the revival of miniature hubs like Bukhara and Samarkand, were not mere reproductions of the past. Instead, they were creative attempts to reinterpret the local artistic heritage. This artistic practice led to the foundation of the ‘Usto Folk Art Masters Association,’ which ultimately laid the institutional groundwork for today’s ‘Musavvir Scientific-Production Center of Folk Art.’

 

The Current State of Transmission and the Contribution of a Multicultural Artist Today, the Abulkasym Madrassah serves as a transmission hub for craft masters, and Ahn Vladimir’s students are continuing to uphold the traditions of miniatures and  lacquerware. Applied arts are not just decorative; they form the core of Uzbekistan’s material culture, embodying its way of life, rituals, aesthetics, and functionality. The materials, techniques, and context of art act as a window into a society’s values and identity. The contributions of Ahn Vladimir in restoring and transmitting these arts extend beyond their art-historical significance. The activities of Koryoin artists in the region are not merely an example of a minority group participating in local culture. Rather, they can be interpreted as a case of cultural hybridization and active assimilation through the medium of art. This

represents a significant footprint left by Koryoin people in the newly forming regional cultural history after the Soviet era and demonstrates how multicultural identities can creatively merge within the artistic sphere.

 

The Legacy of a Master Craftsman and Artistic Solidarity This article sheds light on the revival of Uzbekistan’s ICH and its cultural-historical significance, focusing on the work of Ahn Vladimir. His efforts helped to re-examine the connection between Central Asian art and the Silk Road culture, highlighting Uzbekistan’s cultural standing as a crossroads of Eastern and Western civilizations. In the long term, it is hoped that his legacy will become a starting point for ongoing exchange and cooperation between Koryoin art and local communities, and for policy discussions aimed at the global promotion of Central Asian ICH.