The state Museum of Applied Arts of Uzbekistan

The State Museum of Applied Arts of Uzbekistan is located in the center of Tashkent, on one of the shady streets, not far from the Cosmonauts metro station. The rich history of the museum starts from the beginning of the XX century.

The building of the modern Museum at the beginning of the XX century belonged to Alexander Alexandrovich Polovtsev. An official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a statesman and public figure, a senator arrived in Tashkent to study resettlement issues in Central Asia. The secretary who arrived with him, Mikhail Stepanovich Andreev, bought a house for Polovtsev from the largest Tashkent entrepreneur Ivanov.

Later, this house became known among the residents of Tashkent as the "Polovtsev’s House". Alexander Alexandrovich not only lived in this house himself, but also often received distinguished guests in it, which is why he decided to rebuild the house in the Oriental style. For these purposes, he invited the architect Burmeister, who found the best masters of applied art and together with them turned the rooms of the house into a work of art. 

The central and largest hall of the house became the main place for receiving guests. Its three-tiered ceiling, walls, fireplaces, chandeliers and columns of the hall are decorated with openwork ganch carvings, and the patterns are covered with tempera paint. The main feature of this paint, which allowed the patterns to remain to this day, is that the water paint is made on the basis of dry powders, after its application, the water evaporates, the dry substance polymerizes and becomes insoluble in water.

The doors of the hall, decorated with elegant and elaborate carvings, also attract the attention of visitors. 

Other rooms are decorated in the same style, however, not as chic as the main hall.

The decorated decoration of all the rooms was carried out by the masters Kazymdzhanov, Arslankulov, Muradov, Palvanov and master Abdulla together with the architect Burmeister. 

With the outbreak of the First World War, the house came into the possession of Austrian officers. Then, from 1920 to 1935, the building was an orphanage. After 1935, the house was used by various organizations, and subsequently a ganch carving training center was opened there. Local craftsmen began to organize temporary exhibitions of their products there, after which, from July 1937, a Museum of Handicrafts was opened from these exhibitions. In 1960, the museum was renamed a permanent exhibition of applied art. In 1970, premises were added to the building, as the number of expositions of the exhibition increased significantly. In 1997, the exhibition was taken over by the Ministry of Culture and was renamed the State Museum of Applied Arts of Uzbekistan.

To date, the exhibition fund consists of more than 7 thousand exhibits in more than 50 types of folk applied art. However, all of them cannot be displayed in the museum at the same time due to the fact that the museum area does not allow this. All exhibits reflect the history of the development of decorative art in Uzbekistan and are presented in such areas as jewelry, wood and ganch carving, gold embroidery and embroidery techniques.

All exhibits are divided into 3 categories depending on the technique of their execution. The first group of objects presents works taking into account the technique and art of ancient traditions and schools. The second group includes exhibits made since the second half of the XX century according to the rules of folk masters. And the third category – modern exhibits made taking into account the development of modern branches of applied art and using traditional ornaments. 

The main part of the presented works includes the works of the second group. Ceramic and porcelain products, such as vases, jugs and service sets, amaze with the elegance and uniqueness of the executed ornaments. The unique embroidery technique of each of the 12 regions will also not leave museum visitors indifferent. Jewelry made in the traditional style are sure to attract the attention of the female half of visitors. Wooden pieces of furniture, doors and columns decorated with unusual carvings will not be left without attention. 

But absolutely all the objects of the exhibition are united by one thing – each of them is absolutely unique in style and pattern of drawing or carving, each of them carries a piece of the soul of the master, the warmth of his hands and love for his craft.