Kanafii Telzhanov

Born May 1, 1927, in the aul (village) of Baitiuek, Omsk Oblast. Soviet painter. People’s Artist of the Kazakh SSR (1963). Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1967). Member of the CPSU since 1961. Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan from 1966 to 1971. Deputy to the sixth and seventh convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR. Chairman of the administrative board of the Artists’ Union of the Kazakh SSR from 1965 to 1968.

From 1947 to 1953, Tel’zhanov studied in Leningrad under M. I. Avilov at the I. E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. At first he painted small-scale poetic scenes of Kazakh life but later turned to monumental symbolic works on historical and contemporary themes. Notable examples of his later period include Zhamal (1955) and Peaceful Fires (1961), both of which are housed in the Tret’iakov Gallery. Tel’zhanov’s works Music of the Dombra (1958), Forefathers’ Land (1958), Kok-par (1960), and Silence (1964), all housed in the T. G. Shevchenko Kazakh Art Gallery, were awarded the Chokan Valikhanov State Prize of the Kazakh SSR in 1967.

Tel’zhanov has been awarded two orders.