Collectors Collecting Collections: Part Deux.

Clearly, I am fascinated with the art of collecting "precious" items...errr...at least the one who is doing the collecting finds that their treasures of all sorts are extremely precious. But it seems to me, that the population of people who witness the mass amount of "stuff" that is building up...they think it's crazy. I guess there are extremes, and those people would be considered hoarders. There is even a reality TV show about many people who suffer from a serious case of collecting. Sometimes I am afraid that I could become that...but then I remember that I have Clint, and there is NO WAY he would ever let me get out of control. Thank goodness for a supportive husband! ;o) Hoarding is just so incredibly out of control and I think at that point it is a mental condition and needs real help. Psychiatrist maybe...for sure lots of therapy. I have a strong desire to hang on to things...but I also have learned that it is okay to let go too. And it is still okay to have stuff to collect or stuff that I hang onto. I love knowing that I have items that were next to me in my crib or in my bedroom as a small child...it gives me comfort. Those kinds of things are impossible to get rid of for me. It would have to be rotten and stinky and ruining other things for me to let them go. My found objects of desire I AM able to get rid of...with some Clint coaxing of course! ha ha!

Why a Part Two to a journal about collecting? Because, Igor Savitsky will not leave my mind. The first 25 minutes of the documentary of collecting was on him. And we missed the first 10 minutes of it. Boo. But what we did watch was an interview with Igor's successor, Marinika Babanazarova. She was the daughter of a friend of his who worked closely with him in his Museum in Nukus. This is no ordinary museum. It is the Nukus Museum of Art and it contains thousands upon thousands of paintings that Igor collected in his life. And it is no ordinary art. Some of these paintings were Russian avant-garde and post avant-garde and had been banned by the KGB and Stalin's government for refuting the Socialist Realism school. That's exciting stuff! They were amazing paintings...and he collected all of them. Plus paintings from other amazing Russian and central Asian artists. He collected them all and brought them all back to Nukus Uzbekistan to his museum where some are on the walls for display and the other thousands...maybe even hundreds of thousands of paintings are stacked side by side in the mass huge storage of the museum. Igor Savitsky dies in 1984, but Marinika keeps the paintings and other art safe and intact. That is how Igor wanted it. He told her that it was his collection and must remain together as is. And she has done that. Even in the 1990's when word got out to the mass public about the museum in the desert, and art collectors with tons of dollars from all over the world came to view and choose which pieces they were going to purchase...Marinika didn't sell a thing. She was offered millions of dollars. The museum was Igor Savitsky's dream, his life's work...his life's collection. And what an amazing collection to share with the rest of the world. Thank you Igor, and double thank you and bless you Marinika for being true lovers and respecters of art and honouring an artists right to personal expression. And keeping a collection a collection.

Travelling to Nukus Uzbekistan is my new "I NEED to go there" destination. I want to see these paintings...I want to enjoy and admire Igor's Collection. I want to meet Marinika and express my gratitude to her for continuing to pursue a dream that began in the 1960's by a man who had such love and appreciation for art and the feelings and thoughts that it allows us to have. What a cool guy. I think it's beautiful. I wish I would have looked at what the title of that documentary was...okay...I think I just found it...maybe..."The Desert of Forbidden Art" . It is definitely about Igor's life...but it may be a different doc than I watched. I'll have to find it and rent it! ;o) Yay!!!

All right...enough obsessing...for now. Art rules! Peace.