The floodgates of heaven
Magomed Kazhlaev was born in 1946 in the village of Kazi-Kumukh in Dagestan. He livesand works in Moscow and Makhachkala. The future artist spent his childhood and youth inMakhachkala. Graduated from the Dagestan Art College in 1965 and the MoscowPolygraphic Institute in 1973 Solo exhibitions include "Blend" at the State Institute of ArtStudies (2019), "Letters of a Gentile" at the State Museum of Oriental Art (2019) and "TotalCalligraphy" at the Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts (1993). Works are in the collections of theTretyakov Gallery, the Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts, the State Museum of Oriental Art, theMoscow Museum of Modern Art, the State Center for Contemporary Art (now ROSIZO), theNew Jerusalem Museum, the Marjani Foundation, the Museum of Nonconformism, andothers.
The works of Magomed Kazhlaev are built upon a unique system of perception, where each artistic statement is self-contained and exists autonomously. The artist combines archaic motifs with contemporary ones, focusing on nonlinear imagery and verbal paradoxes. National tradition plays a significant role in Kazhlaev’s art, emphasized by the folk plasticity of Dagestan and its distinct, vibrant chromatic resonance.
Magomed Kazhlaev began creating what are conventionally referred to as abstract paintings over fifty years ago, in 1970 Over time, his work has undergone repeated transformations: “landscapes” gave way to untitled compositions, bright expressive splashes of contrasting
colors yielded to the solo performance of gray, delicate glazes were replaced by dense, smooth surfaces, and monochromes were interrupted by lines or the signature “K.M.” — as if marking a full stop on a canvas devoid of any imagery. A Dagestani artist deeply rooted in national culture, Kazhlaev coexists with a painter par excellence for whom paint is the sole material for creating a world unbound by borders or
traditions. The harmony of a uniform green is disrupted by the presence of a “red corner” left “by mistake,” the “caressing” of the canvas with light brushstrokes gives way to childlike squares in which one discerns a futile attempt to close the outline of a shape. Some works
are literally built from numerous layers of paint-laden paper, resembling compressed cultural strata from different eras, accumulated in the same archaeological site. A canvas saturated with painterly mass may suddenly be invaded by a line that “slices through” the surface or
allow itself to be covered by a network of ornaments composed of repeating — yet uneven — ellipses, arcs, and squares. The handmade quality, the refusal to arrange elements into neat patterns, reveals the hand of a master far removed from the habit of weaving orderly
decorative designs.
“His painting is shaped by the cosmos of ornament, the suggestion of ‘field painting,’ the emphasis on painterly texture, the introduction of everyday context, artificialized expression, and an engagement with narrative,” — Leonid Bazhanov, text dedicated to the artist Magomed Kazhlaev.
“The oeuvre of a master who stands as one of the most astonishing and elusive figures in art, positioned somewhere between ‘intuitive’ abstraction and an unfiltered, direct response to both tradition and contemporaneity,” — Anna Tolstova, from the article “Painting Without Rules.”
110
5
Submit an application
We will inform you about the availability of the product by phone after checking
