Kasteev, Abylkhan

Born Jan. 1 (14), 1904, in the village of Chizhin, Panfilov Raion, Taldy-Kurgan Oblast, Kazakh SSR. Soviet painter and watercolorist. People’s Artist of the Kazakh SSR (1944). Became a member of the CPSU in 1949.

Kasteev studied under N. G. Khludov from 1929 to 1931. His genre compositions deal with both prerevolutionary and Soviet life in Kazakhstan, for example, the series The Old and New Life (begun in the 1930’s). Kasteev has also done portraits (Amangel’dy Imanov, 1950) and landscapes (the series On the Kazakhstan Land, watercolor, 1955–65). His other paintings include Turksib (watercolor, 1932) and The Karatau Concentrator (1967). All of the above-mentioned works, except the last, are in the T. G. Shevchenko Kazakh Art Gallery in Alma-Ata. Kasteev has been awarded three orders and various medals.