Movies Reviews

The Desert of Forbidden Art – Movie Review

By Ron Wilkinson Mar 15, 2011, 13:21 GMT

Risking being denounced as an \'enemy of the people,\' Igor Savitsky rescues 40,000 forbidden fellow artists\' works and creates in a far desert of Soviet Uzbekistan a museum now worth millions. ...more

The fascinating story of one of the greatest collections of avant-garde art in the world and a plea for help in preserving it.

This documentary flows like a book you cannot put down. The story starts with the frustrated young painter Igor Savitsky. Born in 1915 in Kiev, Ukraine, Savitsky yearned to express himself through his art.

Unfortunately for him, Joseph Stalin stood in the way. In fact, the communist party stood in the way of all of the creative forces brewing in the Soviet bloc at that time. Fed up with the restrictions and rejections of the communist establishment, he became an archeologist.

His first expedition was to Karakalpakstan in 1950 as part of the Khorezm Archeological & Ethnographic Expedition. Soon after he made Nukus, Karakalpakstan’s capital, his home.

While collection ancient artifacts Savitsky became familiar with the machinations of the soviet regime and learned how to manipulate it. He built a small museum to display artifacts but soon ran into something much more interesting.

He discovered some of the most amazing paintings in the western world hidden away in houses throughout the country.

These works were completed by fantastic artists who were forbidden by the ruling communist party to paint anything other than propaganda. After the Russian revolution in 1917 these artists settled in Uzbekistan where they could paint without scrutiny.

There they combined European modernism with centuries old Eastern traditions to generate art such as the world had never seen. In fact, the world would never see the art, at all, until they were haltingly displayed in the 1970s. They painted in secret, perhaps sharing their works only with each other.

Perhaps storing them for the day when a change in the political tide would allow the painting to be display publicly.

The paintings were stored away in attics, basements and even walls. Many were used for wall insulation or roof patches. Many of the artists had died and left the paintings behind to bewildered relatives or casual friends who saw them as more of a danger than as priceless works of art.

To be caught with such abstract surrealist images was to risk a death sentence in the Gulag archipelago. Artist Yevgeny Lysenko’s blue bull painting “Fascism is Advancing” was used as proof at the insanity hearing that had him locked away in a mental hospital. Like other artists Kliment Red'ko, Lyubov Popova, Mukhina, Ivan Koudriachov and Robert Falk whose works were recognized and respected in Europe he could only paint in secret in his own country.

Starting slowly at first, Savitsky collected the paintings here and there, often obtaining them for little or nothing with the promise that some day they would be exhibited for the public to enjoy.

By the end of his life he had built a museum and exhibited many of the works although there was nowhere near enough room for the 40,000 or so avant-garde painting he had purchased, begged or borrowed. In his final years he became obsessed with accumulating vast numbers of painting, often paying for them with IOUs that became due ten years after the date of purchase.

Since the collapse of the Soviet bloc the Nukus Museum of Art (The State Art Museum of the Republic of Karakalpakstan) in Nukus, Uzbekistan, now displays a collection of over 80,000 items. This includes many ancient artifacts as well as the second largest collection of Russian avant-garde art in the world (only the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg has more).

However the Savitsky collection now faces a threat even more pernicious than fascist dogma, the threat of capitalist domination. In the new market-based economy everything is for sale and there are plenty of very rich people who want these priceless works of art.

Museum curator Marinika Babanazarova is afraid to sell any of the works even though selling just a few would allow the exhibition of many more and the improved preservation of the thousands of works that are stored. If even a few of the works are sold there will be a landslide of irresistible pressure to sell many more and they will no longer be available to the general public.

Babanazarova’s hope is that this film will bring in support for the museum and generate more business in the form of touring exhibitions. It is in international publicity and awareness of the treasures of the museum that the priceless works therein will be protected from the constant threats of political and cultural upheaval in the most unstable regions of the world.

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Documentary
Directed and Written by: Tchavdar Georgiev, Amanda Pope
Featuring the Voices of: Edward Asner, Sally Field and Ben Kingsley 
Release Date: March 11, 2011
MPAA: Not Rated
Runtime: 80 minutes
Country: Russia / USA / Uzbekistan
Language: English / Russian / Uzbek
Color: Color