When starting researching Nukus I came across an article about a hidden gem of a museum in the middle of “nowhere”. In this case nowhere is a city of more than 360,000; but, other than the Savitsky Museum the only other touristy thing people travel to Nukus for is a disaster tourism jumping off point to view the wasteland that used to be the Aral Sea.
Heather told us about an old documentary about the museum, and we watched that before our trip. The Desert of Forbidden Art is available on YouTube and is pretty great – not only as background and context for the art collection, also as a grounding in the history of Karakalpakstan, and Soviet Era impacts on the region and on artists during that time.
The Savitsky Nukus Museum of Art usually occupies two buildings, one for each collection. Currently one building is closed for renovations, so the condensed collections are each housed on one floor of the open building.
Of all the sites and museums we have visited this far in Uzbekistan this one has the best interpretation, and translations, by far.
While Savitsky isn’t considered a great artist, I think his artistry is in curation and exhibition. For example his words about how he prefers to display art:
Bull, oil on canvas, by Vasily Lisenko is memorable in the movie, and those stark black eyes are even more disconcerting in person.
I’m far from an art expert, but there was lots I found visually and emotionally interesting and pleasing. Here are a few that stood out to me/us.
I liked this phrase from one of the interpretative panels: Resounds with the fire of colors ~ Esenin (Russian Poet)
Both of us have been sick this entire trip, mostly congestion and cough, but some fever in there at times. This mellow, peaceful day was very welcome. Hopefully we kick the crud for the final week…
Quillpig 