Tatarstan's People's Artist Mudaris Mingazov calls Tatar ornament the people's cultural code

Mudaris Mingazov, People's Artist of Tatarstan, said on the TNV programme “7 Days Plus” that Tatar ornament is the people's cultural code. The interview was published by Tatar-inform on 12 November.

He said he first saw his work on ornament as a side direction rather than full-fledged art, until art historians praised its originality after an exhibition in Kazan. Unlike traditional flat images, he builds volumetric ornaments out of brushstrokes. Mingazov also studies ancient tamgas and coins and paints some of them on canvases about half a metre tall.

In his view these family signs and patterns link people to the history of the Golden Horde. “It is Tatar ornament, not Mudaris's ornament,” he said, and of the coins: “That is statehood.”