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Ancient ceramics
At the pottery
In Khiva, one of the oldest towns of the world, there has developed the Khorezmian school of ceramics remarkable for its monumentality of clear geometrical ornaments. The patterns of ceramic articles have much in common with majolica decor, that covers the walls of famous architectural monuments of ancient Ichan-kala, because present-day craftsmen are the direct descendants of the ancient masters who decorated the ancient palaces and mosques. For making the glaze - ishkor they use the same components that were used by their ancestors for getting unfading blue, azure and turquoise tiles.
Wall patterns at Khiva
Ceramics of Rishtan
Nowadays in Samarkand, Gizhduvan and Tashkent national craftsmen mostly use factory-made or home made leaden glaze for ceramic articles decoration. Rishtan potters still use enamel "ishkor", which is made from ashes of the bushes known only to them. Craftsmen add stannum, oxides of cobalt, copper or iron in it. Depending on the combinations of these additives with potash contained in the ashes, the glaze "ishkor" turns into ultramarine, turquoise, white, black or brown color.
Nowhere else in Uzbekistan there is such a diversity of forms of ceramic articles as you can find in Rishtan. The creative imagination of local craftsmen is unlimited: lyagans - dishes for pilaf, cosas and shocosas - bowls for drinking vegetable soup shurpa, huge jugs - khums for keeping grain and oil, churns, deep vessels with lids for sour milk - koshkulok, oftoba - jugs for ablution before praying, pialas, kuzacha - jugs for water, vessels in the shape of fabulous bird urdac.Magic notions, embodied in ornamental motives, became a thing of the past, but their symbolic and poetic connotation is still known to kuzagars and, as peculiar "code", it is passed over from generation to generation. Thus on the ceramic articles the masters still make a beautiful picture of a pomegranate bough with fruit, ornaments with circles and helixes - ancient symbols of the sun, moon, and universe. Since the 18th century in the decoration of ceramic articles there have appeared the motives of jugs, teapots and vases with flowers.
Contemporary works of Rishtan masters, the real embodiment of the traditions of blue ceramics of Temurids' epoch, are exhibited in the museums of Italy, Hungary, France, Belgium, Russia. In recent years the works of Nabidjon Kadirov, follower of Usto Ibragim Kamilov, Rustam Usmanov, Sharafutdin Ysupov, Makhmud Azizov have been displayed in the exhibitions of Switzerland, Germany, Japan and other countries. Collectors from all over the world long to purchase the samples of the handicrafts of blue ceramics. Tourist, too, are pleased to buy in one of Rishtan ceramic workshops a "miracle" made of clay. Any of these hand-made works is unique, because even one and the same master never repeats the form or ornament of his ceramic article.
Rishtan is said to be the homeland of ceramic art in Ferghana valley. Muzaffar Saidov, master from village Minor near Rishtan, keeps traditions of blue ceramics "ishkor" in his works; the same can be said about an old master Gafurdzhan Masharipov from Gurumsaray village in Namangan province, who strictly follows the traditions of famous Usto Kenja.
Master at work
It was here, in Gurumsaray village, that several years ago the full member of Art Academy of Uzbekistan, a well-known ceramist in Tashkent Akbar Rakhimov perceived the secrets of ancient technology of making the blue ceramics "ishkor".
In one of the oldest districts of Tashkent, Kukcha, in Odil Mukhtorov street, there is one of the places of interest - a House-museum named after Mukhitdin Rakhimov. This outstanding person, a hereditary potter in the forth generation, an engineer-technologist on ceramics, a scientist, a researcher, lived a remarkable life. Having defended a thesis he worked as a senior staff scientist of the Republican Institute for fine arts study for more than forty years. During his numerous trips to the oldest ceramic centers, in archeological expeditions he thoroughly studied traditional artistic techniques of ceramics art of Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent, Farghana valley. For many years Mukhitdin Rakhimov had been studying the ceramics of Kushan period and the epoch of Temurds. He wrote several books and published tens of articles on history of ceramics of Uzbekistan and technology of ceramic processing, interpretation of various symbols and artistic images in ceramics.
Mukhitdin Pakhimov gave his morning and evening hours to his life-work - the work with clay on the potter's wheel, charkh, and decoration of the ceramic articles with patterns. He created a great deal of wonderful articles many of which were reproducing the styles of Kushan or Temurids times. On his cups and vases there were flying birds of paradise, symbols of the peace and prosperity. Intricate geometrical ornament or conventionalized Arabian inscriptions were interlacing with each other, there were floating wonderful fishes, which from the times immemorial symbolized prosperity and happiness. Traditions that usto Mukhitdin had absorbed, his skills and tendency towards perfection were passed over to his son Akbar.
After the death of his father, this outstanding artist-ceramist established at his own expense a private Museum-House in which the principal place was given to potter's workshop, personal belongings and the books of Mukhitdin Rakhimov. Here side by side with the works of Mukhitdin Rakhimov there are exhibited the works of Akbar himself and ceramic articles of the grandson of the great master - Alisher who is the successor of the sixth generation the Rakhimovs dynasty. Eleven times the works of this young talented artist were exhibited in Uzbekistan, Japan, Germany, and France. Cherishing family traditions, he works both in the style of the glazed ceramics of Kushan times, and the style of Temurids blue ceramics, experimenting on reproduction of Tashkent carved ceramics of 5th century, making the series of works imitating the motives of "kashgari" style.
In the hospitable house of the Rakhimovs everybody remembers the words of master Mukhitdin Rakhimov, the words that have became a kind of a precept to his descendants and other ceramists: "Each article is made from clay. But one should remember that artist must not only love it with all his heart, but must make for this clay to acquire the required form".