Collective Farm’s Dairy Farm

Description

Author: Kasteyev, Abylkhan. 1904-1973
A genre scene depicting the summer life of Kazakh herders on the jailau. In the foreground to the right, a motif of preparing kurt is presented: two women in white kimesheks roll the curd into balls, a man in a chapan hands them a tray, and a third woman lays out the finished product to dry on a wooden rack (söre). To the left is a portable felt yurt (qos), with a boy standing at its entrance and, beside him on the grass, a notebook and a book-signs of the literacy campaign and the new Soviet era. In the distance, across a green valley, horsemen drive herds of cattle and horses, and flocks of sheep to water; the perspective is closed by a range of snow-capped peaks. The color scheme is built on the lush green of the steppe, the ochre-brown tone of the yurt, and a unifying white. The sincere painting technique with detailed elaboration is characteristic of Kasteyev’s early naïve realism.