Video: How the pioneer of the "harsh style" from Azerbaijan, which was not recognized by the authorities, changed Soviet art: Tahir Salakhov
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
On May 21, 2021, Tair Teymurovich Salakhov, People's Artist of the USSR, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Arts, teacher, founder of the "severe style", passed away. Salakhov is a man who for many years led his own revolution in Soviet art and introduced the Soviet audience to the achievements of modern European painting. He was called a great artist - both in his native Azerbaijan, and in Russia, and all over the world …
Tair Teymurovich Salakhov was born in Baku in November 1928, in the family of the first secretary of the Lachin district committee of the Communist Party. In 1937, Teymur Salakhov, the father of five children, was arrested and sentenced to capital punishment. Almost twenty years later, he was rehabilitated, but all these years the family was surrounded by contempt and distrust of others. From a young age, the future founder of "harsh realism" felt cut off, isolated from the whole world … When he was very young, his father came up with a competition for children: he invited them to draw a portrait, for example, Chapaev, and awarded the best "artist" with a silver coin. Even then, Tahir Salakhov realized that he would become a painter. But when, after graduating from the art school in Baku, he decided to enter the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after. IE Repin in Leningrad, he was not accepted - "because of his father." At the Moscow Institute named after V. I. Surikov, the situation is different. After carefully listening to the young man, the rector said that the origin does not matter, the main thing is talent. There, during his studies, he became friends with Ilya Kabakov and Erik Bulatov - in the future key figures of Soviet non-conformism. Many years later, it was Salakhov who would have to pronounce on them a verdict - to be expelled from the Union of Artists of the USSR for anti-Soviet activities. He won't do it. It will not do it in relation to many others.
Subsequently, even during the years of the thaw, many doors were closed in front of Salakhov - for example, he was not allowed abroad, he was banned from a creative trip to India … And then he returned from Moscow to Baku to paint there the endless blue sky, the endless blue sea … and the hard life of oil producers. Then there appeared "Morning Echelon", "Repairmen", "Above the Caspian Sea", "Women of Absheron" … His early works were mercilessly criticized: "Where is the joy of labor? Sheer decadence! " And he said: "I have never painted anything that I have not seen with my own eyes."
A great admirer of Cezanne, Salakhov brought contour, rich and complex color, clear rhythm, crystal clarity of composition, sometimes decorativeness and ornamentation to Soviet painting, and at the same time, his paintings told about everyday things, without embellishment. The metaphorical nature of the images, as if frozen in eternity, their spirituality and strength made an indelible impression on the audience, and yet anxiety and fatigue, the burden of everyday worries were read in the faces and poses of the characters …
These powerful and dramatic works were significantly different from the inspired painting of Socialist Realism. The artist adhered to the same manner in portrait painting, the same "appeal to eternity" - "Portrait of the composer Kara Karaev" became canonical for painting of the sixties.
City landscapes, painted by him, were full of color and light, distinguished by strict rhythmic construction and recognizable southern flavor.
Already in his youth, Tahir Salakhov was one of the founders of the artistic movement, which was later called the "harsh style" (Viktor Popkov and Geliy Korzhev are on a par with him). Less than ten years later, severe critics recognized him as a living classic.
In the sixties, Salakhov began teaching - first in Baku, and then at the Moscow Art Institute named after V. I. Surikov. He actively participated in exhibitions, his works were included in the largest art collections in Russia, Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics. Many honorary titles at the highest level, many prestigious awards, worldwide fame and recognition …
Tahir Salakhov, the son of the "enemy of the people", became a People's Artist of the USSR, a hero of Socialist Labor, for three decades he held leading positions in the Union of Artists of the USSR. He was always ready to defend his colleagues and support students, to use his authority only to promote talented youth who did not agree with the general line of the party.
The significance of Tair Salakhov for Soviet and post-Soviet art is not limited to his own achievements. When asked how and why he, a creative person, agreed to take on the burden of administrative duties, he said: "The artists chose me … it is better to lead by yourself than to endlessly submit to other people's decisions." Together with several friends, he created a youth association at the Union of Artists of the USSR with the issuance of a membership card, which in the seventies saved numerous unemployed graduates of art schools and institutes from being accused of parasitism. And thanks to Tair Salakhov, Soviet viewers saw the works of Francis Bacon, Jasper Johns and other Western postmodern artists - scandalous, shocking, so … new. According to contemporaries, the acquaintance of the Soviet viewer with the achievements of Western art became possible because Salakhov conducted negotiations, Salakhov organized exhibitions, Salakhov was promoted - he was one of those people on whom "everything rests."
Salakhov's own painting remained relevant for the 21st century. In the 2000s, he created a number of portraits of figures of Russian and foreign art - in their own way modernist, dramatic works.
Tahir Salakhov, in a certain sense, also became the founder of an artistic dynasty. His daughter is the world famous contemporary artist Aidan Salakhova, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts and the former owner of one of the first contemporary art galleries in Russia. Her works are devoted to the understanding of femininity in Islamic culture, tradition and modernity, corporeality and spirituality.
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