Uzbek Avant-Garde Artists of the 1920s and 1930s
Victor Ufimtsev
To The Train 1927
Oil on canvas. 67 x 58.3cm
Victor Ufimtsev (1899-1964)
Victor Ufimtsev is one of many Russian artists for whom Uzbekistan became a creative home. He was born in Barnevka village in the South Urals. He studied painting and drawing in Omsk (1916-1919). In 1918, while attending A. Klementyev’s Art Studio as “just another realist”, he happened to attend David Burlyuk’s lecture on futurism. He became a futurist and settled on his creative credo: “New Content needs New Form”.
In 1923, in search of the new, he left for Turkestan. Initially it struck him as one big carnival: bright colours, unusual architecture, people in exotic clothes. He met many artists living in Uzbekistan at that time, including A. Isupov, A. Nikolayev (Usto-Mumin), A. Volkov, L. Bure, M. Kurzin, E. Korovay. The artist complements his works with collage techniques using different materials: patterns from paper, fabric, felting, reed. His work “To the Train” combined the most daring experiments of the young artist: perspective, form and mixed technique.
Musicians. 1924
Gouache on carton.35.7 x 38.8
