• More than 40 art works from the largest museums in Azerbaijan
• Works by representatives of the unique creative community, the Absheron School
• Paintings and sculptures, inspired by the nature and spirit of the rocky, fire-breathing peninsula.

The Azerbaijani art of the 1960s-1980s is the brightness of metaphors, saturated color palette, sharp compositions, free painting manner, quest for national identity, and interest in folklore.

"Born by the wind of Absheron. Azerbaijani Artists of the 1960s-1980s" is a joint project of the Erarta Museum, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Marjani Foundation, which collected works by classics of Azerbaijani painting and sculpture of the 1960s-1980s.

The exposition includes vivid expressive works by Togrul Narimanbekov, Kamal Ahmed, Tofig Javadov, Fazil Najafov, Javad Mirjavadov, Geyur Yunus, Rasim Babayev and Ashraf Murad. These artists constitute an original creative association that was formed in the 1960-1980s and went down the history of art as the Absheron School. Experimenters and rebels, they had a huge impact on modern Azerbaijani painting and sculpture. All these masters have their individual aesthetics and approach, but they share their love for native Absheron. The unique nature of the peninsula, its history and character contributed to the birth of the Absheron theme.  It is cross-cutting in Azerbaijani art and at the same time is intimately personal for each individual author. What unites the artists’ works is interest in the folk myth, aspiration to convey the peculiarities of the national character and world perception, and admiration of Absheron, the land where the past is intertwined with the present.

Absheron is a symbol of the motherland and an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Motifs, characters and techniques of Azerbaijani folklore, national decorative and applied arts, monumental paintings, book miniatures, and prehistoric monuments of Gobustan make an integral part of the artists' works.

The exposition includes more than 40 works of painting and sculpture from the collections of the largest museums in Azerbaijan: the National Art Museum of Azerbaijan, the State Picture Gallery of Azerbaijan, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum "Azerbaijan Paintings of the 20^th – 21^st centuries". The exposition includes paintings from the Baku galleries "Nar" and QGallery, as well as sculptures provided by Fazil Najafov, and works from the Moscow Mardzhani Foundation.

The exposition is displayed on the first floor of the exhibition wing of the Erarta Museum.

See more information on the official website

When? 25 May - 27 August, 2017
Where? Erarta Museum at the address 2, 29th Line V.O., next to Vasileostrovskaya, Primorskaya, and Sportivnaya metro stations