Winter 2005 (13.4)
Pages 88-89

Perspective
The Making of an Artist:
Impact of Stalin's Repression on Tahir Salahov's Art
by Tahir Salahov

Tahir Salahov was one of the co-founders of the artistic trend in Soviet Art known as Severe Style, which grew out of a reaction against Socialist Realism of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He wanted to show real people, real feelings, real heroism. This was a style in total contradiction to Stalin's propaganda that everything in society was developing. This group dared to express doubts and show the pain and struggles.

In 1968, Tahir was elected as Secretary of the USSR Artists' Union. Over the course of 20 years, he was elected four times, an unprecedented honor. Here he talks about some of the early influences on his life as a child and the impact of his father being repressed by Stalin on his worldview.

Early Beginnings
I was nine years old when Father was arrested in 1937. I never saw him again. He never came back. But the years prior to that, Father gave me and my brothers so much encouragement in art. He would come from work everyday around five or six o'clock in the evening. After dinner, he would put some coins in the inkpot and would say: "Who can make the best drawing of Chapayev [Russian military commander]?" And he would give us paper and pencils and say, "I'm going to relax now and sleep, you work on your drawings until I wake up." So he was always announcing such competitions in our house.

So we would busy ourselves while he was sleeping. Two hours later, he would wake up, take a look at our drawings and announce the winner. Every day it was the same. This continued for several years. We couldn't wait for Father to return home from work to know what subject he would give us. To tell you the truth, I think he gave us this assignment primarily so we wouldn't bother him. How else could he have had a chance to get a little rest. There were five of us kids, plus my parents - all living in the confined space of a two-room apartment.

But the end result of my father's involvement was that all three of us boys in the family became professional artists. Sabir became a member of the Artists' Union and Mahir became a distinguished calligrapher.

Illustrating Children's Books
Another important influence in my life was the woman who worked at Belinski Library in the Revolution Garden (now Vahid Garden below Philharmonic Hall). Today, the library no longer exists. They've destroyed it. It used to stand opposite what is now the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Building near the sea. There used to be a kind librarian there; I don't even remember her name anymore. But every time when she gave us books to read, she would ask us to draw a picture to illustrate the story.

Sometimes I would take books from the library, read them, but sometimes when I didn't have time to do a drawing I would feel so embarrassed that I would hold on to the book more. I remember sometimes even keeping the book for two months. Then upon returning it, the librarian would give me another book and again ask me to draw a picture. I gradually began to realize that she was asking everybody to do this. Of course, not everybody did.

After a while, she organized an exhibition of our illustrations there at the library. And this was how I met Toghrul Narimanbeyov and Victor Galyavkin who later became distinguished artists. They also illustrated some of the books.

There was another factor that played an enormous role in my becoming an artist. In our home there used to be a painting hanging on the wall. Actually, it was an engraving of a woman with long, wavy hair. Her hands were tied behind her back. We always used to look at that painting while we were eating.

Later on, after the officials arrested Father, they came back and confiscated everything in our house - carpets, furniture, everything. And they took that painting away, too, but they couldn't take it away from my mind.

I think it's very important that every family has such painting. It doesn't have to be an original work. It can be a reproduction of a good painting as well. Such art takes on a life of its own and family members start having a dialogue with the painting. It starts talking to you. It's very important for children to be exposed to art while they are growing up.

The War Years
The war years were very difficult in Azerbaijan. In 1942 I had to drop out of school. I was in the fifth grade at the time. All three of us boys had to start working. I was employed by the Baku Water Pipeline.

Left: Tahir Salahov's "Women of Absheron", 1967. Here the women wait for their men to return from work on the oil rigs in the Caspian sea. Note the loneliness and isolation of each woman is occupied with her own world - a situation characteristic of Stalin's era when people could not trust one another. The artist himself had experienced the agony of waiting in his own life as his family anticipated the return of their father after he was arrested in 1938. Eighteen years later they learned that he had been executed shortly after being arrested, but no one had told them. Photo: Art by Tahir Salahov.
I used to go around to the houses and check the water meters to see how much the owners had to pay for water. My brother Mahir also worked there. Then I returned to school a year later.

That summer I started to work in Kirov Park as an artist. I designed announcement posters for them. For example, "Central Park named after Kirov is announcing mass walk next week."

Throughout the city, I used to paint these announcements on the asphalt. It was popular back then to paint on the asphalt. So I had to produce such signs in about 20 locations. Even though there was curfew at night, they gave me special permission to do my work and I would go out with my bucket and paints.

I was only 15 years old at the time. First, I had to sweep the asphalt clean, then sketch out the design and carefully do the writing so it would be accurate and beautiful. Often guards would stand around watching me.

Some would bring me bread or food. They showed a lot of respect for me. It seems they liked to watch art being created right there in front of their eyes. The drawings would remain on the pavement for about a month or so and eventually wear off. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of these works.

Then I went to Leningrad. I wanted to enter the Art Academy there, but they wouldn't admit me. The reason? My father. I was naïve. On the application form, I had written that my father had been arrested [we didn't learn until 18 years later that he had been killed soon after his arrest]. Later I went to Moscow to enroll in Surikov Institute. This time, I didn't write that my father had been arrested. This time I was accepted.

My father's death had a strong influence on my art. The most significant thing is that it made us children grow up to be very independent. Society rejected us and so we went our own way. In addition, we were always trying to prove by our own lives that Father was not an "Enemy of the People". We always wanted to bring honor to the name of our father and our mother who had raised five children on her own.

I did my diploma work, painting the workers at Oil Rocks in their rough environment of the Caspian Sea. Those piers and oil wells out had just been built a decade earlier. It was the first time in the world that anyone had drilled for oil in the sea. I went out and lived with the oil workers. To tell you the truth, I found them to be so brave and so honest. They didn't just work there; they enjoyed nature's beauty - the seagulls, the sea in all its splendor and power.

That's where I painted my diploma work entitled, "The Shift is Over", which has become a classic in Soviet Art. It depicts workers - both men and women - walking along a pier when the shift is changing. There's a strength, a rhythm, a resolve in the workers as they face into the wind. The work depicts a tough realism.

Severe Style
Along with two other artists - Victor Ivanov and Pavel Nikhonov - we are credited in the Soviet Encyclopedia with the creation of new trend in Soviet Art. It was called "Severe Style". During Stalin's era, artists were required to paint in the style of Socialist Realism through a perspective of glorified optimism. But there was no truth in it. Artists were not permitted to grapple with the issues that were eating their souls; canvases had to show that everybody was happy and satisfied.

But some of us artists emerging in the 1960s, opened a new direction which emphasized strong truth, strong realism. Not Socialist Realism, but realistic truth. "Severe Style" was a kind of revolt and protest by a new generation of artists against the artificiality of Stalin's art. We were tired of artifically contrived sweet scenes. The new generation grew up with strong inner feelings against the government. There was an strong under-current of opposition though few dared to express it openly.

My works were often heavily criticized as being gloomy and having an aura of pessimism. Critics complained that my colors were dull, severe, and that people in my paintings were not content. Once I was criticized because the main figure in the work was walking with bowed head, as if he were depressed. It was hard time for us. I tried to show real people, real feelings, real heroism. Often the people in my paintings are shown dealing with perilous conditions, facing unknown situations where their lives are in jeopardy and the future is uncertain.

Shostakovich
I was severely criticized for the portrait I painted of Shostakovich. He is shown alone, abandoned and ill. And that was true. He had a difficult life. Stalin gave him immense difficulties in 1948. So I wanted to express this situation and it seems I succeeded.

In 1998, I was invited to the ceremony celebrating the 90th Jubilee of Shostakovich in Moscow which was held at the Pushkin Museum. Everyone was coming up and congratulating me for my painting which was on exhibit but which had formerly been criticized. Everyone was wondering if I had made any changes to the portrait of Shostakovich.

I replied that the portrait itself had mastered time, as people were now looking at it with the different eyes. In the catalogue of the exhibition, it was written: "In this excellent portrait of Shostakovich by Tahir Salahov one can see a great musician and composer, who bears the load of the 20th Century on his shoulders". When I paint, I totally immerse myself in my work. I treat every painting as if it were to be my last work. I can honestly say that I'm not materially motivated. I try to feel deeply about everything that I paint.

There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that my experiences as a youth, especially in losing my father to Stalin's purges, has definitely affected my brush, my choice of content, and even color scheme. How could something so traumatic, so tragic and so unjust not manifest itself both consciously and subconsciously in my work?


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