Miralasgar Mirgasimov

Miralasgar Mirgasimov (Mirələsgər Mirqasımov; 9 February 1924 in Baku – 9 November 2003 in Baku) was an Azerbaijani and Soviet sculptor, member of the Union of Artists of Azerbaijan, professor, Honoured Art Worker of the Azerbaijan SSR, and People' Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR.

He is the son of the first president of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, Mirasadulla Mirgasimov.

Miralasgar is the first Azerbaijani sculptor who received a full specialized higher education.

Miralasgar Mirgasimov was born on 9 February 1924 in Baku in the family of the doctor Mirasadulla Mirgasimov and his wife Jeyran khanim.

The family had four more children.

Miralasgar was the second child.

Since childhood, everyone called him Alik.

When Miralasgar was six years old, he experienced an epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis.

Later he recovered, but soon, as a result of the atrophy of the auditory nerve, the little Miralasgar completely lost his hearing ability.

It was impossible to return the child's hearing at that time.

Miralasgar's father, Mirasadulla Mirgasimov, also understood this.

Despite the risk of the speech loss, thanks to his mother, who constantly communicated with her son and, using a special method she had invented, she has taught her son the alphabet, abandoning the ABC book for the deaf and dumb, consequently Miralasgar did not become dumb, therefore Miralasgar was not sent to a special school for the deaf.

Soon Miralasgar learned to read, and his mother continued his education according to the method of teaching literacy and reading by the lips and the face expression of the speaker proposed by the Moscow speech therapist Natalya Rau.

Miralasgar has mastered this technique well.

Miralasgar's mother, later in her book "The notes of a Mother", which she dedicated to her son, wrote about him:

"His feelings and perception are honed to subtlety. He very boldly navigates in any environment having some kind of a special and inherent sense, a skill to quickly catch and understand everything. The kindness, the genuine love and the attraction to everything living and beautiful in the most natural way capture his nature. He never loses his peace of mind, he accepts the everyday troubles firmly. He always does what he thinks, even if it affects his peace."

As a child, Miralasgar dreamed of becoming a pilot, and then - an agronomist or biologist.

The boy also loved to draw and spent hours sculpting or painting.

Once his mother addressed to the prominent sculptor Pinhos Sabsai, with whom the Mirgasimov family were neighbours.

Under Sabsai's guidance, Miralasgar created, by memory, from clay, a sculpture of a lion seen in a menagerie, and afterwards a human figurine.

It was a sculpture of Quentin Dorward, the hero of the novel of the same name by Walter Scott, which Miralasgar had read and was inspired by.

Seeing the sculpture, Sabsai told the parents: “Your son is undoubtedly gifted”.

Miralasgar Mirgasimov was also tested by M.Gerasimov.

Soon, special classes began with the boy at the Azerbaijan Art School.

In 1944, he graduated with honours from the Azerbaijan Art School, and in 1951 - from the Repin Institute.

He is the author of the monuments to Jafar Jabbarli (Baku), Nariman Narimanov (Sumgayit), Jalil Mammadguluzade (Nakhchivan).

Some of Mirgasimovs works, such as the "Portrait of an Oilman", the "Portrait of a Girl", the"Girl with a Dove", are exhibited at the National Art Museum of Azerbaijan in Baku.

In 1944, Miralasgar Mirgasimov graduated with honours from the Azerbaijan Art School.

At this time, the World War II was still going on.

Nevertheless, Miralasgar decided to go to the post-blockade Leningrad and enter the Repin Institute.

In one of his letters sent home, Miralasgar writes:

"Mother, I work a lot as the program is very intense. Soon we will make a plaster cast - a figure. It's so cold here that there can be no nudity. In some workshops, the temperature is kept at zero degrees..."

In another letter to his mother, Mirgasimov wrote that at that time he had the highest marks at the sculpture department.

So, only two, according to him, including himself, received an "excellent" for a sculpture, and that only one received an "excellent" for a drawing – this was himself.

Mirgasimov's thesis was dedicated to the "heroes-oilmen", and he successfully defended it.

Thus, Miralasgar Mirgasimov became the first Azerbaijani sculptor who received a full specialized higher education.

In 1951, he graduated from the institute and together with S. Guliyev created a monument to V. I. Lenin for the city of Khankendi.

He participated in world exhibitions, including the 1967 World Exhibition in Montreal.

Mirgasimovs works were also exhibited in Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany, Egypt, and other countries.

He was awarded with various orders and medals, including the Shohrat Order of the Republic of Azerbaijan.