LEYLA ALIYEVA Born Moscow, 1985 Lives and works Baku, London, Moscow
Leyla Aliyeva is a graduate of the MA programme in World Politics at Moscow State University of International Relations. She divides her time between Baku, Moscow and London, where she lives with husband Emin Agalarov and their twin sons. In 2007, she established Baku Magazine in 2007, published in Moscow in Russian and recently launched in collaboration with Condé Nast as an English-language quarterly publication. She is Vice President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, set up in honour of her late grandfather, the former President of Azerbaijan, with the mission of promoting Azerbaijan’s rich culture throughout the world. As an artist herself, Aliyeva’s pen-and-ink drawings are indicative of her diverse heritage. Featured in the first issue of Baku Magazine, these highly personal illustrations show the importance of art in Leyla’s day-to-day life, whether as patron, or as an avid fan, or as a means of selfexpression. She is also founder of the IDEA (International Dialogue for Environmental Action) campaign established to promote public awareness of environmental issues. She is also General Co-ordinator of the OIC Youth Forum on Intercultural dialogue. Her artworks are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Baku.
Group exhibition 2011 Participant in the 2nd ‘Qiz Qalasi’ (Maiden Tower) International Art Festival
The graphic works of Leyla Aliyeva merge a poetic lyricism and the
where lyrical images of Oriental beauties come to life, at times
malleable language of Azerbaijani miniatures and often serve
refined and subtle, at other times dramatic and expressive.
as illustrations for her own poetry. The expressiveness of her work originates from the interaction of an elegant drawing style and the
Her graphic works also resound with themes of love and passion, and
smoothness of line, the subtle ornamentation of dimensional
are similarly marked with sensuality and expressiveness.There
compositions in which the mood is set by the colour palette – in some
is a mesmerizing attraction in her work entitled Shadows, in which
it is bright and decorative, in others it is more monochromatic. The
a gesture, a dropped gaze, a sigh released from the scarlet petals of lips,
patterned imagery in the miniatures beckon the observer to a surreal
all amid a whirlwind of black-and-white rhythm of emotions, give birth
world of fantasies and dreams, of an idealised, fairy-land existence
to a love that is liberated from the shackles of gravity.
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