Theodor Theodorovich Herzen (1935 - 2003)

Theodor Theodorovich Herzen

Theodor Theodorovich Herzen (Russian: Теодор Теодорович Герцен) was a Soviet and Kyrgyz artist of the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries of German origin. He is known as a painter, graphic artist, muralist, who was honored with the title of People's Artist of Kyrgyzstan.

Theodor Herzen worked in monumental and decorative art, easel painting and book graphics. One of Herzen's outstanding works was a monumental cycle of illustrations to the Kyrgyz epic "Manas", including more than two hundred linocuts. In this project, he combined his extensive experience of working on Kyrgyz themes with his deep knowledge of the ethnicity, history and spiritual traditions of the Kyrgyz people. Herzen collected extensive ethnographic material and created many sketches of costumes and scenes from Kyrgyz life for this cycle of illustrations.