TAIR SALAKHOV | BILGAH, FROM THE SERIES AROUND ABSHERON

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Having graduated from the Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow in 1957, Salakhov began his career in the liberalised climate of Khrushchev's Thaw which marked the loosening of ideological and stylistic controls over art and its institutions. Representing the USSR at the Venice Biennale in 1962, he emerged as a pioneer of the Severe Style which stripped Soviet art of its gloss and the artificial optimism associated with the expression of a Stalinist Utopia. Alongside other practitioners of the Severe Style, Salakhov painted scenes of unvarnished Soviet reality reflecting the truthful everyday experiences of his countrymen through the simplicity of forms and colours. Having broken with the Socialist Realism of the 1940s and 50s, where the Party values defined aesthetic ones, he created politically disengaged works which, nevertheless, were representative of the spiritual and creative identity of an entire artistic generation – the so-called shestidesyatniki.

Born in Baku in 1928, Salakhov often drew inspiration from the views of his native Azerbaijan, its countryside, architecture and people. The present lot belongs to the series Around Absheron and was executed in 1969 during Salakhov’s tenure as professor at the Azerbaijan Institute of Art. In Bilgah, the hallmarks of the Severe Style – at that point still a young and controversial movement – manifest themselves through a palette of earthy greys and browns, sharp outlines and straightforward geometric shapes. Behind this visual austerity, however, lie profound emotional and reflective qualities, so at odds with the superficial appeal of Stalinist art. The landscape is informed by both the artist’s childhood memories and his continuing affection for his homeland and therefore conveys a sense of timelessness and detachment from changing socio-political realities.