The exhibition project “Uzbekistan: Avant-Garde in the Desert” has been opened at the Igor Savitsky State Museum of Arts of Karakalpakstan.

The exhibition, organized with the support of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, presents 161 examples of fine art, including graphics, national decorative, and applied artworks created in the first half of the 20th century from the collections of the I. Savitsky Karakalpak State Museum of Art and the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan.

This is the first project that shows the connection between two of the most important museum collections of twentieth-century Uzbek art. Visitors can delve deeper into and appreciate the art of this era. In addition, Aleksandr Volkov, Nikolai Karakhan, Nadejda Kashina, Elena Korovai, Mikhail Kurzin, Viktor Ufimtsev, Ural Tansykbaev, Usto Mumin (Aleksandr Nikolaev)’s works were named “avant-garde orientalist” by the curators of the exhibition. The modernist painting technique in their works absorbed the traditions of folk applied art of Central Asia and the variety of colors of Uzbekistan.

Visitors have the opportunity to enjoy the works of avant-garde artists Kandinsky, Klune, Rodchenko, Popova, Rozanova, and Exter, who were among the first to understand immaterial life.

The project “Uzbekistan: Avant-Garde in the Desert” allows the international community to get acquainted with Igor Savitsky's personality and contribution to preserving a unique heritage and transmitting it to future generations. Savitsky managed to preserve one of the largest collections of avant-garde works while paying special attention to the work of Central Asian masters. Archival photos and multimedia installations by Savitsky will also be presented at the exhibition.

The exhibition will run until January 15, 2025.

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Dovud Abibullayev, photos by Maqsad Khabibullayev, UzA