The film tells the story of the artist, art historian, and collector Igor Savitsky, who made possible a thing unimaginable in the USSR of the 1960s: living in the small town of Nukus, Uzbekistan, he founded a museum of avant-garde art, completely taboo in the Soviet Union.
The documentary was completed in 2015, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding collector, whose passion extended beyond painting that defied the state’s socialist realist canon—Savitsky also collected objects created by the peoples of Uzbekistan and Karakalpakstan in particular.
Nukus Museum of Arts is now named after its founder who saved thousands of masterpieces, preserving an entire plethora of avant-garde artists for the history of art. Featured in the film, are the rescued works of Nikolay Karakhan, Mikhail Kurzin, Alexander Nikolaev (Usto Mumin), Ural Tansykbaev, Ruvim Mazel, Pavel Benkov, Viktor Ufimtsev, Nadezhda Borovaya, Vladimir Lysenko, and many other artists unappreciated by their contemporaries.
Remembering these artists, are their children and close friends, as well as the staff of the Nukus Museum of Arts and Irina Antonova, President of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.
Director Ali Khamraev will introduce the film and answer questions after the screening.
The screening coincides with the exhibition Treasures of Nukus that runs at the Pushkin Museum until May 10, 2017.
