At 90, Botanist Yuzef Murdakhaev Publishes an Album of Naive Paintings of Samarkand, Masada and Family Life

This report was translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by The Bukharian Times.

Yuzef Murdakhaev, a botanist who once headed the medical botany laboratory of Uzbekistan’s Academy of Sciences, has published an album of his paintings, “Perception and Expression in Painting,” this year, The Bukharian Times reported in a review in its Oct. 22, 2026, edition.

The review describes Murdakhaev as a scientist, doctor of sciences and professor, and the author of many monographs, textbooks and books, including “The Culture of Medicinal Plants in Uzbekistan” and “Eastern Bazaar: Medicines and Spices.” For the past three decades he has continued that work in the United States, publishing books on the healing properties of plant products and minerals, the paper said.

From senior-center classes to an album

Murdakhaev first picked up a brush in 2017, attending painting lessons with the teachers Oleg Mois and Victoria Stolal at senior centers in Queens, according to the review. He works in the naive style, which the reviewer described as built on flat images and the kind of unforced sincerity of emotion usually found in children. The works in the album are painted in acrylic on paper, canvas and cardboard, and each is paired with lines of poetry by the artist or by other authors.

Many of the paintings return to Central Asia, where Murdakhaev traveled on botanical expeditions in the Pamir and Tian Shan mountains. They include “Caravan,” dedicated to the Silk Road; “Mountains With Slender Firs”; “Mausoleum of Ulugbek”; and “The Registan Ensemble. Samarkand,” which is paired with verse by his friend, the scientist, poet and artist Eduard Aminov.

Other works reflect his Jewish roots, the review said: “Self-Portrait. In Space,” in which he painted himself wrapped in a tallit; “The Four Species,” for Sukkot; “Masada Fortress,” inspired by a 2004 trip to Israel with his wife, Margarita; and “Rachel’s Tomb.” Several paintings are dedicated to Margarita.

What others said

“A man who had never painted, he became one of my best students,” Mois wrote of Murdakhaev, according to the paper. “What is especially striking in his works are the details, the search for color and the jewel-like precision.” The monumental artist Yakov Kandinov wrote that Murdakhaev “at 90 years old paints, plays the violin, and has published about 20 books.”

The reviewer called the album a notable event for the community of Jews from Central Asia, noting that many artists of the older generation from the Central Asian republics never had catalogs or albums of their work, and wrote that Murdakhaev’s work deserves a solo exhibition.

Sources: The Bukharian Times, “Painting in the Naive Style” (Oct. 22, 2026, in Russian).