Tashkent, Uzbekistan 1949-2008 Almaty, Kazakhstan

(1949, Tashkent – 2008, Almaty) Rustam Khalfin is widely regarded as a foundational figure in Central Asian contemporary art. Born in Tashkent and trained in Moscow and St. Petersburg under Vladimir Sterligov, a direct disciple of Kazimir Malevich, Khalfin absorbed the ‘cup-cupola’ system of painting. This artistic framework was built around curved forms like cups and domes as fundamental, universal structures. They profoundly shaped Khalfin’s lifelong investigation into space and perception. It inspired him to notice local manifestations of this system as well: a yurt and pialas, the Central Asian tea bowls, embody this principle too. Khalfin was also trained as an architect and contributed to various projects, including the architectural design of the Republic Square in Almaty. Often collaborating with his wife, Lidia Blinova, he later pioneered conceptual art and new media practices in Kazakhstan. They embraced video, installation and performance, positioning nomadic identity within global post-Soviet discourse. In the 1990s, he also introduced pulota – the hollow space formed within a clenched fist, used as a device of seeing (through) and an element in his painting and installations. The painting Out of the Genre, shown in Qonaqtar, stems from his experiments in transcending traditional artistic categories and seeing through painting.