Maral Rahmanzade

Maral Yusif gizi Rahmanzadeh (; 23 July 1916 – 18 March 2008) was a Soviet and Azerbaijani graphic artist and painter. She was awarded the honorary title of People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR, and the State Prize.

Biography Maral Rahmanzadeh was born in Mardakan, Russian Empire (now Azerbaijan). From 1930 to 1933, she studied at the Azerbaijan State Technical School of Arts, and from 1934 to 1940, she continued her education at the Moscow State Institute of Arts. In 1940, after graduating from the institute, the master of graphic arts started working at the "Khudozhestvennaya Literatura" publishing house in Moscow. In 1941, the artist's father was subjected to repression and declared an enemy of the people. Six months later, he died in a Tashkent prison. M. Rahmanzadeh had to leave her job in Moscow and return to Baku, where she continued her artistic career. From that very year, a series of works signed "Maral Rahmanzadeh" began.

Rahmanzadeh is the eldest sister of sculptor and honoree of the Academy of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Vagif Rakhmanov. She is the aunt of acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter and visual artist Deniz Reno (aka Deniz Rakhmanova), Kazakh-German painter Nargis Rakhmanova-Dressler and Kazakh artisan Aigul Rakhmanova.

Artistic work Rahmanzadeh's most productive field was graphic arts, particularly lithography and coloured linoprints. During the Great Patriotic War, Rahmanzadeh produced a series of paintings featuring patriotic content. One of these series was dedicated to Soviet women during the wartime, including such works as "People's Volunteer Corps", "Women in the Ranks", "Partisan's Daughter" and "Radio Operator". Another series of 19 prints focused on the workers on the home front, including “Work on the Farm”, “Social Activists” and “The Artists Performing for the Front-Line Soldiers”. The piece “Wives Substitute Husbands” depicted women working at machines in factories. These paintings were made using black watercolour with coal accents.

During these years, Rahmanzadeh created illustrations for Jafar Jabbarly's "Maiden Tower" and "Gulzar". In the post-war period, she worked intensively on paintings and autolithography. In 1947, she exhibited "Petroleum", a series of 10 autolithographs depicting the history of the oil industry. The series began with "Fire Worshippers", a composition representing the worship of eternal fire, and included works such as "A New Enterprise", "On the Oil Rig", "Jack-Pump" and "Fountain Hammered to a Pipe".

In 1948, Maral Rahmanzadeh completed another series, "Socialistic Baku", consisting of 10 paintings portraying industrial and urban landscapes. Compositions included "Shift of a Vigil", "Day of a Vigil", and "In Construction of a New House". Her journeys to Neft Daşları (Oil Rocks) proved especially productive for the artist.

In later years, Rahmanzadeh explored the linocut technique. Her linocuts were dedicated to the large factories of two young cities, Sumgait and Rustavi, each consisting of six industrial and urban landscapes and two portraits portraying front-line workers.

During the 1960s, she travelled to a number of remote regions in Azerbaijan, producing colour linocut series such as “My Motherland” and “Azerbaijan”. Many pieces focused on Nakhchivan, showing ploughed fields with furrow lines leading to a river and nearby villages. Other works portrayed Khinalug, a remote mountain village in northern Azerbaijan, where she studied local life and painted residents in national costume, traditional homes and mountain scenery.

In 1956, Rahmanzadeh illustrated Mammed Said Ordubadi's historical novel "A Sword and Pen", and in 1963, she illustrated academic publications for "Azerbaijani Fairytales".

Awards

Honorary title of "People's Artiste of the Azerbaijan SSR" – June 29, 1964 Honorary title of "Honored Art Worker of the Azerbaijan SSR" – May 24, 1960 Azerbaijan SSR State Prize named after Mirza Fatali Akhundov – April 28, 1965 (for the linocut series "Azerbaijan" and "My Motherland") Shohrat Order – July 22, 1996 "Order of the Red Banner of Labour" "Badge of Honour" Order – June 9, 1959 Personal Pension of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan – June 11, 2002