Azerbaijani President congratulates Tahir Salakhov on his birthday

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev congratulated national artist Tahir Salakhov on his 90th birthday, official website of the head of state reported.

"I would like to congratulate you - great master and famous public figure - on your 90th birthday. I wish you good health and success in your activities," Ilham Aliyev said.

"As an outstanding representative of modern art school, you have written new pages of rich chronicle of our culture with your art that will forever have an important place in our national art,” President of Azerbaijan stressed.

"Your works, which are exhibited in prestigious museums, famous galleries of the world and kept in private collections, play a huge role in promoting Azerbaijani culture far beyond borders of our country. Your help in shaping young masters for future development our national art deserves huge praise," Ilham Aliyev said.

"I'm sure that as a creator and a person who has a huge role in shaping current appearance of our culture and development of world art, you will continue and help to bring fine art of Azerbaijan to new heights," he concluded.

Tahir Salahov is a Soviet, Azerbaijani and Russian painter and draughtsman. He studied at the Azimzade Art College in Baku in 1945–1950 and the Surikov Moscow Art Institute in 1951–1957.

Salahov won an early recognition: his diploma work, The Shift is Over, was exhibited in 1957 at the Moscow All-Union Art Exhibition and received public and critical acclaim. He became one of the leading representatives of the so-called "severe style", a trend in Soviet art of the 1960s that aimed to set off a hard, publicist, realist view.