The Labour, Leisure and Dreams: 1960s-1980s Through the Eyes of Azerbaijani Masters exhibition brings together works by leading Azerbaijani painters, who together defined a key period in Azeri Soviet art. After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, there was a new wave of freedom of expression across the Soviet Union and the artists were among the first to benefit. While some, such as Tahir Salahov, pushed the technique of Realism to add more expressive lines and emotive renderings, forming the famous Severe Style, others abandoned it altogether. Led by Javad Mirjavadov they adopted a bold palette and a heavily layered technique both in form and content. Often adding basic, earthly materials to their works these artists, who together founded the Absheron School of Colourists, used a language often borrowed from Oriental symbolism and Eastern philosophy to express their discontent with the status quo. Still others, such as Boyukagha Mirzazade and Maral Rahmanzade, perfected their technique of realistic depictions of the changing lifestyle around them portraying a new era of openness and progress.
Labour, Leisure and Dreams suggests an existence structured by the Soviet realities, yet deconstructed, repurposed and re-imagined through art. The exhibition starts from portraits of laborers of various vocations at work and during repose. It then follows from depictions of industrial development and the busy city life into the private realm of the family. Juxtaposing the intimacy of home on one side and the openness afforded by the beautiful Azerbaijani nature on the other, the show suddenly changes direction. As both familiar beauty and still life objects take on an uncanny spirit, so do the natural landscapes give way to daydreams and mirage. Upstairs symbolism and folk-tale personages evoke the realm of dreams and allow covert criticism to enter the canvas.
Through their widely varying styles and techniques, the artists presented in the show heralded a new avant-garde and their works define the Golden Period in Azerbaijani painting of the 20th century. This exhibition is an invitation to momentarily enter the world that they inhabited and to envision the ideas and fantasies that moved them.
Curated by Suad Garayeva-Maleki
Research by Farah Alakbarli