Gulja, China 1940-1999

Born in the multiethnic Ili Valley in China, he moved with his family to Soviet Kyrgyzstan in 1955. There, he trained in art in Bishkek and later at the Surikov Institute in Moscow, before teaching for decades in Almaty and mentoring a new generation of artists, including Dulat Aliyev, who is also featured in Qonaqtar.