Today is the birthday of the prominent Azerbaijani painter Tahir Salahov.

Axar.az informs that he marks the 90th birthday.

First Secretary of the Union of Artists of the USSR (1973–1992), Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Arts, member of over 20 academies and other creative organizations throughout the world was born in Baku on November 29, 1928.

Tahir Salahov studied at the Azimzade Art College in Baku in 1945–1950 and the Surikov Moscow Art Institute in 1951–1957. Salahov won an early recognition: his diploma work, The Shift is Over, was exhibited in 1957 at the Moscow All-Union Art Exhibition and received public and critical acclaim. Salahov’s compositions on the life and work of the Baku oil-workers (e.g. "Repair Men", 1961, Mustafayev Azerbaijan State Museum of Art, Baku) and portraits, e.g., of Azerbaijani composer Qara Qarayev (1960, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), and Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1976, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), are characterized by a forcefulness and lack of idealization. Salahov chose a sparing palette of contrasting red, black, light- and dark-grey tones and gave colored plains a decorative function.

Notably, yesterday, President Ilham Aliyev signed an order to award Tahir Salahov with the 1st class “Labour” order. At the same time, President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva addressed a congratulatory letter to the People's Artist.