Mikail Gusein ogly Abdullaev

Born Dec. 19, 1921, in Baku. Painter and graphic artist. People’s Artist of the USSR (1963). Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1958). Member of the CPSU since 1954.

In 1949, Abdullaev graduated from the Moscow V. I. Surikov Arts Institute, where he studied under S. V. Gerasimov. Lyrical themes predominate in the art of Abdullaev. His works include the paintings Evening (1947), The Lights of Mingechaur (1948), The Builders of Happiness (1951), and the triptych On the Fields of Azerbaijan (1963–65)—all in the Azerbaijan Museum of Art, in Baku; The Hundred-Year-Old Carver A. Babaev (1961, Tret’iakov Gallery); The Indian Series (1957–60, in various museums in the USSR); a series of drawings, Beyond the River Araks (1950, Museum of Art of the Eastern Peoples, in Moscow); and illustrations for the epic poem Kitabi Dede-Korkut (1956) and for Fizuli’s narrative poem Leili and Mejnun (1958). He has been awarded the Order of Lenin and medals.