Feruz Temirov
Feruz Temirov came to miniature painting through the university rather than the workshop. In a craft where almost everyone apprenticed, he entered the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts at Bukhara State University on his father's advice, and chose miniature for its ties to history and literature. He studied there from 1994 to 1999, then returned to teach it for eight years.
He learned it by copying — the medieval schools of Iran, Herat and Bukhara, and the masters Behzad and Mahmud Muzahhib. His subjects come from the poets he read while learning: Firdausi, Nizami, Jami, Navoi. His illustrations appear in two volumes of Uzbek tales published in Paris, in 2014 and 2024, and in 2019 the Embassy of Uzbekistan brought him to Vienna as one of the country's master craftsmen, to give master classes.
For some paintings he works on Samarkand paper, made from the inner bark of young mulberry branches and burnished with stone until it takes a silken sheen — the support Persian manuscripts were made on for a thousand years, and nearly lost after the Russian conquest. He paints in watercolour, tempera and gold gouache, with brushes of natural fibre. A single miniature can take months.
“It is a great achievement and a great happiness for me if the miniatures I create will please not only modern art lovers but also future generations.”
Read Temirov’s full story — meeting him in Bukhara, and the stories behind thirteen of his miniatures.
Virtual Exhibit
Learn more about the meaning of each miniature, Persian poetry, the Silk Road, artists' process and more
My trip to Uzbekistan
Read my travel journal from the October 2024 trip to Uzbekistan: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva.
Video about Feruz
Hear from the artist himself. Feruz Temirov in his studio in Bukhara talks about his process and inspiration.
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