The Soviet art museum you cannot see

In the dusty remote reaches of Uzbekistan, in a city so desolate that it served as the site of a Soviet chemical weapons factory, sits what may be one of the most important collections of 20th Century Soviet art in the world.

This collection, virtually unknown during the Soviet era, has been revitalized by the attention of a group of art-loving expatriates whose efforts helped spur the completion in late 2002 of a long-stalled museum building, realizing the dream of its founder and the small cadre of dedicated women who for years kept the museum going under almost impossibly difficult conditions. The collection contains a significant number of works by officially disgraced artists that were never publicly exhibited during the artists' lifetimes.

However, although the security guards, curators and gift shop attendants all appear for work each day in the marble-clad edifice, the "new" museum -- designed in 1971 -- remains shuttered. The staff is waiting for the day Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov arrives from the airport a short distance away, on the newly paved "presidential road," to officially christen the building. Until that day, delayed many times, this world-class survey of Soviet-era art remains closed to the public.

Posted by David on September 4, 2003 9:43 AM