Abylkhan Kasteev State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan

The museum’s story begins in 1935, when on September 23 the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kazakh ASSR adopted a resolution establishing the Kazakh State Art Gallery.

In 1965, the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR resolved to provide the gallery with its own building. Designed by architects Elza Kuznetsova, Olga Naumova, and Boris Novikov specifically for this purpose, the gallery was renamed the State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 1976. The Republic Museum of Applied Arts, founded in 1970, also became part of this institution. The new building officially opened to the public on September 16, 1976. In January 1984, it was dedicated to the memory of the People’s Artist of the Kazakh SSR, Abylkhan Kasteev (1904-1973), whose name it bears to this day.

Today, the Abylkhan Kasteev State Museum is the largest art museum in Kazakhstan and serves as a leading scientific-research and cultural-educational centre in the field of visual arts.

Since independence, the museum has reached a new level of quality and now houses the largest and most prestigious art collection in the country.

Collection

With over 26,000 exhibits, the museum proudly showcases not only masterpieces of visual art, but also key chapters in Kazakhstan’s cultural history, including works by:

Abylkhan Kasteev - founding father of Kazakh painting

Kanafi Telzhanov, Aisha Galimbaeva, Gulfairus Ismailova, Evgeny Sidorkin, Salihitdin Aitbaev, Sabur Mambeev, Zhanatai Shardenov, and Sergey Kalmykov.

In addition to Kazakh painting, the collection includes original works of Russian and Western European art, Eastern art, and outstanding examples of decorative-applied craftsmanship. The permanent exhibition is equipped with modern features:

spotlight illumination

specialized suspended systems

multimedia explanations

QR-code access

All elements support the museum’s mission: to convey the nation’s cultural code by preserving artistic heritage through the unity of tradition and innovation.

Layout & Exhibition Space:
The building contains 11 halls and 8 main galleries:

Introductory Hall (576 m²)

Periodicals Hall (406 m²)

Gallery-1 through Gallery-4 (192-258 m² each)

Memorial Hall of A. Kasteev (145 m²)

Halls dedicated to Kazakh visual art from 1930-2000

Separate Halls for watercolour art, Russian art (376 m²), Western European art (155 m²), and Eastern art (272 m²).