“Romantic Mugham” drawing published on postmarks of Hungary

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

A splendid blend of three fabulous national instruments - the tar, gaval and kamancha - has gained a mandate to get published on postmarks in Hungary.

"Romantic Mugham" by Chingiz Mehbaliyev, an Azerbaijani artist, which was first exhibited in Budapest in 2013, drew the attention of the Post Office for its unique composition.

The artist painted the sketches while observing an elderly man listening to Mugam, a magnificent musical genre, which has conquered many hearts by its unexplainable mystery.

"The elderly man had his eyes closed and was fantasizing while listening to Mugam. It was pretty clear to me that he was remembering his youth. The elderly man was putting his head into his shoulders and having his eyes closed," he said while talking about how the idea of the painting came about.

"The Mugam took him to very far places… to his romantic youth," continued the artist. "To me the man looked like the Mugam, melting under the influence of love,"

The picture describes 3 musical instruments: - the tar, qaval and kamancha, which melt and mixed with each other. The tar is fallen into the qaval and the Kamancha is leaned on the leather of the qaval. There is a candle on the kamancha which is on fire and on the other side the artist protrayed a flying butterfly.

The national musical instruments described at the painting seems sheltered to each other while acting together. The candle which is on fire on the Kamancha and the butterfly flying on the opposite side are the symbol of love. But they got apart from each other like the elderly man who got apart from his youth and love.

The Mugam musical instruments touch the older generation who listen to Mugam and get nostalgic feelings. It seems like Mugam melts itself and pour into the souls of audience.

Chingiz was born with a passionate love for colors. He was the youngest participant in the international art exhibition dedicated to the 800th anniversary of Mevlana Djalaleddin Rumi, organized by UNESCO in 2007.

He took part in the international cartoon contest "Molla Nesreddin, Azerbaijan" and became a member of Azerbaijan Cartoonists Union. The artist was invited to Bartin, Turkey, to display his arts and after much success he became a member of SESAN ("Serbest Sanatchilar" - Free Artworkers) in 2010.

A year later, his painting "Colors dedicated to Imadaddin Nasimi" attracted the attention of the jury of the international art contest among CIS member states and his painting was included in the final catalog of the contest.