Crying Kapaz

It is not everything painted on a piece of canvas that I actually enjoy looking at. I’m specifically speaking about two subject matters: seascapes and mountain scenes. Paintings showing these scenes must be painted by a very skilful artist, not only an absolute master of art and a very strong academic painter, but a person with a great sense of style and taste, otherwise it’s an absolute fail.

Seascapes beyond any doubt were incredibly painted by the group of 19th century- artists, who became known as Impressionists. However, there is only one artist I know, who painted mountains like no one else did, and that was Azerbaijani landscape painter Sattar Bahlulzadeh.

His mountains do not look like powerful, voluminous landforms in the style of Sublime painters, whose intention was to show nature’s power over man. Nor do his mountains resemble those painted by the Impressionists, who were more interested in depicting other landscape scenes. Bahlulzadeh’s hills and mountains look sad and lonely despite being surrounded by gorgeous nature, which he also shows in his painting. You want to be those mountains, in order to constantly observe this picturesque view; however you don’t envy them for being utterly deserted; you admire their immortality, but you understand that as a matter of fact this athanasia tranferred them into those constant, consequenty exhausted, witnesses of war, betrayal, terror, aggression, destruction of nature and separation of lands. They saw it all and cried; while Sattar managed to convey all this in his fabulous painting.

FP