Culture & arts · Yakkasaray District

Central Exhibition Hall of the Academy of Arts

Built in 1972–1974 to a design by Rafael Khairutdinov, Central Asia's largest exhibition space and, since 2026, part of a UNESCO World Heritage property.

UNESCO World HeritageSoviet era1972–197445 min1 min read

Photo: Oqsaqol · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

History

The Uzbek SSR Union of Artists commissioned the hall on 19 April 1969. When the first design by the Tashgenplan institute was rejected as bland, Rafael Khairutdinov of Tashgiprogor — who had once dreamed of becoming a painter — put forward his own scheme. It was built in 1972–1974 with F. Tursunov, B. Melnikov and F. Devlikamova, originally as the Union of Artists' exhibition hall.

Architecture

The building is a symmetrical block 52 × 42 metres and 15 metres high, aligned to the cardinal points and ringed by an arcade of folded vaulted portals that stylise the traditional peshtaq. A double-height, 224 m² atrium for sculpture sits at the centre, with 1,836 m² of galleries around it on the upper floor; the total 2,500 m² of exhibition space makes it the largest in the country and the region.

On 26 July 2026 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the serial property 'Tashkent Modernist Architecture: Modernity and Tradition in Central Asia'.