The famous Turkmen carpet “Horse Race” is presented at an exhibition called “Carpet of Stories”, which opened at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts in Moscow.
As reported Turkmenistan: The Golden Age reports, the 7 halls of the museum display an extensive collection of carpets created in the 1930s-1980s in the traditional carpet weaving centers of Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The plot of the unique Turkmen carpet, woven in 1937 at the Ashgabat carpet factory, is dedicated to the legendary horse race of 1935, performed on Akhal-Teke horses along the Ashgabat-Moscow route. Then a cavalry detachment consisting of thirty horsemen covered a difficult path of 4,300 kilometers in 84 days. The route ran through the sandy Karakum desert, the Ustyurt plateau covered with takyrs and salt marshes, the Kazakh steppes and the forest-steppes of Russia.
The historic run attracted public attention, and its participants deservedly became national heroes. Turkmen craftswomen depicted the events of this outstanding record in a carpet.
Two years after the creation of the carpet, a second carpet was made, which differs from the first by minor changes in the details of the ornament. This carpet is still kept in Ashgabat to this day.
The “Horse Race” carpet, stored in the collections of the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, became the only exhibit at an exclusive exhibition in Moscow in 2014.
The exhibition “Carpet of Stories” will last until October 13. Visitors will enjoy educational lectures on the history of carpet weaving, ornament and design, as well as excursions, the source notes.
