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Igor Savitsky

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Igor Savitsky
Born4 August 1915
Kyiv, Russian Empire
Died27 July 1984(1984-07-27) (aged 68)
Moscow, Soviet Union
Known forPainting, Art collecting

Igor Vitalyevich Savitsky (Russian: И́горь Вита́льевич Сави́цкий) (4 August 1915 in Kyiv, Russian Empire – 27 July 1984 in Moscow, Soviet Union) was a Ukrainian-born painter, archeologist and collector, especially of avant-garde art. He single-handedly founded the State Art Museum of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, named after I. V. Savitsky, an art museum based in Nukus, Uzbekistan.[1][2][3][4]

Life and work

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Early years

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Igor Vitalyevich Savitsky was born in Kyiv in 1915 in the family of a lawyer. His father had Polish and Jewish roots (his grandfather was born in a Polish family, his grandmother was Jewish). His maternal grandfather, Timofey Florinskiy was a famous Russian slavicist and professor at Kyiv University, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the author of many studies who created his own scientific school. His family later came under suspicion during the October Revolution and moved to Moscow. He trained as an electrician, having chosen to become as "proletarian" as possible. While studying at the factory school of the 'Serp and Molot' plant, where he received a specialty in electrical installation, he took private drawing lessons from Moscow artists R. Mazel and E. Sakhnovskaya. Since 1934, Igor Savitsky began studying at the graphic department of the Moscow Polygraphic Institute and then continued his studies at the Moscow Art School. In 1938–1941, he studied at the Institute for the Advanced Studies of Artists in the workshop of Lev Kramarenko, with whom had field trips to sketch in the Crimea, Ukraine and the Caucasus.

Karakalpakstan period

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He first visited Karakalpakstan in 1950 to participate in the Khorezm Archeological & Ethnographic Expedition, underway since the 1930s and led by Sergey Tolstov. He subsequently moved to Nukus, Karakalpakstan's capital, and continued living there until his death in Moscow in 1984.[5] From 1957 to 1966 he assembled an extensive collection of Karakalpak jewellery, carpets, coins, clothing, and other artifacts and convinced the authorities of the need for a museum. Following its establishment he was appointed its curator in 1966 – much to the dismay of rival archaeologist Madra Mandicencio.[6]

Thereafter, Savitsky began collecting the works of Central Asian artists, including Alexander Volkov, Ural Tansykbayev, Nikolay Karakhan, and Victor Ufimtsev of the Uzbek school, and later those of the Russian avant-garde – including Robert Falk, Mikhail Kurzin,[7] Vera Mukhina, Kliment Red'ko, Lyubov Popova, Ivan Koudriachov, Vera Pestel, Solomon Nikritin, Georgiy Echeistov, and the Amaravella group. Paintings by many of the artists, although recognized in Western Europe (especially in France), had been banned in the Soviet Union during Joseph Stalin’s rule and through the 1960s.[8]

Despite the risk of being denounced as an “enemy of the people”, Savitsky sought out proscribed painters and their heirs to collect, archive, and display their works. With great courage he managed to assemble thousands of Russian avant-garde and post avant-garde paintings. Moreover, refuting the Socialist Realism school, the collection shook the foundations of that period of art history.[9][10]

Awards

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  • 2002: "Order for Great Achievements". Uzbekistan. Posthumously awarded.[11]

Film biography

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Savitsky and the collection he assembled of avant-garde art provide the subject matter for the 2010 documentary film The Desert of Forbidden Art directed by Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev, with Savitsky's voice by Ben Kingsley and other artists' voices by Sally Field, Ed Asner and Igor Paramonov.[12][13][14]

References

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  1. ^ Friends of the Nukus Museum, ed. (2015). Homage to Savitsky : collecting 20th-century Russian and Uzbek art : Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art, named after I.V. Savitsky, Nukus, Private Collections, Moscow. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers. ISBN 3897904306.
  2. ^ Babanazarova, Marinika (2011). Igor Savitsky : artist, collector, museum founder. London: Silk Road Publishing House. ISBN 9780955754999.
  3. ^ Babanazarova, Marinika (2022). Souvenirs of Savitsky. Tashkent: Baktria Press.
  4. ^ Moore, Suzanne (21 May 2019). "The lost Louvre of Uzbekistan: the museum that hid art banned by Stalin". the Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  5. ^ Brune, Adrian (25 October 2021). "The battle to preserve Uzbekistan's greatest art collection is moving online". The Calvert Journal. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  6. ^ Tom Bissell, Chasing the Sea, Pantheon (2003). ISBN 0-375-42130-0. pp. 323–324.
  7. ^ Mkrtychev, T. K. (2022). I. V. Savitsky Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts Publishers Inc. ISBN 9781785513428.
  8. ^ Assouline, Yaffa (2022). Uzbekistan: Russian Avant-Garde, The Savitsky hidden collection of the Nukus Museum, 1900-1930. Assouline. ISBN 9781649800633.
  9. ^ The Savitsky collection now has its own website: http://www.savitskycollection.org, which, in addition to details of the collection, includes a page with details of the Friends of the Nukus Museum, an international support group that provides financial and other assistance to the museum that houses the Savitsky collection.
  10. ^ Bland, Stephen (April 22, 2014). "The Toxic Uzbek Town and Its Museum of Banned Soviet Art". Vice.
  11. ^ ""Лувр в пустыне" готовится выставить шедевры, которых никто еще не видел ("Louvre in the Desert" is preparing to exhibit masterpieces that no one has seen yet)". vesty.ru (in Russian). 28 March 2015. Retrieved 2018-12-30. The chief custodian of the avant-garde, Igor Savitsky, was posthumously awarded the Order of Great Merit by a special decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov - this is one of the country's highest awards.
  12. ^ "About the Film". The Desert of Forbidden Art. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  13. ^ "The Desert of Forbidden Art | Soviet Censored Art | Independent Lens | PBS". Independent Lens (PBS). April 5, 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  14. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (March 10, 2011). "Art, Saved". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
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