Ali Shamsi's studio in the Old City of Baku: the house of painted faces, who the painter is, what you see inside and how to visit

Going down Kichik Qala street, the one that runs along the inside of the walls of Baku's Old City, there is a house you cannot fail to see: the façade is covered in faces painted in bright colours, big eyes, women with their hair in the wind, and in the courtyard the tree trunks have carved faces looking out at the street. This is the studio of Ali Shamsi, the Baku painter who has spent decades turning his house into an unfinished work, and who is almost always inside, with the door open, painting or drinking tea with whoever comes in. There is no ticket office, no fixed hours, no signs; you have to push the door. This guide tells who he is, what he paints, what you see in the house and how to fit it into a morning in Icherisheher.

Who Ali Shamsi is

He was born in Baku in 1953, studied painting at the city's art school and since the 1980s has had his studio in this house in the Old City, which he has painted outside and in until the house itself became his best-known work; he is an artist honoured by the state, has exhibited in Europe and Asia and his pictures are in collections across half the world, but what has made him famous is the open door, so that anyone passing in the street can walk in and find him with a brush in his hand. He is a man with a white beard and a quiet voice who speaks Azerbaijani, Russian and some English, who explains if asked and paints if not, and who signs postcards and sometimes does a quick portrait for anyone who asks.

What he paints

His pictures are in strong colours, the blues of the Caspian, the reds and ochres of Absheron, with big-eyed women whose hair turns into waves or birds, faces emerging from trees, fish, moons, horses and the symbols of the land of fire; he mixes Azerbaijani folklore, the tales and the mugham, with a fantasy of his own that some call surrealism and he does not call anything. There are large oils, small panels, drawings, and the walls and ceilings of the house, which are the biggest picture of all. The trees are his idea: he carves faces into the living trunks in the courtyard and the street, which go on growing with the face on them.

What you see inside

You enter through the courtyard, with the carved trees, painted tables and chairs, cats and, in summer, the artist working outside; inside, two or three small rooms with pictures hung up to the ceiling, the easel, the paint pots, a corner with tea and someone from the family or a painter friend. You look freely, take photographs, chat and leave when you like; in half an hour you have seen it all, in an hour you have talked with him. There are pictures and small panels for sale, at prices running from the affordable signed postcard to a large oil, and there is no obligation to buy. Painters from the city also gather at the studio, and sometimes someone else's exhibition hangs in one of the rooms.

How to visit and what is nearby

It is on Kichik Qala street, in the upper part of the Old City, five minutes on foot from the Shirvanshahs' palace and ten from the Maiden Tower, and you find it by following the inside of the walls until you see the façade of faces; on phone maps it appears as Ali Shamsi's studio. There are no fixed hours: late morning and afternoon it is usually open, and if the door is shut you come back later. Entry is free and the usual thing is to leave something or buy a postcard. It is half an hour within a morning in Icherisheher, with the Tower, the palace and the caravanserais, and afterwards you go down to the seafront and the Carpet Museum; for anyone on a long trip through the Caucasus, it is the friendly face of a monumental art whose other extreme is in Tbilisi, in Tsereteli's Chronicle of Georgia, which is its opposite in size and spirit.

Frequently asked questions