Riches
in the Wilderness: Unknown Works from Nukus, a broad
range of paintings, especially of the avant-garde, drawn from the Nukus
Museum in Uzbekistan which is the repository for a wealth of artistic
masterpieces.
ATTENTION: A
short video is available for view on the story of the Nukus Collection!!!!
Please call
FIAE at (301) 656-6102, if interested.
Riches in the Wilderness:
Treasures from the Savitsky Collection
Nukus in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan
Riches in the Wilderness offers the work of world-class
artists – both Russian and Uzbek – who portrayed the mosaic
of life in Central Asia while defying official decrees stating that
certain forms of art would have to be destroyed. These carefully selected
paintings demonstrate not only rival cultural traditions that come together
to create universal art, but also the spirit of true heroes committed
to preserving art forms in opposition to State directives.
Drawn by the archaeological excavations in the area,
Igor Savitsky came to Karakalpakstan by way of Moscow in 1950 and combined
his own artistic talents with his drive for preserving both nature and
threatened works of art. His passion for preserving the past of this
frontier realm within the vast Soviet Union is reflected in his work
as an archaeologist as well as his own skillful painting of the dazzling,
harsh natural landscape and the ruins rising from it. In turn, his preservationist
passion caused him to champion and amass thousands of works of art,
from before and after 1934 when Stalin decreed that Socialist Realism
would be the only acceptable form of art in the Soviet Union.
Riches in the Wilderness brings paintings from the
vast Savitsky Collection to American audiences from a remote area of
the world that has suddenly been thrust into the nightly news. This
is the first time these works will be shown in the Western Hemisphere.
A small museum in Nukus, a town in Karakalpakstan which is the northernmost
province of Uzbekistan, near the rapidly shrinking Aral Sea, has housed
the collection of 30,000 works which extends from before World War I
to the beginning of the 1960s. Today, the very survival of this glorious
museum is threatened. The Foundation for International Arts and Education,
with the support of the government of Uzbekistan, is committed to bringing
its treasures to American museums whose support will help preserve these
unique works, rebuild the physical structure, and provide training to
the small Uzbek staff who can maintain these treasures for generations
to come.
Lyssenko - The
Bull
The exhibition opens with watercolors by Igor Savitsky
and reflections of his own archaeological work. A history of the region
and the town of Nukus, including descriptions of the poisoning of the
Aral Sea and the surrounding countryside, will be part of this introductory
section.
Among the artists whose work Savitsky saved were many
whose paintings mirrored Savitsky’s own interest in the landscape.
Both the mountains and the ruins of earlier eras and the once-fertile
lands around the Aral Sea, together with representations of the sea
itself as a rich resource for work and play, are reflected in works
in the exhibit’s second section. They will be juxtaposed with
early and contemporary photographs of the now depleted Aral Sea, enriching
the viewer’s contextual understanding and adding another layer
of commentary on this exotic world as a convergence between the best
and worst that human beings can accomplish.
The third section will focus upon the cultural influences
affecting the Uzbek world – the long presence of Islam and the
role of the Mongols. These paintings range from a focus on colorful
Islamic architecture to the exotic textiles and jewelry that decorate
the individuals portrayed. A small selection of ethnographic materials
will underscore the visual contexts within which the artists worked
.
Savitsky - The Cupolas of Khiva
Throughout the exhibit, one can readily identify cross-cultural
influences affecting the artists. Many of the painters drawn to Uzbekistan
were born and raised in Moscow or St. Petersburg (Leningrad) and brought
with them their own visual sensibilities developed in the world of Russian
icons with their distinctive colors and flat, wide-eyed frontal forms.
But within this new world with its layered Islamic contexts, were also
exotic Jewish communities, especially in Bukhara, noted for their role
in dying the richly colored fabrics known as ikat. The Savitsky collection
shows blended visual influences from all three major faiths in the region
– Islam, Judaism, and Russian Orthodoxy.
Ultimately, what makes this collection so extraordinary
is a synthesis of diverse influences within both a straightforward representational
and avant-garde style. When Stalin’s decree pushed the varied
abstract experiments out of the centers of Russo-Soviet culture, many
practitioners of the Russian avant garde took refuge in this distant
Islamic republic. Not only were these “Russian” artists
influenced by what they found in Uzbekistan, they in turn influenced
local artists. In addition, they inspired local artists to spend lengthy
periods in Paris or Rome, thus adding a strong international influence
to their art. The collection thus preserves Russian as well as Uzbek
and Karakalpak art that the Soviet world was attempting to destroy.
Tarasov - Pushkin
The Savitsky collection in Nukus presents a miracle
of dynamic visual cross-fertilization. The rich array of syntheses offers
broad repercussions that extend to the current context of ethnic, religious,
and political sensibilities that define the Uzbek/Karakalpak matrix
in art and culture today.
To see more examples
of art work, please visit
The
State Museum of Art of the Republic of Karakalpakstan named after I.V.Savitsky.
