Gafur Mendagaliev was born in Kamyzak village of Astrakhanskaya region on June 2, 1954. In 1969 he finished secondary school. In 1973–1975 he served in the Soviet army, where he started to paint. After army he worked as a decorator. In 1979 he entered Asrakhanskoe art college, from which he graduated in 1983. After college he had a training course in Abramtsevo (artistic wood carving) and taught in college till 1985. In 1985 Gafur left Astrakhan and moved to Leningrad. He found a job in VOHR (paramilitary security), as it was the only place which employed people without Leningrad residential registration, and started to attend classes of A.Kondratyev, A.Zaytsev and other cher maitres. When in 1987 A.Kondratyev founded Kochevie (‘Camping Ground’) Group, Gafur Mendagaliev naturally became its member. Kochevie Group gradually develops principles of structuring, building a work, grasped by K.Petrov-Vodkin. Through G.Y.Dlugach’s geometric interpretation and mathematic laws of Pythagorean school, discovered by A.P.Zaytsev and lying in the basis of a picture spatial construction, Kochevie members felt rhythms and impulses of a modern day. Despite significant stylistic variety, Kochevie members tend to send to the observer a concentrated message through “form”. Yet, bringing “form” up to “significance” they lose “color” to some extent, “form eats up color”. Gafur Mendagaliev as distinguished from other group members, tries to solve the same problem through color. He keeps figurativeness and some kind of literariness, but strives for maximum color concentration. “I’m an eastern man, so I have color intensity on the level of subconsciousness, and maybe even on the level of genetic code” (G.Mendagaliev). Gafur Mendagaliev’s art was born in this city, was inspired by it and continues iconography of metaphysical and transpersonal Petersburg. He participated in more than 60 collective shows in Russia, USA, France, Germany, Poland, Korea, Japan, England. He had 24 personal shows. His works are kept in Museum of Non-Conformist Art (St Petersburg), Manezh (St Petersburg), Konstantinovsky Palace (St Petersburg), Yaroslavsky Art Museum, Astrakhan State Picture Gallery named after P.M.Dogadin, Mordovsky Republican Museum of Fine Art named after Erzi (Saransk).
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