TASH Talk Report by Robert Gurney: The Igor Savitsky Collection by Chris Aslan, January 2026

The January TASH Talk was on Igor Savitsky, who was an Ukrainian born painter, archeologist and collector.  His family moved to Moscow during the 1917 Revolution.  As a young adult, he trained as an electrician, which was seen as a proletarian occupation, his family being considered bourgeois in early Soviet times.  He was always interested in painting and drawing, and pursued this as a side occupation.  As an adult, he moved to Karakalpakstan, participating in the Khorezm Archeological & Ethnographic Expedition, collecting a wide variety of artefacts.  

Many artists had moved to the area, attracted by the light and colour, a contrast with Soviet drabness in Moscow, and also because Stalin only wanted paintings in Soviet realism.  These artists wanted to explore cubism and other styles, which were heavily frowned on.  Many of the artists were sentenced to hard labour in the Gulag, which was akin to a death sentence.  Savistsky moved to the new city of Nukus, still in Karakalpakstan, and was able to start a museum at Nukus as the national museum of Karakalpakstan, including much archaeology and also many paintings by banned artists, particularly avant-garde and post avant-garde styles. 

Our marvellous lecturer, Chis Aslan, told the story of Savitsky, showed pictures of his collection, including many very vibrant paintings, and told the story of ten of the artists, some of whom survived the purges and some of whom didn't.  The museum is still extant.  Savitsky died after cleaning copper artefacts using methods that turned out to be poisonous, and died in Moscow in a sanatorium in 1984.  

Chris also showed how the area was ravaged in Soviet times, such as by the death of the Aral Sea, and vividly brought to life both the spirit of the people under severe oppression and the vividness whereby that spirit was manifested through art and the life of the people.  A fascinating lecture.