On November 7, 2019, the All-Russian Decorative Art Museum, together with the Russian brand Radical Chic, with the support of the Presidential Grants Fund of the Russian Federation, opens the exhibition “Ornamental Heritage of Russia. Rostan Tavasiev. 1938-2006”, that for the first time gives a framework to a large-scale study of the creative heritage of this unique master who devoted his life to artistic textiles.
The exhibition presents 30 original works by Rostan Soslanbekovich Tavasiev from the collection of the All-Russian Decorative Art Museum. Painted scarves and panels with historical, religious and sports subjects are made in the cold batik technique on foulard and crepe de chine. Especially for the project, the designers of the Radical Chic brand rethought, supplemented and prepared 40 scarves created according to Tavasiev’s sketches and tracing papers.
Rostan Soslanbekovich Tavasiev is a recognized classic of Russian arts and crafts, who has been undeservedly forgotten in recent times. His legacy is a real artistic revelation, a bright phenomenon of the world culture of the second half of the 20th century. An outstanding draftsman, painter and designer, he left a bright mark and took a firm place in art as the creator of hundreds of reference scarves and textile panels of the 1970-1990s, as a bold experimenter, whose ideas were many years ahead of the development of the textile design.
A square scarf is the main subject in the master's work. At some point, the headscarf fell out of everyday and formal women's costume, but the international fashion of the 1960s brought this item back from oblivion. The unusual talent of Tavasiev lies in the fact that he creates not just a drawing, but a scarf, a piece of clothing, thereby moving from the artistic sphere to a completely different space - to the world of fashion. His works of the end of the last century are comparable to the drawings of the most famous Western fashion houses Hermes, Versace, Pucci, Cavalli, Dolce & Gabbana, but unlike those famous couturiers, the artist is completely outside the professional fashion environment, which makes his work even more unique. Like all true works of art, these works easily transcend temporal boundaries and remain relevant today.
