Kasteev Abylkhan is a Kazakh painter and watercolourist, and the founder of Kazakh fine arts. He is the People’s Artist of the Kazakh SSR, a winner of the State Prize of the Kazakh SSR, the Chokan Valikhanov Prize, and a member of the Union of Artists of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

He was born in aul (a Kazakh village) of Chizhin near Jarkent. In 1929-1931 Abilkhan Kasteev studied at the art studio of Nikolai Gavrilovich Khludov, then he studied in Moscow, at the art studio named after Krupskaya. He was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR of the 4-5th convocations.

The artist’s main subjects were landscapes dedicated to the Kazakh homeland. He also painted portraits of famous people of that time, such as Kenesary Kasymov, Abai, Chokan Valikhanov, Zhambyl, and Amangeldy Imanov. For Kasteev, beauty was an objective quality of the world, which he treated with great care. This special, childishly naive perception of the world, this delight of the splendour of his native land lived in him, a son of steppes, from birth. He had only never lost it in the process of education, but also enriched and developed it later. The museum’s exposition presents Kasteev’s watercolour Mountain Landscape, which has all the above-mentioned merits.