Category Archives: Organizations

What You Need to Know about the Savitsky Collection

What You Need to Know about the Savitsky Collection

Uzbekistan’s northwestern region is home to one of the country’s most extraordinary museums. The Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art—also called the Nukus Museum, after its home city, or the Savitsky Collection, after its founder—features one of the world’s largest collections of avant-garde Russian art, as well as a wide range of both contemporary and folk art from Uzbekistan. Indeed, the collection is so impressively broad that the French magazine Telerama has dubbed the museum “the Louvre of the Steppes.” Read on to learn some incredible facts about this fascinating institution.

 

Nukus Museum of Art and State Museum
Image by Hans Birger Nilsen | Flickr

 

It was founded by a Russian artist.

It is impossible to separate the story of the Karakalpakstan State Museum from that of its founder, Igor Savitsky. Born into a wealthy Russian family in Kiev in 1915, Savitsky was educated in Moscow at the Surikov Art Institute. Like many Russians of his generation, he was fascinated by the culture and landscape of Central Asia, which he first encountered during World War II when students of the Surikov Institute were evacuated to the Uzbek city of Samarkand. But it was not until 1950 when, at the age of 35, his lifelong relationship with Uzbekistan truly began. In that year, Savitsky journeyed to the country’s northwestern Karakalpakstan region as part of an archaeological and ethnographic expedition. Fascinated by the region’s culture and people, he decided to settle in the area after the expedition was completed. Over the next few years, the beginnings of what would eventually become the Savitsky collection took shape, as he methodically gathered Karakalpak carpets, traditional costumes, jewelry, and other pieces of folk art, as well as work by contemporary Uzbek artists and Russian artists who had, like him, settled in Central Asia.

In the 1910s and 1920s, the Russian art scene emerged, as trail-blazing, avant-garde artists worked to uproot conventional traditions and develop bold new forms, like abstractionism, that helped to define the artistic canon of the 20th century. But things changed for artists when Stalin came to power: socialist realism in art became the order of the day. Igor Savitsky became increasingly concerned that an entire generation of Russian artists and their work would simply disappear due to cultural policies. And so, while at the same time that he was amassing a collection of Karakalpak folk art, Savitsky embarked on a mission to rescue as many works by these artists as he could. During the 1950s and 1960s, he made repeated trips to Moscow and Leningrad, meeting with the artists’ heirs and acquiring a remarkable assortment of work, which he was then able to house in the city of Nukus. In 1966, after having inspired the confidence of local officials, Savitsky was finally able to establish the Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art as a formal home for these works and other items from his collection.

The collections cover five main sections.

Today, visitors to the Karakalpakstan State Museum can view work from five thematic categories:

Uzbek art of the 1920s and 1930s—Uzbek art and culture of this period was strongly shaped by the influences of architectural, applied, and decorative arts, as well as by the Islamic tradition forbidding representational art.

20th century Russian avant-garde—Savitsky played a vitally important role in rescuing thousands of works by Russian avant-garde artists. One art critic even said that the Savitsky collection helps to “tell the story of the twilight zone of the Russian avant-garde.”

Karakalpak folk art—This extraordinary collection, which was one of the original reasons why the museum was founded, includes some 70,000 items including rugs, embroidery, printed leather, carved and inlaid wood, and jewelry.

Karakalpakstan contemporary art—Savitsky himself helped to train a generation—some say the first generation—of contemporary artists from Karakalpakstan, many of whom incorporated traditional methods into their decidedly modern vision.

Archaeology and ancient Khorezm—The ancient kingdom of Khorezm occupied a vast territory, including present-day Karakalpakstan and northern Uzbekistan. The museum is home to many exceptional Khorezm artifacts, including coins, statues, and ceramic pipes from an ancient sewage system.

6 Things You Might Not Know about UNESCO

6 Things You Might Not Know about UNESCO

For more than 70 years, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has sought to build global peace and intercultural dialogue by advancing the humanist missions of education, science, and culture. And while you’ve probably heard of UNESCO in connection with the list of World Heritage Sites, there is a great deal more… Continue Reading

These Breathtaking Tentative World Heritage Sites in Uzbekistan Will Blow Your Mind

These Breathtaking Tentative World Heritage Sites in Uzbekistan Will Blow Your Mind

Prior to being declared an official UNESCO World Heritage Site, a cultural landmark or natural wonder must first be placed on what is known as the “tentative list.” This list serves as a sort of nomination process that allows countries to provide UNESCO with information on sites and properties that they feel are deserving of… Continue Reading

9 Interesting Things You Don’t Know about Gymnastics Judging

9 Interesting Things You Don’t Know about Gymnastics Judging

You don’t have to be an expert to watch, enjoy, and be amazed by a world-class gymnastics performance, like Uzbek gymnast Oksana Chusovitina’s silver medal-winning vault routine at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. But you do have to be something of an expert to understand the process of judging and scoring these routines,… Continue Reading

What You Need to Know about The Harmonist’s Line of Fine Fragrances

What You Need to Know about The Harmonist’s Line of Fine Fragrances

Fragrances are an integral part of many men’s and women’s lives, but a quality fragrance does more than smell good -perfumes and colognes have been shown to boost people’s mood and confidence and are often associated with pleasant memories. Some fine fragrances even interact with body chemistry, releasing pheromones that reportedly attract the opposite sex. Regardless of the reason you wear perfume,… Continue Reading

This Is the Link Between World Heritage and Uzbekistan

This Is the Link Between World Heritage and Uzbekistan

UNESCO is the acronym for United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization and the organization periodically composes a World Heritage List of historical sites throughout the world. For a site to be designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there are ten selection criteria and least one must be met. These criteria are explained in… Continue Reading

What You Need to Know about Intangible Cultural Heritage

What You Need to Know about Intangible Cultural Heritage

Although the idea of cultural heritage is most often illustrated by examples of monuments, archaeological sites, and art, it’s important to realize that there’s much more to cultural heritage than concrete objects we can see and touch. Cultural heritage also includes traditions, knowledge, and living expressions that are passed on from generation to generation. These… Continue Reading

9 Facts About Olympic Trampoline That Will Amaze You

9 Facts About Olympic Trampoline That Will Amaze You

For nearly 10 years, the National School of Advanced Gymnastics in Uzbekistan has worked to develop the country’s most promising young gymnasts into Olympic-caliber athletes. Student gymnasts are selected through regional competitions. While attending the school, they receive support from a broad range of sports-related professionals, including psychologists, nutritionists, and physiotherapists. They also obtain intensive… Continue Reading

3 of the Best Charitable Organizations – What You Need to Know

3 of the Best Charitable Organizations – What You Need to Know

A native of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva serves as the country’s envoy to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and works to promote the historical and cultural heritage of the Central Asian nation. In addition to her role with UNESCO, Karimova-Tillyaeva is a proponent of the importance of sports and education in… Continue Reading

Copyright © 2018 LolaKarimovatillyaeva.com
Please visit official site http://www.lolakarimova.com