Kaitag embroidery is exposed in Saint Petersburg amid revival of Dagestani folk crafts

The Russian Ethnographic Museum is holding an exhibition of unique Kaitag embroidery of 18-19th centuries, which has gained worldwide fame due to its resemblance to avant-garde movements in painting. In Soviet times, the tradition of this embroidery was interrupted and was revived in the Kaitag District of Dagestan only at the end of the 20th century; now hundreds of local females are skilled in this craft.

This embroidery became widely known in the 1990s, when the English researcher, Robert Chansner, brought the collection out of Dagestan and published the catalogue, Evgenia Gulyaeva, the exhibition curator, has explained.

"Because of bizarre ornamental motifs, art critics began comparing the pieces with the paintings of avant-garde trends of the 20th century: abstractionism, Orphism and primitivism. Embroideries were compared with the works of Henri Matisse, Paul Klee and Joan Miró. This made it a world-class phenomenon," Ms Gulyaeva has added.

The Russian Ethnographic Museum regularly addresses the topic of traditional Caucasian crafts, Vladimir Dmitriev, the chief specialist of the museum, has noted. In his opinion, such exhibitions can contribute to the preservation of folk crafts.

With a wide variety of folk embroideries in Dagestan, the Kaitag embroidery is the most original and one of the oldest; its origins date back to the 16th century, Fatima Gadzhalova, a historian, has noted.

In the past, Kaitag embroideries were endowed with magical properties; they were perceived as protection from "evil forces", the ethnographer has pointed out. The tradition was interrupted in the 1930s due to the devaluation of manual labour, and the fight against archaic remnants, Ms Gadzhalova has explained.