Aigul MYRZATAI
ALMATY, March 27
(THE GLOBE)
An exhibition by the Uzbek people's artist, Medat Kagarov, has been opened in Orkhon Gallery. Medat Kagarov belongs to the generation, whose childhood coincided with the Great Patriotic War. Though his family was living in the countryside, war life, common for the entire country, became a part of his biography and a topic of creation for ever.
The topic of peace runs all through the creations of Medat Kagarov. The artist's early works reflect this topic in the series �1941�, where war images are made with the help of a poly-screen technique which helps to combine several events from different time. These pictures are expressive and often are supposed to stand out against the background of the exhibition due to their expressiveness, aiming to attract the audience with combination of different foregrounds, collisions of images and characters.
Inclination to symbols, which was so characteristic for the art in the late 1970s, is expressed by the Kagarov's creation, sometimes resulting in unconventional interpretations of the themes. Often, for example, the war topic is imparted with warm colours of peace.
Medat Kagarov finds an unusual way to express the topic of peace: he reproduces it through images of birds and fishes � living creatures, so calm and peaceful, silent and inoffensive as nature itself yet are the essence of human being. Symbolising the source of life with the help of birds and fishes, the artists touches the main theme of our century � ecology. His paintings contain deep philosophic thoughts about the human condition and nature, explaining why the painter often combines images of the man and a bird in one space, creating an allegory of a heavenly fragile creatures with a human heart and wings, with flying spirit and will as calm as a sea wave (�Aigul's expectations�, �Prayer of a golden fish�, �Three fishes�, �Blue bird�, �A caught fish�, �Golden birds�, etc.)
Recently Medat Kagarov's desire to leave traditional and perfectly developed graphical approaches is obvious. Instead of silhouettes and ornamental patterns he wishes to reproduce deepness of the space, to reveal picturesque shades of colours, often using brush and Indian ink.
Medat Kagarov's creations are a peculiar event in Uzbek graphics. Paintings by the artist are different and varied, including book and easel graphics, posters and ex-librises.
March 27 (BBC)
Angelina Jolie (right) in Girl, Interrupted with Angela Bettis
Angelina Jolie and Michael Caine have taken the first major Oscars at the 72nd Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
The 24-year-old daughter of Jon Voight took the best supporting actress prize for her role in Girl, Interrupted, while British film icon Caine, 67, took the male equivalent for The Cider House Rules.
In an emotional acceptance speech Caine told the audience he �did not feel like being the winner�, and paid tribute to each of his fellow nominees.
He singled out 11-year-old Haley Joel Osment, nominated for The Sixth Sense, calling his achievement �astonishing�.
�When I saw you, I thought, "That"s me out of it,'� he said.
It is Caine's second Academy Award. He first won in 1987 for Hannah And Her Sisters.
Meanwhile, Mike Leigh's film Topsy-Turvy got British cinema off to a winning start by picking up two craft statuettes.
Cider toast: Michael Caine plays an abortion doctor
The film, which documents the run-up to the making of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado, took the first Oscar of the evening when Lindy Hemming took the prize for best costume design.
On stage, she thanked the academy for �giving our little film such a brilliant start�.
Later, Christine Blundell and Trefor Proud took the prize for best make-up.
British success continued when Phil Collins won best original song for You'll Be In My Heart, from Tarzan.
�You don't know what this means to me - you don't know what this means to my kids,� he said.
However, Welsh film Solomon and Gaenor lost out in the best foreign language film category to Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother.
Beauty favourite
The runaway favourite at the awards is American Beauty, a dark satire about American suburbia starring Kevin Spacey, who is up for best actor. It is widely tipped to win the best picture award.
Phil Collins: Tarzan song gives him first Oscar
British director Sam Mendes is widely tipped to be named as best director for American Beauty, which has a total of eight nominations.
Walking into the auditorium, he said of the publicity surrounding American Beauty: �It's incredible, it's insane and it's crazy. I've had a great time in the past six weeks, but it's also been the longest six weeks of my life.�
But he had to wait for three hours until the film won its first award, for cinematography. It also won best original screenplay.
Spacey is fighting it out with Denzel Washington for the best actor award.
Actress Hilary Swank, star of Boys Don't Cry, is the surprise favourite to be named best actress.
On stage, host Billy Crystal paid tribute to salvage worker Willie Fulgear, who found 52 out of 55 stolen Oscar statuettes near a rubbish bin.
He arrived at the awards in a tuxedo and top hat. Crystal told the audience: �We could not have had a show without him.�
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
© 1998 IPA House. All Rights Reserved.