Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Assouline publishes the newest volume, which provides a compelling look into of one of the world’s most eclectic art collections that may have once been lost forever, with the title: Uzbekistan: Avant-Garde Orientalists (August 2021).

Located in the middle of a vast desert on the northwest end of Uzbekistan, and once called “the Louvre of the Steppes,” the Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art named after I.V. Savitsky in Nukus, holds one of the world’s largest and most important collections of Russian avant-garde art, second only to the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Igor Vitalyevich Savitsky dedicated his life to saving these artworks, which would have been otherwise destined to disappear forever. His efforts allowed these artists, obscured by Stalin’s regime, to be rediscovered. 

This volume shows a particularly unique part of the museum’s collection, known as Avant-Garde Orientalist art: works made between 1910 – 1930 from artists who have traveled or moved to Uzbekistan, discovering the region’s culture, vibrant colors, unique light, landscapes and architecture. Rather than simply being seen as instruments of state propaganda, they maintained their integrity as real artists through their captivating work.

This book not only presents a unique selection of 20th-century paintings from the collection of the Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art, in Nukus, Uzbekistan. It also embodies a vision — a vision of this land, in all its picturesqueness and irresistible char, Zelfira Tregulova, Director General of the State Tretyakov Gallery.

For over 40 years, Yaffa Assouline has captured the luxury and publishing industry as a journalist, consultant and creative art director. She specializes in innovative and made-to measure publishing. She is the author of the book Uzbekistan: Road to Samarkand (Assouline, 2020), a photographic journey through the cultural and natural riches of Uzbekistan.