ANALYSIS FROM AFAR
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Publication: Journal Santa Fe Section; Date: Dec 10, 2010; Section: Venue; Page: S8
ANALYSIS FROM AFAR Glimpses of art in documentary stoke curiosity in viewers Art Issues MALIN WILSON-POWELL For the Journal
Sometimes you have to break your own rules. For more than 35 years I have never written about artworks that I haven’t seen in person. But, sightings of major paintings in the documentary film “The Desert of Forbidden Art” beggar the compromise. Multiple viewings of this movie (that opened Sept. 24 at The Screen) have offered tantalizing glimpses of compelling and virtually unknown avant-garde paintings. Who is that gentle man holding a yellow flower, inexplicably wearing a brimmed hat and bow tie? Is his hand held in a mudra, a code that I might read? Fortunately, “Man with a Water Lily,” 1931, is reproduced on the museum’s Web site and there is now a DVD available, so avid viewers can satisfy their curiosity and study these visual mysteries. As it turns out, this beaming bright yellow portrait is by a little-known Russian painter named Vladimir Milashevskiy (1883-1976) who trained with the futurists in 1906-1907, and then studied architecture in St. Petersburg. It brings to mind Marsden Hartley’s tender portraits of Maine fisherman. Hartley is prominently featured in the controversial “Hide/Seek” exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, another exhibition currently creating a tempest in the news by those who have not seen the art first-hand. In the case of “Hide/Seek,” the exhibition of gay and lesbian art is being vilified by extremists who are clamoring to close it down. Looking through the “Hide/ Seek” catalog, the awkward and delicate hand gesture in Milashevskiy’s portrait resembles coded, self-conscious hand positions as seen in numerous portraits including Marcel Duchamp’s gender-bending alter ego image as “Rrose Sélavy” (1923). Packed into the 80-minute “The Desert of Forbidden Art” documentary are many gutwrenching stories of artists betrayed, destroyed, driven mad, denounced as gay and sent to concentration camps. Using rare footage, period photographs, and interviews with people intimately involved, the movie does an excellent job of illuminating how this treasure trove of 44,000 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures — the second largest collection of Russian avantgarde art, after the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg — was the obsession of one man — Igor Savitsky (1915-1984). Savitsky was an irrepressible bloodhound with the charm of a con man who talked his way into homes of artists’ widows and children. One of his great coups is a cache of early paintings by Uzbek native Ural Tanskybayev (1904-1974), an artist touted by the Soviet state for his sappy Social Realist peons of ebullient blond Russian peasants. In contrast, Tanskybayev’s never exhibited paintings from the 1930s that were hidden in his attic, celebrate indigenous village life. Inspired by the work of Gauguin, Van Gogh and Seurat, “Crimson Autumn,” 1931, is a masterpiece rooted in Central Asian folk culture. Even more intriguing was a quickly passing image of the artist’s watercolors that resembled the wistful, mystical and spacious monochromes of Joseph Beuys. The inability to find any more of these on the Web fuels fantasies of a trip to the museum in Nukus, a quintessentially remote city surrounded by a formidable desert, the capital of the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan in northwest Uzbekistan. At minimum, it is 30 hours of travel on four planes. The last leg of the trip is a short hop from Tashkent, where Mikhail Kurzin (1888-1951) worked at the Theatre of Opera and Ballet. His biting painting titled “Capital” poses a fat bourgeois couple in front of a sea of teeny anonymous workers, the source of their wealth. According to the movie, only recently did the museum’s director receive a copy of the full composition from the KGB archives. It shows the cut-off lower half where the couple fondles money and weapons in a composition similar to satires by German “entarte kunst” artist George Grosz. Kurzin suffered horribly, dying sick and impoverished, after multiple imprisonments and exiles, charged with anti-Soviet propaganda and for voicing terrorist intentions. A 1914 “Houses” drawing by Liubov Popova (1889-1924), confirms her status as among the best of Russia’s revolutionary artists. This is from her Cubo-Futurist phase, a brief two-year experiment in fusing influences from France and Italy that she termed “painterly architectonics.” In 1916 she joined the Suprematists and painted completely abstract compositions, eventually abandoning easel work for the making of a new society through Constructivist design and theater. While the majority of the collection needs conservation, one of the permanently exhibited stars gracing its walls is an impressive 1918 canvas titled “Apocalypse” by Alex Rybnikov (1887-1949). A devout Christian, until his death he painted biblical themes unacceptable to the regime under the cover of his job as the head of the Restoration Department at the State Tretyakov Gallery from 1919-1949, under the noses of state censors. On one of the rare occasions when the censors made it to Nukus, the film recalls an incident when a committee asked that their prized blue “Bull” painting be removed. This major work by Vladimir Lysenko (1903-1950s) was also called “Fascism is Advancing,” and he was an artist who was first arrested in 1935, and later “rehabilitated” in 1953. Savitsky smiled, took the painting down and, the next
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ANALYSIS FROM AFAR
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day, as the officials departed on the 1,700-mile trip back to Moscow, he simply hung it back up. Although named “one of the most outstanding museums of the world” by the UK’s Guardian newspaper, and called “Le Louvre des steppes” by the French magazine Telerama, at this stage, the true significance of the remarkable Savitsky Collection remains an open question. Undoubtedly there are wonderful works as seen in the documentary, but it will take years to glean its importance, i.e., if it can survive in this volatile and poor region. It raises infinitely complex questions of artistic legacy everywhere there is underrecognized and overlooked art, including New Mexico. For now, it has fierce guardians and this film has brought worldwide attention to its potential as well as looming threats. The museum is in close proximity to Islamic fundamentalists who dynamited the Bamiyan Buddhas, and then there are many vultures circling as the monetary value increases. Keep tuned with your fingers crossed. If you go WHAT: The Savitsky Collection at the Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art, Nukus, Uzbekistan, as seen in the movie, “The Desert of Forbidden Art” WHERE: The Screen, Santa Fe University of Art and Design, 1600 St. Michael’s Drive. Also available on DVD. WHEN: Check current schedule for movie times: manager@thescreensf. com CONTACT: 505-473-649 or http:// savitskycollection.org/pages/ Karakalpak_Gallery.html
“Man with a Water Lily” is a 1931 oil on canvas by Russian painter Vladimir Milashevskiy (1883-1976).
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“Houses” is a 1914 watercolor, pencil and ink on paper by Liubov Popova (1889-1924).
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COURTESY SAVITSKY COLLECTION “Bull,” an oil on canvas by Vladimir Lysenko (1903-1950s), is also called “Fascisim is Advancing.”
“Crimson Autumn” is a 1931 oil on canvas by Uzbek painter Ural Tanskybayev (1904-1974).
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