Javlon Umarbekov

Javlon Yusupovich Umarbekov was born on 17 June 1946 in Tashkent. He entered the Benkov Republican Art College in 1961 and graduated in 1966. He then studied in Moscow at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), in the studio of Ivan Ivanov-Vano; his teachers also included Yuri Pimenov and Vitaly Tokarev. He graduated in 1972.

That year he joined the Union of Artists of the USSR and won a gold medal at the VDNKh exhibition in Moscow for his painting «My Friend». From 1972 to 1973 he was chief artist of the Navoi Literature Museum, in 1973–1974 he did his military service, and from 1974 to 1976 he taught at the Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute.

From 1976 Umarbekov sat on the board of the Union of Artists of Uzbekistan, and in 1984–1987 he chaired it. In 1985 and 1990 he was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR (11th and 12th convocations). In 1977 he received the Lenin Komsomol Prize for his paintings «The Great Water» and «Song»; in 1982 he was named Honoured Art Worker of the Uzbek SSR, and in 1989 People's Painter of the Uzbek SSR.

His early work expressed social ideas within the realist tradition; later he moved towards combining the miniature art of the East, above all of Central Asia, with European realism. His paintings include «Childhood» (1968), «My Friend» (1971), the diptych «Homo Sapiens» (1979–1980), «I Am a Human Being» (1981–1983), «By the Pond» (1988), «Sahibqiran Amir Temur» (1995) and «Zahir ad-Din Muhammad Babur» (1996); his series include «Around Algiers» (1978) and «30 Views of Tashkent» (1983). He also illustrated the epics «Alpamysh» (2010) and «Rustamkhan» (2014).

His exhibitions have been held in Algiers (1978), West Berlin (1980), Vienna, Düsseldorf (1988), Moscow (1989) and cities of the US East Coast (1998–2002). His works are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery, the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, the United Nations headquarters in New York and galleries in Japan and Europe. In February 2023 an exhibition of his work, «Memories of the Future», was shown in Dubai.

After independence he received the Oliy Majlis medal «Mustaqillik» in 1991 and worked as a senior lecturer at the State Institute of Arts of Uzbekistan in 1995–1997. In 1997 he was elected a full member of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan, and in 2002 he was given the academy's gold medal. Since 1998 he has taught at the Kamoliddin Behzod National Institute of Arts and Design. He received the Order «Mehnat shuhrati» in 2011 and, by presidential decree of 28 May 2026, the Order «For Selfless Service».