Timur Tsaku
TIMUR TSAKU | |
| Tsaku was born in 1971 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Having attended the Tashkent Art School from 1978 to 1987, he was accepted to the prestigious P. P. Benkov Art Institute where he focused his artistic talents on scenic design. | |
| In 1991 Tsaku became assistant to the head scenic designer of the Gorki Republican Arts Theater of Drama in Tashkent and later that year, moved to Israel where a series of paintings he created called, “The Republic of Israel” were shown at the Ashdod Museum in Israel. From 1991 to 2001, Tsaku returned to his homeland and became an instructor of painting and drawing at the Tashkent Academy of Art and Theater. | |
| In 2001 he returned to Israel and began a new period of works on the origins of the Bible and had paintings acquired for the permanent collections of the Israel Museum and the Presidential House, both in Jerusalem. | |
| Tsaku’s paintings begin with abstracted backgrounds in acrylic. “When the surfaces of the panels are almost completed” Tsaku says, “these moody, abstracted landscapes reveal the figures that will encompass the majority of the image.” The artist uses a “000” (triple 0) paint brush and magnifying glass to achieve a hyper-realistic, almost photographic representation of the people and animals depicted in his unique imagery. Characterized by very modern black and white composition, Tsaku’s paintings are also highlighted with touches of gold paint. | |
| According to the artist, all of the characters in his works are based on figures found in the Old Testament of the Bible. With a majority of the figures taking the form of animals; they are actually spiritual creatures that have manifested themselves in the shapes of dogs, cats and other “approachable” beasts. | |
| Tsaku’s works are truly unique and immediately identifiable. In his words, scenes take place that are a synthesis of whimsy and wonder, surrealism and hyperrealism; a world where spirits take the form of dogs and women become amorphous elongated figures; a world where the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the real becomes surreal. | |