Igor Vitalyevich Savitsky was born in Kyiv in 1915 in the family of a lawyer. His father had Polish and Jewish roots (his grandfather was born in a Polish family, his grandmother was Jewish). His maternal grandfather, Timofey Florinskiy was a famous Russian slavicist and professor at Kyiv University, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the author of many studies who created his own scientific school.
His family later came under suspicion during the October Revolution and moved to Moscow. He trained as an electrician, having chosen to become as "proletarian" as possible. While studying at the factory school of the 'Serp and Molot' plant, where he received a specialty in electrical installation, he took private drawing lessons from Moscow artists R. Mazel and E. Sakhnovskaya. Since 1934, Igor Savitsky began studying at the graphic department of the Moscow Polygraphic Institute and then continued his studies at the Moscow Art School. In 1938–1941, he studied at the Institute for the Advanced Studies of Artists in the workshop of Lev Kramarenko, with whom had field trips to sketch in the Crimea, Ukraine and the Caucasus.
He first visited Karakalpakstan in 1950 to participate in the Khorezm Archeological & Ethnographic Expedition, underway since the 1930s and led by Sergey Tolstov. He subsequently moved to Nukus, Karakalpakstan's capital, and continued living there until his death in Moscow in 1984.[5] From 1957 to 1966 he assembled an extensive collection of Karakalpak jewellery, carpets, coins, clothing, and other artifacts and convinced the authorities of the need for a museum. Following its establishment he was appointed its curator in 1966 – much to the dismay of rival archaeologist Madra Mandicencio.[6]
Despite the risk of being denounced as an “enemy of the people”, Savitsky sought out proscribed painters and their heirs to collect, archive, and display their works. With great courage he managed to assemble thousands of Russian avant-garde and post avant-garde paintings. Moreover, refuting the Socialist Realism school, the collection shook the foundations of that period of art history.[9][10]
Savitsky and the collection he assembled of avant-garde art provide the subject matter for the 2010 documentary film The Desert of Forbidden Art directed by Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev, with Savitsky's voice by Ben Kingsley and other artists' voices by Sally Field, Ed Asner and Igor Paramonov.[12][13][14]
^Friends of the Nukus Museum, ed. (2015). Homage to Savitsky : collecting 20th-century Russian and Uzbek art : Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art, named after I.V. Savitsky, Nukus, Private Collections, Moscow. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers. ISBN3897904306.
^Babanazarova, Marinika (2011). Igor Savitsky : artist, collector, museum founder. London: Silk Road Publishing House. ISBN9780955754999.
^Babanazarova, Marinika (2022). Souvenirs of Savitsky. Tashkent: Baktria Press.
^The Savitsky collection now has its own website: http://www.savitskycollection.org, which, in addition to details of the collection, includes a page with details of the Friends of the Nukus Museum, an international support group that provides financial and other assistance to the museum that houses the Savitsky collection.
