INTERNATIONAL ART

Azerbaijani artist Kamil Najafzade’s life tracks his native country’s years of turmoil, and his art reflected that. He was born in 1929 and first began working as a director of photography, making his mark on about 40 feature films, but eventually became a painter. As Azerbaijan regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Najafzade’s brush strokes depicted the country’s evolution. One of the first Azerbaijani artists to have his work displayed in the U.S., Najafzade died in 2011.