Altay Sadigzade

Born in Baku in 1951 In 1966-70, he studied at the A. Azimzadeh Art College in Baku. He continued education in prestigious Faculty of Painting at the Surikov Institute in Moscow in 1971-77 and received his degree from there. Since 1970 he has been a participant of various exhibitions. He is a member of the USSR Artist Union since 1979 and a member of Baku Arts Center since 1988 his works are in n

ational and private collections in Azerbaijan, Belgium, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Norway, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA. As a leading artist, curator, designer, and art advocate in Azerbaijan, Altay Sadigzade’s influence on the contemporary art scene has been profound. Beginning his career as a young artist in the Soviet Union, he studied at both the Faculty of Painting at the Surikov State Academic Art Institute in Moscow and the Azimzade State College of Art in Baku. A member of the Azerbaijan Union of Artists and Baku Art Centre, he has exhibited widely in group exhibitions in France, USA, Turkey, Germany, Italy, UK, Austria and Russia and he has held numerous solo exhibitions across the world, including multiple events in USA, France and Azerbaijan, in addition to solo exhibitions in Istanbul, London and Beijing. His works are held in institutional and private collections is in Azerbaijan, Belgium, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Norway, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, UK and USA. In 2007, he launched a monograph of his work called “Painting and Sketch” at the Librairie Flammarion Centre, Centre Pompidou, Paris. In Baku, he is the director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which he designed during its inception in 2008-2009. In 2011, his work was included in the Azerbaijan National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He continues to exhibit his works widely in addition to his curatorial oversight of the MoMA. In his works, he creates surrealist representations of everyday life, using scale to emphasize humor. His works is full of optimism and his sculptures and installations draw his viewers into his inner world. Altay is influenced by his extensive travels, and his works features different geographies, as well as influences from various art movements, which he combines to form a new visual language. In his sculptural works he uses materials, such as metal to make his abstract figures three dimensional, adding depth to his conceptual work. For his contribution to the Azerbaijan National Pavilion at The Venice Biennale in 2011, he presented a more subdued collection of paintings, which continued his exploration of surreal landscapes but in muted, wistful shades of blue, black and grey to emphasize the dream-like quality of the works. While he has shown across the world, in Baku, the best place to see his artistic oeuvre is the Baku MoMA, where it acts as a narrative thread accompanying the modern art history of Azerbaijan. He also has a cafe in Old City (Baku) called “Mayak 13”, which includes his sculptural installations and whimsical paintings inspired by the seaside. Curatorially, he has shaped the collection of the Baku MoMA to showcase the most significant artworks by Azerbaijani artists in the 20th century while continuing to add new works to the collection, bringing it into the contemporary era and celebrating the breadth of talent in the Azerbaijani art community. Exhibitions: 1981 International symposium , Pochitel , Yugoslavia 1988 Baku Arts Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 1990 Galerie “L’Orangeraie”, Saint Paul de Vence, France 1992 Galerie “L’Orangeraie”, Saint Paul de Vence, France 1993 Palais des Papes of Avignon, France 1993 Exhibition salon Sattar Bahlulzade, Baku, Azerbaijan 1994 Central Exhibit hall, Baku, Azerbaijan 1994 Galerie “L’Orangeraie”, Saint Paul de Vence, France 1994 Baku Arts Center, Azerbaijan 1994 Palais des Papers of Aviqnon, France 1995 Baku Arts Center, Azerbaijan 1997 Gallery “Van Droff”, Jacksonville, USA 1998 “Pedestrian Gallery of Contemporary Art”, Jacksonville, USA 1998 Superstock Inc., Jacksonville, USA 1999 Museum of Contemporary Art of Jacksonville, USA 1999 State Museum of Fine Arts, Baku, Azerbaijan 1999 Gallery ”Humay”, London, UK 1999 “Pedestrian Gallery of Contemporary Art”, Jacksonville, USA 2000 Gallery ”Humay”, London, UK 2001 Gallery “Giz Galasi”, Baku, Azerbaijan 2002 Gallery of International Art, Beijing, China 2003 “Spiller – Vincenty Gallery” Jacksonville, FL.USA 2003 “Grands et Jeunes d’aujourd’hui”, Paris, France 2004 Gallery 14 Istanbul Sanat Fuari galereya “Premier”Art 2004 “Istanbul Art” International Contemporary art exposition 2005 Gallery “QGallery”, Baku, Azerbaijan 2007 Launch of the book ‘Painting and Sketch’ by A. Sadigzade, Librairie Flammarion Centre, Centre Pompidou, Paris ‘BindalliSanatEvi’, Huma 2010 “Observer of the Fly”, curator and participant, Modern Art Museum, Baku, Azerbaijan 2011 “Contemporary works of Azerbaijan, the Land of Fire”, Paris 2011 Palazzo Benzon, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice 2011 “22HX”, Modern Art Mu¬seum, Baku 2011 The modern art of Azerbaijan, Paris, France 2012 “Fly to Baku. Contemporary art from Azerbaijan”, Phillips de Pury & Company, London, UK