Soviet and Russian graphic artist KamIl Gubaydullin was born in the city of Ishimbay in 1949. In 1980, he returned to his hometown, where he completely devoted a part of his life to painting. Many of his paintings, including the genre work ‘The First Oilmen, ’ are dedicated to the history of Ishimbay lands. In this painting, the artist depicted his native heath the way it looked long before the emergence of the full-fledged oil industry in the region. Arguably, this work portrays one of the early oil exploration expeditions that were carried out in BashkIr lands since the late 19th century.
The Ishimbay Museum of History and Local Lore also contains another of Gubaidullin’s historical paintings, “An Old Oil Field, ” which depicts work at the Ishimbay oil fields in the 1930s. The picture is unusual for its subject, featuring a camel standing with a simple cart against the background of wooden drilling rigs that obscure almost the entirety of the horizon, like the pipes of a huge factory. The author used sharply contrasting shades of gouache to highlight the juxtaposition between the traditional Bashkir lifestyle and the active construction of the new capital of the Soviet oil industry.
GubaydUllin turned to the theme of historical memory in his paintings after his return to Ishimbay. Hoping to convey the beauty of people and nature, the artist was unhappy to discover just how greatly the nature of BashkIria had been affected by the spirit of industrialization associated with the disastrous invasion of an ever-increasing number of industrial giants. In Ishimbay, he found himself on the borderline between nature and human powers hostile to it. He incorporated these contradictory feelings in some of the paintings he created during that period, including “The First Oilmen” and “An Old Oil Field.”
Recalling his early childhood, Gubaidullin noted that he experienced one of his first aesthetic shocks when he went to visit a neighbor. “She was deaf and mute from birth, but she was amazing at painting. I myself truly began to paint when I was in fifth grade, ” the artist said. He also emphasized that he was greatly influenced by his art teacher Ivan Pavlov, a student of Alexander Tyulkin, who, in turn, is considered the founder of fine arts in the entire present-day Bashkortostan.
The Ishimbay Museum of History and Local Lore also contains another of Gubaidullin’s historical paintings, “An Old Oil Field, ” which depicts work at the Ishimbay oil fields in the 1930s. The picture is unusual for its subject, featuring a camel standing with a simple cart against the background of wooden drilling rigs that obscure almost the entirety of the horizon, like the pipes of a huge factory. The author used sharply contrasting shades of gouache to highlight the juxtaposition between the traditional Bashkir lifestyle and the active construction of the new capital of the Soviet oil industry.
GubaydUllin turned to the theme of historical memory in his paintings after his return to Ishimbay. Hoping to convey the beauty of people and nature, the artist was unhappy to discover just how greatly the nature of BashkIria had been affected by the spirit of industrialization associated with the disastrous invasion of an ever-increasing number of industrial giants. In Ishimbay, he found himself on the borderline between nature and human powers hostile to it. He incorporated these contradictory feelings in some of the paintings he created during that period, including “The First Oilmen” and “An Old Oil Field.”
Recalling his early childhood, Gubaidullin noted that he experienced one of his first aesthetic shocks when he went to visit a neighbor. “She was deaf and mute from birth, but she was amazing at painting. I myself truly began to paint when I was in fifth grade, ” the artist said. He also emphasized that he was greatly influenced by his art teacher Ivan Pavlov, a student of Alexander Tyulkin, who, in turn, is considered the founder of fine arts in the entire present-day Bashkortostan.
