Under a spell of the East
I can write here everything, endlessly...
Pavel Benkov
The artistic biography of outstanding artist Pavel Petrovich Benkov was rich and interesting. The fortune he tested many times was uneasy. Unfortunately, his art did not become a subject of the serious study. Many works written about him remained "the monument" to ideological concepts of that time. The informative book of memoirs by M. Sokolova is the only edition, which has preserved the important data after the death of the artist (1). The artistic evolution of P. Benkov has not been fully comprehended yet. His true place in the history of Uzbekistan art was not specified. One of the reasons is that even the mention of impressionism was forbidden in due time, therefore many things were interpreted in a wrong way in order to protect the author from attacks of criticism. Finally, it brought to perverted views of his artistic originality. Meanwhile, it is obvious that the traditions of Benkov are strong in painting...