Urmanche Baki is a painter, sculptor, graphic artist, photographer, the People’s Artist of the RSFSR, the People’s Artist of the TASSR, the Honoured Artist of the Kazakh SSR, a laureate of the Republican Prize named after Gabdulla Tukai (1967), a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, and the founder of professional fine arts of the Republic of Tatarstan.

He was born in the village of Kul-Cherkene, Kazan province, in the family of a mullah. In 1919 he entered the Kazan Art School, then continued his studies at the Higher Art and Technical Workshops in Moscow. He studied at two faculties at once: painting and sculpture. For a long time, he lived and worked in Alma-Ata. Baki Urmanche is rightly considered both a Tatar and a Kazakh artist.

«I live one life with my people, their sufferings and happiness. Its sufferings and joys are my sufferings and joys. I want to express them; I want to say it in my works. I want to speak about his heroes and artists, fighters and poets, youth, love, and labour», – said Baki Urmanche. The artist expressed these ideas in the painting from the museum collection, entitled A Study for Abay Portrait.