Traditional and contemporary art of Kazakhstan
A Virtual Journey into the World of Kazakhstan’s Artistic Heritage
This Web Gallery presents the diversity of artistic practices in Kazakhstan, reflecting the continuity of cultural traditions and the dynamic development of contemporary creative processes. The virtual exhibition features works based on national images, symbols, and themes, as well as artworks by contemporary artists who reinterpret the country’s cultural heritage through contemporary artistic forms, expressive means, and modern technologies.
The selected works demonstrate the relationship between traditional and contemporary art, revealing the distinctive features of the national worldview, cultural identity, and cultural meanings. The presented materials allow viewers to trace how elements of historical and cultural heritage are reflected in contemporary artistic practice, while maintaining their significance and relevance in an increasingly globalized world.
The Web Gallery is aimed at promoting Kazakhstan’s artistic heritage, expanding public access to works of art, and fostering a lasting interest in national culture and art among a wide audience.
Art of independent Kazakhstan
Leather as an art material in contemporary art
- Golden Eagle Hunt, 2014 Qushqon: leather, embossingSource: https://bonart.kz
- The North Star, 2004 Qushqon: leather, embossingSource: Catalogue of the A. Kasteev National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, ‘Decorative and Applied Arts of Kazakhstan’, 2025
- Balbaly, 1991 Qushqon: leather, embossedSource: Catalogue of the A. Kasteev National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, ‘Decorative and Applied Arts of Kazakhstan’, 2025
- Harmony of the Centuries, 2008 Qushqon: leather, embossingSource: Catalogue of the A. Kasteev National Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, ‘Decorative and Applied Arts of Kazakhstan’, 2025
In decorative and applied arts, leather is traditionally used in techniques such as embossing, carving, appliqué, perforation, pyrography, weaving and inlay. However, in contemporary art, it is increasingly moving beyond the confines of a craft material to become a fully-fledged medium of artistic expression. Artists use leather to create panels, art objects, sculptural compositions, installations and original design projects. Susanna Harris, a British researcher in material culture, notes that leather is not merely a raw material, but a distinct cultural material with its own history, processing techniques and symbolic meanings.
As an art material, leather possesses a unique ability to combine decorative qualities with expressiveness. It can be dyed, heat-treated, shaped into three-dimensional elements and combined with metal, wood, textiles, ceramics and modern synthetic materials. As a result, leather serves as a versatile medium for artistic experimentation, enabling the creation of complex visual and tactile effects.
In art historical discourse, leather is regarded as a material with a high degree of semiotic and tactile richness. Its surface retains traces of its natural origins, which lends the artwork a particular materiality and strengthens the connection between the natural and the cultural. As the French philosopher and art theorist Jean Baudrillard notes, the texture of a material can act as an independent vehicle of meaning, shaping a distinct level of perception of the artistic object.
In the context of contemporary art, leather often takes on additional symbolic significance. It may be associated with memory, time, physicality, life experience and cultural identity. The natural ageing of the material, and the changes in its colour and texture over time, become part of the artwork’s artistic concept, emphasising ideas of duration, historical memory and the continuity of cultural processes. Leather can be described as a unique medium, combining natural origins, rich decorative possibilities and profound symbolic potential.
In this regard, particular mention should be made of the work of the renowned artists Zhangir Umbetov and Amangul Ikhanova, who developed a unique technique for creating paintings on specially prepared calfskin, known as ‘qush-qon, which means ‘sensual leather’.