The Tretyakov Gallery is currently presenting an exhibition of works by the great Azerbaijani artist Tahir Salahov titled "The Sun at its Zenith". It was prepared together with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation as another project linked to Azerbaijani art – the exhibition of the Absheron school. Today a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed the head of the department of painting of the second half of the 20th century at the Tretyakov Gallery, Natalia Alexandrova.
"Now we are preparing for the next exhibition. Its curator is my colleague Olga Polyanskaya. The exhibition will present the Absheron school of Azerbaijani art. The partner of the Tretyakov Gallery during the exhibitions of contemporary art are the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Museum of Azerbaijan Collections, the Museum of Eastern Moscow and a wide range of private owners of that period, Alexandrov said, adding that the cooperation with colleagues from Baku could be even more active.
Speaking of 'The Sun at its Zenith', she noted that the exhibition of Tahir Salahov is very popular among visitors to the Tretyakov Gallery in the second week. "We are very happy to present this exhibition to anyone who wants to look at it. Tahir Teymurovich Salahov is not just one of the most famous contemporary artists, but also one of our favorite authors at the Tretyakov Gallery, as he is not only a figure of the 1960s, but also a classic Soviet artist whose works largely determined the appearance of the second half of the 20th century,'' the head of the department of painting of the second half of the 20th century said.
Natalia Alexandrova drew attention to the union of many important areas in the works of Tahir Salahov for the gallery. "One of them is the tradition of the Moscow classical school of painting, the other the avant-garde traditions of art of the 1920s, in particular, the creativity of Deineka. The third point is the specifics of a particular Eastern decorativism in the approach to the world, a special openness to the world and the subject area, the style we associate with the art of the East in the best of its manifestations," she said.
"The exhibition is a retrospective of the artist's work. It includes his earliest works of the 1960s, which were brought from the Baku Museum. The best works were presented by collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery. The late period of Tahir Teymurovich's creativity are works from private collections, as well as from the private collection of the artist,'' Natalia Alexandrova said.
