Vitaly Alikberov

Vitaly Mursalovych Alikberov was a Ukrainian artist and teacher, based in Odesa. He was born on September 2, 1944, in the village of Tsapivka, Vinnytsia region. His mother was Ukrainian, while his father was Lezgin (an indigenous Caucasian people).

Alikberov’s art combined realism and symbolism. He first attended the village school, but learned to paint independently. As a teenager, he painted en plein air: he would stand in one spot, making use of the different lighting depending on the time of day. In 1963, Alikberov exhibited his paintings for the first time at the regional exhibition of self-taught artists in Vinnytsia region, with his oil landscapes receiving special recognition.

In 1968, he graduated from the program for decorative artists at the House of Folk Art in Vinnytsia. In 1972, he entered the Mitrofan Grekov Odesa Art School. From 1977 onward, he participated in republican and all-Union exhibitions. From 1979, he studied at the Kyiv State Art Institute under Viktor Puzyrkov, Oleksandr Budnikov, Tetiana Golembievska, and Vasyl Zabashta. Alikberov’s teachers did not impose their vision and allowed him creative freedom. He later followed this approach with his own students. After graduating from Kyiv State Art Institute, the artist returned to Odesa.

From 1984 to 2010, he taught artistic anatomy and drawing courses at the Grekov Odesa Art School (as of 1991, Mitrofan Grekov Odesa Art College). Alikberov educated hundreds of artists. These include, in particular, the sculptors Bohdan Mazur, Roman Albul, Taisiia Kapustarynska, and Ihor Ponomariov, and the artists Kateryna Biletina, Iuliia Hrachyk, Ihor Husev, Harold Izmailovsky, Iurii Matviienko, Nadiia Fomichova, and Oleksii Susol. 

In 1988, Alikberov became a member of the Soviet Union of Artists of Ukraine. His first solo exhibition was organized by the Odesa Art Gallery (now the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art). The painting Матері [Mothers] (1988) was purchased by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. In the years following, Alikberov's paintings were exhibited in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and galleries in Saint Petersburg. Between 1988 and 1994, the Odesa Art Gallery hosted annual solo shows of Alikberov’s work. In 2007, he was awarded the title "Honored Artist of Ukraine" by Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian president at the time, in recognition of his significant personal contribution to the socioeconomic and cultural development of the Odesa region, significant professional achievements, and many years of diligent work.

Alikberov’s work can now be found in museums and private collections in seventeen countries, including the United States, Great Britain, and Turkey.

Alikberov's most significant works include Біля джерела [At the Source] (1984), Mothers (1988), Колодязь [The Well] (1996), and Моя Вінниччина [My Vinnytsia Region] (2001). The artist himself never categorized any of his works as “better” or “worse.” Alikberov experimented to create his unique style, composed of classical and modern elements of painting, surrealism and abstraction, and frequent biblical motifs. Alikberov's oeuvre depicts a range of contents, from genre scenes to extravagant landscapes, but it is clear that all these pieces are parts of Alikberov’s world.

He also depicted mysterious natural elements such as lava, clouds, and the sea, but this was an opportunity to demonstrate the power of painting as a medium and the stylistic interplay of shapes and colors. An example of this style is the painting Who Is Without Sin...? from the series The Last Queue of the Communist Regime (1984, ZAM, D00521), in which the blues, grays, creams, and browns of the cool-toned palette and the rounded, naturalistic shapes give the impression of billowing movement. Upon closer inspection, the piece is filled with human figures in the form of crowds, detailed observers, and figures twisting and falling among the brushstrokes.

In his self-portraits, Alikberov is absorbed in contemplation, the likeness of a true philosopher. Using expressive brushstrokes, the artist consistently depicted himself with a serious, reflective expression. He used a chiaroscuro approach of shadows across his face, cast in complementary hues, which further emphasizes the angularity of his features—his cheekbones, sharp nose, and expressive, deep-set eyes. The painting Училищний дворик і студенти [Schoolyard and Students] (n. d.) was found after the artist's death. The work is a kind of tribute to Odesa Art College, where the artist spent most of his life, and to the students whom he taught for more than a quarter of a century.

“As a teacher, Alikberov refrains from limiting the creative personality of his students,” Volodymyr Ostrovskyi, art critic and director of the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, said of Alikberov prior to his death. “He is both highly skilled and possessing a unique and extremely consistent philosophical vision of the world, the artist always suggests, and never demands. It is thanks to this that the results of his work are so impressive.” [1]

His pedagogical activities were no less significant in the history of Ukrainian art than his artistic career. Alikberov believed that to teach someone to become an artist is impossible, and thus any good teacher of art should focus on sharing technical skills, as opposed to interfering with a student’s creative work. He believed that the most important thing was to create the conditions for the development of artistic talent and, in turn, to support the individuality of each student. “I want to educate free people who do not depend on other people's opinions, praise or criticism,” he said. “A true teacher is someone who supports and stimulates the development of their students’ creative potential.” [2]

Alikberov valued the opportunity to work and live in communication with those around him. He believed that one should not “engage in creativity,” but instead “one should reunite with the world, and the process inevitably becomes creative. If you have something to say, you will learn to express it. Then, through academic study, you can learn to see what you lack—skills, mastery, colors... An artist is like a creator. When he draws a line, no one can tell him whether he did it right or not. Because no one knows why he drew it.” [2]

Valerii Tokariov, a colleague from the pedagogical sphere and director of the K.K. Kostandi Art School No. 1, said of Alikberov: "Vitaly Alikberov teaches intellectual honesty and openness of creativity—only a brilliant teacher can teach this. The master knows how to bring out others’ creative individuality and possesses enough openness, patience, and generosity to recognize and support talent in others.” [3]

In the mid-1980s, the sculptor Ihor Ponomariov was a student of Alikberov, with whom he took classes in drawing and artistic anatomy. Alikberov prepared for himself an unusual easel: two-meter-long sheets of drawing paper to fit a full-length model. The teacher explained that this amount of paper gives you freedom; one can easily spot a mistake on a small sheet, but if the paper is large, the artist can see it better and make corrections. [4] Students made similar easels for themselves and painted with sauce, charcoal, sanguine, and sepia. Each class lasted up to three hours.

Alikberov also taught anatomy, painting, and drawing to the artist Iuliia Hrachyk. He explained how the simple can be used to comprehend the complex; how, by contemplating the visible, one can see the invisible. “When we paint, we follow in the footsteps of the Creator,” Alikberov said. He staged both short and long productions. He insisted on drawing everything in two hours and then would revisit and correct it. He could make a couple of lines on a student's work and suddenly volume and form would appear in its contents. In the students' homework and sketches, he innately saw mistakes and knew how the work should be.

“We were happy at these painting lessons,” Iuliia Hrachyk recalls, “Vitaly Mursalovych always said that a person can do anything, that nothing is impossible. Each lesson was a discovery of the universe and ourselves. Few people can tell you what you really need; give you the answer you are looking for. Few people can tell you the truth and quench your thirst for knowledge. He could, his creative and life experience was inexhaustible for us.” [3]

The famous Ukrainian conceptual artist Ihor Husiev also studied with Alikberov. He entered the Grekov Odesa Art School in 1987 to study drawing. “He knew how to depict metaphysics using the methods of socialist realism,” recalls Husiev. [5]

By combining his philosophical approach with technical skill, Vitaly Alikberov’s work as an artist and teacher uniquely contributed to Ukrainian art and the nation’s cultural landscape.

Kateryna Lebedeva

Translated from Ukrainian by Ada Wordsworth

Notes:

1. Svit Vitalya Aliberova [The World of Vitaly Alikberov]. Odesa: Astroprynt, 2005.

2. Bolmasov, Alexander. “Виталий Аликберов: Счастье быть художником" [Vitaly Alikberov: The Joy of Being an Artist]. In Tatiana’s Day, Moscow State University (September 2008). http://www.taday.ru/text/87544.html

3. Sherengova, Sofia, ed. Vitalii Alikberov: Maister ta yoho uchnі [Vitalii Alikberov: The master and his students]. Kherson: Totem, 2009.  

4. Alikberov V. M. Akademichna postanovka “Holova starenkoyi” [Alikberov V. M. Academic Study “Head of an Old Woman”]. In Bibliotechnaia mysh. [Library mouse], January 14, 2021.

5. Ihor Husiev, interviewed by Kateryna Lebedeva, telephone interview, Odesa, Ukraine, April 20, 2024.