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The Abai State Museum-Reserve “Zhidebay-Borili” opened the exhibition “The World of Abai,” dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the birth of Evgeny Sidorkin. The museum’s research collection contains more than 760 works by Kazakhstani artists related to the theme of Abai. Among them, 35 works by Evgeny Sidorkin are preserved.

 Evgeny Sidorkin was born on May 7, 1930, in the village of Lebyazhye, Kirov Region, Russian Federation. He was a graphic artist, Honored Art Worker of the Kazakh SSR, and People’s Artist of Kazakhstan. In 1951, he graduated from the Kazan Art School, and in 1957, from the Ilya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in Leningrad.

 Sidorkin began illustrating Mukhtar Auezov’s novel “The Path of Abai” in 1960. During this period, he created sixteen linocuts, including single-page and double-page illustrations. His clear, rhythmic, and expressive linework, frequent contrasts of deep black and white, and profound conceptual depth elevated these illustrations to a landmark achievement in Kazakh book graphics.

 Ten years later, E. M. Sidorkin returned to illustrating Auezov’s novel, which had been included as a two-volume edition in the “Library of World Literature” series. This time, the artist employed the lithographic technique, producing twenty-four page illustrations and designing two covers.

 The museum’s research collection preserves Sidorkin’s works such as “A. Kunanbayev,” “Abai with His Grandmother Zere,” “Ulzhan,” “Abai — Defender of the People,” “Abai and Michaelis,” “Abai in Court,” “Abai with His Poet-Disciples,” “Tenge Alu,” “Togzhan,” “Abai Hunting,” “Abai and the Jataks,” “Song in the Aul,” and others.

 In 1970, Evgeny Sidorkin was awarded the Shokan Ualikhanov State Prize of the Kazakh SSR for his illustrations to Mukhtar Auezov’s novel “The Path of Abai.”