K IS FOR KYRGYZSTAN

I have posted this in my other instagram,—which, by the way, is @mityasbeauties, a collection of genderless portraits that defy the binary,—and now I want to share it here. Gapar Aytiyev is not very well known but he was one of the two most prominent artists to ever emerge from Kyrgyzstan. A realist with an impressionist’s attention to details, he was able to portray the beauty of the Central Asian landscapes and people in a truly incomparable way.

Unfortunately, as Aytiyev is not well known, the only high-res image of a painting by him that I could source is this one that hangs in Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. It is a little odd choice because it shows a Mongol person, not a Kyrgyz landscape or person, something that was not a typical theme for Aytiyev. Nonetheless it is a portrait of remarkable beauty and I’m very glad that you get to enjoy it. Mongolia, just like Kyrgyzstan, is love.