Background

Elchin Mammadov was born on May 29, 1946, in Baku, Azerbaijan. He was a son of Mehdi Mammadov, a director, and Barat Shakinskaya, an actress. He had an elder sister named Solmaz.

Education

A son of a prominent director and actress, Elchin Mammadov was surrounded by an artistic atmosphere since his early years. His mother, an actress Barat Shakinskaya literally fed him without stopping to act at the Azerbaijan State Academic National Drama Theatre. Growing up behind the theatrical curtain, Mammadov observed the entrails of the Temple of Melpomene which were absolutely different from the outer world. All that awoke the imagination of a young boy and defined his destiny.

As a child, Elchin Mammadov met one of his future lifelong friends and colleagues among the friends of his parents. It was Azer Pasha Neymat, the son of Zafar Neymatov, a prominent Azerbaijani theatre director.

Mammadov attended the Azim Azimzade Azerbaijan State Art School for several years after graduation from school. In 1967, he entered the M. A. Aliyev Azerbaijan State Institute of Art (currently the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts) and received a diploma six years later.

Career

Elchin Mammadov devoted the significant part of his career to the theatre. He made the first steps in the area along with a theatre director Azer Pasha Neymat for whose performances he produced set decorations and costumes. The artistic duet began their long collaboration from Dostoyevsky’s play ‘Bobok’ trying to create their own theatre that they christened ‘underground’. Unfortunately, it was closed soon after the foundation.

Although, Mammadov and Neymat kept safe the creative traditions and worked on many successful projects afterward most of which were staged at the Azerbaijan State Theater of Young Spectators during the 1970s-80s. It included ‘Mann ist Mann’ by Bertolt Brecht, ‘My Brother Plays Clarinet’ by A. Aleksin, ‘The Cat that Walked by Himself’ by R. Kipling, and ‘Sing, Wind, Over the Sails!” staging by L. Wagner from the work by Carlo Gozzi to name but a few. Working on Neymat’s performances, Mammadov had a great opportunity to be free and independent in his creativity and imagination. He rethought the canons in order to achieve the desired result.

In 1989, Elchin Mammadov became a chief artist at the Azerbaijan State Academic National Drama Theatre. He also served at the Azerbaijan State Theatre of Musical Comedy for many years and designed a number of performances abroad as well, including ‘Secret...Secret...Secret’ by A. Akhundova, ‘House on the Sand’ by R. Ibrahimbeyov, ‘The Night of the Lunar Eclipse’ by M. Karim, and ‘The Lady of the Heart is Above All’ by Calderon among others.

Another part of Mammadov’s career was devoted to books. He tried his hand both as an author and illustrator starting in the 1980s. As an author, he wrote a lot of articles about the issues of evolution of modern Azerbaijani theatre. His work on books harmonically stemmed from his work on costume sketches. Due to the latter, the artist learned to think in detail and appreciate the detail that could communicate volumes.

Beginning in the 1980s, Mammadov illustrated a great number of books for multiple publishing houses in Baku, Moscow, and Istanbul. He illustrated the writings of such authors like Omar Khayyam, Mark Twain, Jalil Mammadguluzade, Gasimbey Zakir, Huseyn Javid, Rustam, Magsud Ibrahimbeyov, and others.

The work on the Azerbaijan folklore, Azerbaijan epics and children’s books occupied an important place in his career as well. Among the projects in the genre were the epic ‘Dede Gorgud’, the collections of ‘Azerbaijani Tales’, and ‘Azerbaijani Tongue-twisters’. The collaboration with Tarlan Qorchu on a series of book projects designed to help refugee children stands apart in Mammadov’s professional career.

Elchin Mammadov stayed active as an artist till the end of his life. The last performance which he designed was Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Hamlet’, directed by Azer Pasha Neymat on the stage of the Azerbaijan State Academic National Drama Theatre in 2002. It was a great event in modem Azerbaijani theatre.

Achievements

• Elchin Mammadov is considered as one of the prominent painters, illustrators, and set designers of Azerbaijan. A prolific artist, he illustrated in total more than 100 books and designed about 60 performances some of which weren’t staged, like ‘Hercules and the Augean Stables’ by F. Dürrenmatt and ‘The Dead’ by J. Mammadguluzade.
  
  Elchin Mammadov’s inexhaustible fantasy and a great skill to interpret the same texts differently, again and again, were marked by the title of Honored Art Worker of Azerbaijan, and such awards like Azerbaijan State Prize and the Humay Award (posthumously).
  
  The paintings and set design sketches by Mammadov are the integral part of the permanent collections of Azerbaijan National Museum of Art, State Picture Gallery of Azerbaijan, Bakhrushin Museum, and of many private collections in the Netherlands, Poland, Japan, Turkey, United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria.

Works

More photos

• design

  • My Love

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Secret, Secret, Secret

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Sing, Wind, Over the Sails!

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Sing, Wind, Over the Sails!

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • The Dead

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • House on the Sand

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Lunar Eclipse Night

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Woe from Wit

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

• illustration

  • Azerbaijani Folk Tales

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Azerbaijani Folk Tales

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • I Speak of the Rose, I Speak of the Poppy

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • I Speak of the Rose, I Speak of the Poppy

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • I Speak of the Rose, I Speak of the Poppy

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Azerbaijani Folk Tales

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Bird Sketches from the series “Dede Gorgud”

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Bird Sketches from the series “Dede Gorgud”

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From the epic “Dede Gorgud”

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From the epic “Dede Gorgud”

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From the epic “Dede Gorgud”

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From the epic “Dede Gorgud”

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From the epic “Dede Gorgud”

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From the epic “Dede Gorgud”

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From the epic “Dede Gorgud”

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From the epic “Dede Gorgud”

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Primer illustrations

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Primer illustrations

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Primer illustrations

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Primer illustrations

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • The School in Danabash Village

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

• painting

  • Fool

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Investigation

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • A Graphic

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • A Graphic

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • A Graphic

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • A Graphic

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • A Waverer’s Sins Forgiven

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Ashiq

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Dancer

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From “Kish River Valley” series

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From “Kish River Valley” series

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • From “Kish River Valley” series

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Life Below

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Life Below

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Portrait

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Prince Diptych

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Saint Ionna. Battle

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Shah Diptych

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Shah’s Wife

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Still Life with Lamp

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • The Deep Blue Sea

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

Views

Elchin Mammadov was an artist free of engrained clichés. He allowed each theatrical performance and book pass through himself elaborating his own vision of the plot, even if the work with accepted interpretations.

As a set director, he often used the method characterized as the “lack of spatial organization”. The empty stage itself became the area of his creative search. The approach was highly appreciated by critics.

Mammadov believed that it was important in any form of art to preserve the distance between the art-object and its viewer. He considered books as one of the key elements of the culture and an important instrument of enlightenment.

Personality

Elchin Mammadov was an erudite and intelligent man of culture. A communicative person, he had a soft sense of humor that charmed people, who surrounded the artist.

Connections

Father:

Mehdi Mammadov

Mother:

Barat Shakinskaya

Friend:

Azer Pasha Neymat

Friend:

Tarlan Qorchu

References

• "Servet" series of albums. The National Heritage project. As part of The National Heritage project implemented by Xalq Bank, Azerbaijan National Museum of Art under the head of Chingiz Farzaliyev prepared the "Servet" series of albums dedicated to the masters of Azerbaijani art.
  2013