A Young Russian Artist in Sana’a [Archives:2002/04/Last Page]

The plastic artist Aidyn Zeinalove was born in Moscow in 1978 to a Muslim family. Zeinalov is about to finish his master degree at the Fine Arts Academy in Moscow. During his private visit to Sana’a, Yemen Times met him at his father’s house who works as Minister Plenipotentiary at the Russian Embassy in Sana’a.
Before we spoke to Aidyn we asked his father to recapitulate the early days of his talented son.
Exerpts
Aidyn started making sculpture with clay since he was just 2 years old. It can be said that the sensitivity, as well as intelligence of my son are the major elements behind this talented man. He is actually admired by lots of people, especially the persons interested in arts. When he was only two years old we trevelled to Leningrad and Tallin and stayed there for two weeks. During this period Aidyn Zeinalove was left with his grandmother in a suburb of Moscow. Feeling lonely, the young Aidyn started screaming and crying. His grandma managed to calm him down through different means and gave him some toy birds and animals to play with. Then the old woman gave him also a piece of clay to make toys. Clay was the first thing to play with, as he started to copy the shapes of birds and animals he saw at his grandma’s house. The works of Aidyn were magnificent and when his grandma saw the sculptures of the birds and animals she vigorously encouraged him to develop his skills. Shortly after that I came back to pick my son up. We were amazed to see the works he produced.
When Aidyn grew older we managed to enroll him at some art schools and this what happened the time we were in Egypt. In Egypt Aidyn joined some centers to get training on sculpting and then he had some training courses on oriental sculptures. The artistic skills of Zeinalove were appreciated by all friends who came to know him during his school and university days. He consequently took part at different art exhibitions with a number of bronze- and copper-made shapes. He also was awarded several medals and certificates of appreciation.
Speaking with Aidyn Zeinalov about his current visit to Yemen he expressed his deep appreciation of the extraordinary Yemeni architecture. Indeed, I visited many countries but I have never come across such unique architecture, he said. I was deeply impressed to see the amazing houses on the peaks of the mountains in Sana’a, Haraz and Mahweet. The splendid landscapes in Taiz and the southern regions, namely Aden are wonderful, he added. Similarly, the traditional Yemeni costumes both of men and women are amazingly harmonizing with nature and architecture. This in fact has given me the inspiration to engrave works that resemble this unique harmony between man and nature. I have set out to draw up some figures on papers so as to sculpt them later on, for the most part figures of Yemeni men and women wearing traditional clothes, he said. He added he in 1996 engraved a sculpture of an Egyptian woman which was exhibited at a museum.
In April 2001 Zeinalov won a prize from the Russian Academy of Fine Arts. In the last year he also took part in a big international exhibition held in Moscow. Concerning his visit to Sana’a, Zeinalov said he would attend museums and old markets in Sana’a, and would also purchase silver-made antiquities and Jambyyas. He would try to meet some Yemeni artists and sculptors and see their works as well.
Mohammed bin Sallam



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