Nukus

31 August 2012

My visit to Nukus will definitely go down as one of the many highlights of this journey.

Yesterday I spent the day immersed in the art of the 20s and 30s. In the morning, a passionate and knowledgeable guide called Feruza showed me the main collection of art pieces in the gallery, opening my eyes to the talent and influences of Russian and Uzbek artists whose work was collected by Igor Savitsky. This morning she took me to a dusty old store house close by where 8000 pieces are closely cared for by curators, stored on shelves like books because there is no gallery space to exhibit them. I visited each room in turn and     the director gave me a private viewing of some of the master pieces hidden away there. It was a breath taking experience. Canvas after canvas were taken off the shelves and information about the artist and their talents explained. The most memorable for me was a huge oil painting of a reclining lady on a red background by Ivan Zakarov, a beautiful delicate painting of a woman in pink by Alica Poret and the quite remarkable rare collection of black crayon sketches of life inside a Siberian camp drawn by a woman who smuggled the pieces out to be hidden by friends. These sketches capture daily events like the arrival of a new inmate in the woman's camp; all drawn on cake wrapping paper which she managed to get from other inmates.

 This collection represent the determination, talent and sheer courage of these artists who were working at a time when they were not free to exhibit their expression of their views, opinions and creativity, due to the political regime of the time. Hopefully, the intention to build two new galleries will be realised soon bringing out into the open these hidden talents.