Rustam's brother Marat Nurmukhamedovich Khalfin was a Soviet and Russian scientist (years of life: 1940 – 2020).

He was a student of Vladimir Sterligov, a prominent representative of the Russian avant-garde, and throughout the 1970s and 1990s he was a member of his circle of successors[2] who developed the “chalice-dome consciousness” theory.

[3] In 2005, Khalfin's works were exhibited in the Central Asia Pavilion at the prestigious Venice Biennale, it was the moment when Kazakhstani contemporary art was presented to the world for the first time.

[4] Rustam's wife and muse was the artist Lidia Blinova, together they regularly held "apartment" shows.

Today we know about three thousand artifacts that are part of Rustam Khalfin's heritage: paintings, installations, drawings, photographs, texts and much more.

For Khalfin, this project was a metaphor for "the disconnectedness of people in today's world, and in particular the [Almaty] artistic community”.

According to Khalfin's idea, the installation was supposed to “call for consolidation, understanding the situation in contemporary art and developing a strategy that could introduce Kazakhstan to the international cultural community”.

This word refers to a simple plastic object formed between fingers clenched into a fist - it does not matter if it is air or a piece of clay.

Alexander Brener, artist and writer, wrote about Khalfin in his book “The Lives of The Murdered Artists”: “Rustam entered the painting art not as a handicraft and self-taught, but as a student of a powerful modernist tradition - Cezanne and Seurat, Braque and Picasso, Malevich and Sterligov, Robert Delaunay and Serge Poliakoff, Nicolas de Staël and Giorgio Morandi.

Rustam called this line “plastic form making” and considered it the most important phenomenon in the new fine arts.

By plasticity, he understood the combination of the primary, simplest tactile experience with intelligent vision, with an educated eye”[6] His works have been featured in prestigious exhibitions such as the Central Asia Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005), Off the Silk Road: No Mad's Land, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2002) and re-orientation: Kunst zu Mittelasien, ACC Gallery, Weimar (2002).

1997 – “Paintings by Rustam Khalfin and sculpture by Georgi Tryakin-Buharov”, “Asia Art” Gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

“Skin of an artist”, “A Parade of Galleries”, Kasteev State Museum of Arts, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Videoart Festival of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art “Inventory”, German Theater, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Love Races, White Space Gallery in St Peter’s, London Intim – In Time, Soros Center for Contemporary Art, Almaty.

1997 – “Skin of an artist”, “A Parade of Galleries”, Kasteev State Museum of Arts, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

2000 – Member of the curator group for the Second Annual Exhibition of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art “Communications: Experience of Interaction”, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Awards: 1974 – Diploma for participation in designing of Buildings on the republic’s Square in Almaty from All-USSR Meeting of Young Architects, Moscow, Russia.

1999 – Third Prize (together with G. Tryakin-Buharov and L. Turganbaeva) from the First Annual Exhibition of SCCA “Self-identification: Futurological prognosis”, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

In the interview, Valery Kostrin and Roza Abenova discuss Rustam Khalfin's impact on contemporary art in Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

Kostrin describes how Khalfin, with his deep knowledge of architecture and painting, introduced his additional element in art, reaching a level of almost abstract cosmic expression.

Khalfin, being an architect, excelled in drawing and spoke about continuing the avant-garde through the Sterligov School, which inspired and expanded the horizons of his creativity.

This archive is of great interest to professionals in the field of contemporary art, young artists, students of specialized universities, and the general public.

It was created as a result of a two-year effort by the Rustam Khalfin Heritage Foundation to collect, systematize, and digitize data.

The opening of the archive is accompanied by plans to further popularize and promote Rustam Khalfin's work on the international art scene.