"The Sun at its Zenith" by Tahir Salahov has opened in the Tretyakov Gallery

A pre-demonstration of a personal exhibition by the outstanding artist and classic painter Tahir Salahov took place today at the Tretyakov Gallery. He continues to create works to this day. Tahir Salahov has gone down in history as the master of the 'harsh style'. The exhibition will continue until March 20th.

According to a statement by the General Director of the Tretyakov Gallery, Zelfira Tregulova, this project is right, extremely important and necessary. "The exhibition is called 'The Sun at its Zenith', and I think this is a very proper name for this project. This exhibition is part of a large program that we are to prepare on the walls in the near future. This program is aimed at re-exposing facts that had been closed. I mean forgotten art of the 60's, 70's and 80's. From today's point of view it is important to understand that this was one of the most important epochs in the history of the domestic art of the 20th century, the leading artists from the 60's to the 80's, including Tahir Salahov, worked in the framework of what was then called socialist art. In fact, they extremely precisely, expressively, complexly and deeply reflected their time. The moment of re-evaluation made by Soviet documentary film makers is very important. We are all well aware of such films as 'I Am Twenty'. It is an absolute masterpiece of filmmaking, which is comparable to those that were made by the greatest artists who worked in the West, a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza cites her as saying.

The general director of the Tretyakov Gallery noted that the creativity of Tahir Salahov, as well as Victor Popov and Yuri Korshunova, is an extremely important layer of the national culture.

"We have a demonstration in order to present the artist, and the time incredibly expressed in his works. And this is a huge chronological range. It is 50 years of work since the end of the 50's up to the late 2000's. And there is the 'thaw' and the 'harsh style', as well as the complex thoughts of the 70's, the change of creative manner in the 80's and 90's. He is an artist who lived and expressed those periods very accurately," Tregulova told.

The artist expressed gratitude in his speech to all those who organized his exhibition. "It is a happy event for me, because the walls of the Tretyakov Museum, a temple of Russian art, are greeting Soviet art, and today my personal exhibition is to take place here today. I express the most cordial gratitude to the director of the Tretyakov Gallery and all its employees who dealt with my works. I was surprised when I came here today. It was not easy to create such an exhibition in three days. I was surprised at how the works were ordered at the exhibition, as well as how everything was coordinated. My exhibition has adorned the Tretyakov Gallery, and I'm happy and excited," he said.

"Classics of Russian art and classics of Soviet art are here. Solo exhibitions of great artists from abroad also took place there. Therefore, I am happy that today I'm here," Tahir Salahov said.

The artist expressed gratitude to his teachers who were his fathers in art, namely Polad Mirzazade, Boris Korzhevsky, Yevgeny Korzhin and Victor Yamaylov.

In an interview with the VK correspondent, Tahir Salahov said that beautiful pictures sometimes appear by accident, and it is impossible to explain how their ideas were born, giving the portrait of Aidan as an example." "I was engaged in other works. We lived in the House of Artists on the Prospect of Builders in Baku. Suddenly somebody knocked at my door. I saw Aidan, who was dressed in a white coat. She presented a toy horse. And she came in, saw the horse and sat down. And I painted a picture when she was sitting. I spent two or three days working on the picture. It is hard to explain. Sometimes, a moment may provide a reason to make a work eternal. It is said that Surikov saw a crow on snow and decided to paint the 'Boyar Morozova' picture," the artist shared his memories.