The Process of Formation of National Identity in the Painting of Kazakhstan

The purpose of the article is to highlight the national idea as a defining constant in the painting of Kazakhstan through the analysis of the main stages of the formation and development of the Kazakh professional school of fine arts on the example of the collection of the A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Research Methodology. The art studies analysis aimed at exploring the original works of leading Kazakhstani artists became the basic method of research Comparative, analytical and historical methods made it possible to identify the characteristic tendencies of artistic generations at certain time stages and to outline the key points of historical and cultural reconstruction of the process of formation of national identity in painting. The factual basis of the research, in addition to monographs and articles by researchers in art and cultural studies, philosophers, is the originals and reproductions of works by Kazakhstani artists. Scientific novelty. National identity is the defining cultural paradigm of modernity, which is reflected in the works of many researchers. At the same time, the article is the first attempt to trace the development of the national idea in the painting of Kazakhstan over the 100-year history of its existence in the historical retrospective from the origins to the present. The principal novelty of the material is that it is based on the study of the collection of paintings in the funds of the country’s leading art museum — the A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Conclusions. Despite the abundance of scientific research, the issue of the formation of national identity remains insufficiently researched, while the “search for national identity” as a key postulate of the modern artistic process determines the relevance of the research topic. The analysis of each artistic stage allows us to determine the characteristic features in each individual decade in the development of the painting of Kazakhstan.