The State Museum of Oriental Art together with the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum presents the exhibition Echo of Soviet Azerbaijan. Carpet. Embroidery. Poster.

The exhibition’s central theme focuses on carpets and embroidery of the 1920-1970s with art motifs of the Soviet period from the collections of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum and the State Museum of Oriental Art. The exposition narrates about the phenomenon of the impact of historical cataclysms on decorative and applied arts.

The exhibition features forty exhibits: carpets of 1920-1970s from the collection of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum (Baku); carpets, revolutionary embroideries and their sketches of the 1920-1930s from the collection of the State Museum of Oriental Art (Moscow); posters from the collection of Mardjani Foundation (Moscow). Moreover, the State Museum of Oriental Art will display propaganda textiles from its collection for the first time in its entirety.

All objects served as effective tools of political propaganda at the time. Now they are perceived beyond that, and the ideological bias is interpreted as a precedent embodied in ancient crafts such as carpet weaving and embroidery. Undoubtedly, the political poster had a strong influence on the plots associated with revolution and the then Soviet realities.

One can speak about a variety of influences well-developed in the 20th-century-Azerbaijan such as oriental miniatures, traditional namazligs, Kajar art, fine arts, as well as book graphics and theater posters. Centuries-old traditions of classical Azerbaijani carpets and embroideries with their characteristic ornaments and color create a basis for propaganda images. Carpet weavers were not afraid to experiment and use new images and their own forms of expression, creating beautiful and monumental samples. Concurrently, they continued to produce traditional carpets that are valid in Azerbaijan to this day.

On top of that, the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum and the State Museum of Oriental Art prepares the same name catalog for the exhibition’s opening ceremony.

Exhibition curators: Shirin Melikova (Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum), Maria Filatova, Vera Miasina (State Museum of Oriental Art).

February 5 – March 1, 2020

Vernissage: February 4 at 18.00

Moscow, Nikitsky Boulevard, 12-a