Background
Jalal Garyaghdi was born on June 2, 1914, in Shusha, Elisabethpol Governorate, Russian Empire (currently de jure part of Azerbaijan) into a family of merchants.
1928
Jalal Garyaghdi (the first one on the first row from right) in Baku Art College.
1934
Jalal Garyaghdi with his colleagues in teaching.
1937
Jalal Garyaghdi working on Vagif’s sculpture.
1949
Jalal Garyaghdi among his colleagues in 1949.
1950
Jalal Garyaghdi in the Art Foundation.
1954
Jalal Garyaghdi working in the Studio in 1954.
1960
Jalal Garyaghdi at the Congress of the Artists' Union of the USSR in Moscow.
1986
Jalal Garyaghdi in his studio’s yard, next to 'Mother' sculpture’s sketch.
22 Griboedov Str., T'bilisi 0108, Georgia
The Tbilisi State Academy of Arts where Jalal Garyaghdi studied from 1934 to 1937.
The Order of the Red Banner of Labour which Jalal Garyaghdi received in 1969.
Jalal Garyaghdi in the Sculpture Center.
Jalal Garyaghdi in front of the project of Fizuli’s sculpture prepared for the competition.
Jalal Garyaghdi working in the studio.
Jalal Garyaghdi with colleagues.
Jalal Garyaghdi working on the sketch of Hazi Aslanov’s Portrait.
Jalal Garyaghdi with his student fellows.
Jalal Garyaghdi as a Student of the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts.
Jalal Garyaghdi in Moscow.
Jalal Garyaghdi was born on June 2, 1914, in Shusha, Elisabethpol Governorate, Russian Empire (currently de jure part of Azerbaijan) into a family of merchants.
Jalal Garyaghdi was raised in the atmosphere of art and creativity. The interest and abilities for art that the boy demonstrated in his early years were noticed and supported by his school teachers.
Garyaghdi was a permanent participant of various art competitions and exhibitions which provided him with many awards and distinctions. In 1928, with support of the local Komsomol organization, he was sent to the Azerbaijan State College of Arts becoming the student of the painting department. However, the young artist was more interested in sculpture and spent a lot of time in the sculpture studio exploring the techniques of reflecting human figure and its anatomy. He graduated in 1932.
Two years later, with an intention to develop his skills in sculpture, Garyaghdi came to Georgia where he entered Iakob Nikoladze’s course at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. During three years Garyaghdi spent at the institution, he learned assiduously the principles of the detailed study of nature which helped the artist to reflect it in plastic in a highly realistic way.
Jalal Garyaghdi started his career as a teacher of painting at his alma mater, Azerbaijan State College of Arts. During several years of teaching, he also produced the paintings which reflected the international social-political situation and contributed them to a number of periodicals.
The first major project the artist worked on at the end of the 1930s, was the bas-relief of a great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin made especially for the exhibition organized to celebrate his jubilee. Since then, Garyaghdi became an active participant of the artistic life of the country.
At the beginning of the creative pursuit, Jalal Garyaghdi was interested in bas-reliefs and indoor sculpture. He developed his skills of a portrait master producing bas-reliefs of leading representatives of the society, like a well-known Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli, bust-monuments of Baku revolutionaries and heroes of labor. Almost all of the early works were used as a public propaganda tool. In 1938, Jalal Garyaghdi designed the Azerbaijani pavilion at the exhibition of the agriculture achievements with the bas-reliefs “Cattle-breading” and “Gardening”.
During the course of the next decade, Garyaghdi abandoned the bas-reliefs and turned to the genre of monumental sculpture. The 4 meters’ composition ‘Peasant’ showing the image of new laborer involved in the social life of the country and having an active social position became the debut work in the genre. Although it had some imperfections in creativity and technique, Garyaghdi could correct them in his next major project of the time, the character of a poet Molla Panah Vagi. The monument was placed on the yard of the newly constructed Nizami Museum of Azerbaijani Literature.
In 1939, Jalal Garyaghdi won the competition for his sculpture solution to be used in the monumental triumphal arch in ‘Black City’ neighborhood of Baku. For unknown reasons, the composition titled ‘Bunyad Sardarov among workers: The main historical stages of the workers’ wasn’t installed.
During the Second World War, the sculptor’s oeuvre reflected the heroism of the people who struggled on the front and in the rear. Most of the compositions from the Hero series were made in the form of busts, like first Azerbaijani woman pilot Zuleikha Seidmammadova, stakhanovite Kaklik Shukur gizi, the hero of the Soviet Union, a military aviator Adil Rustamov, and a tank division General-major Hazi Aslanov among others. Similar compositions appeared after the victory as well. At the end of the 1940s, they were completed by the works focused on those who worked to restore the country after the conflict.
In 1950, Jalal Garyaghdi started to work on the biggest monument in Azerbaijan at the time, the 11 meters’ monument of the leader of the Great October Socialist Revolution, Vladimir Lenin. It was completed in five years and solemnly installed in front of the Government House of Baku.
Throughout the next years, the sculptor concentrated on memorial sculpture and designed the outdoors compositions, bust portraits for interiors, tombstone memorials, and monumental statues destined to commemorate the prominent personalities of Azerbaijan, like, People’s Artist Rashid Behbudov, People’s Poet of Azerbaijan Samad Vurgun, and Azerbaijani classic poet Mirza Alakbar Sabir among others.
In 1957, he represented Azerbaijan Republic at the First Congress of the Artists' Union of the USSR.
The last monumental work of Jalal Garyaghdi was the statue of a famous Azerbaijani playwright Jafar Jabbarly installed in 1999 in Khizi district of Azerbaijan.
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
(Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)
Jalal Garyaghdi served twice as the deputy of the Baku City Soviet.
Jalal Garyaghdi was a member of the Artists' Union of the USSR.
Jalal Garyaghdi was married to Firangiz Hüseynova. The family produced two children named Nana and Jalil.