Desert of Forbidden Art Blooms on Independent Lens April 5
Life is full of ironies, and—for some reason—when government becomes more involved, life becomes more ironic. Such is the case with art in the former USSR. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Russian Avant-Garde movement was replaced by the Soviet Socialist Realism movement (the officially sanctioned art of the Soviet Union). Depicting joyful workers and beaming citizens enjoying Soviet life, the irony of the Socialist Realism movement is that the paintings portrayed inviting fantasies.
On April 5, 2011, at 10:00 p.m. (check local listings), Independent Lens (PBS) will premier Desert of Forbidden Art, a stunning documentary by Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev chronicling “how one man, Igor Savitsky, saved a treasure trove of art worth millions of dollars by ‘hiding’ it in a museum in the desert of Uzbekistan [Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art].” Savitsky dedicated his life to collecting works of art—paintings and graphics—that the Soviet government wanted destroyed. Ironically, Savitsky was an artist who had destroyed his own works because they were negatively criticized by an artist he respected.
Art and artists are frequent subjects of documentaries, and many of them (the documentaries, not the artists or art) are tiresome. Filled with awe and respect for their subjects, they can bore the life out of their viewers—or at least the wakefulness. Everyone enjoys art of some sort, whether it’s the crayon drawings taped to refrigerator doors, Dutch Masters, Picasso, or The Far Side. Some documentaries, however, are so esoteric only the committed devotee or academician will be glued to the screen. Fortunately for the audience, Desert of Forbidden Art is an intriguing look at both a man who was consumed by his desire to preserve the forbidden and the art that he saved.
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