Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens in Washington, D.C., shows the art of 19th-century Imperial Russia, while Springville Museum of Art in Utah specializes in Russian Impressionism. For instance, the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University is dedicated exclusively to nonconformist art. Other institutions in the United States focus on particular periods or art currents. But we also get comments that people like the diversity of the collection and enjoy learning about different aspects of Russian art, including nonconformist Soviet art of the second half of the 20th century. And those are still the favorite of the public. Originally our exhibition program focused mainly on socialist realism works. I like the inviting nature of this painting and the experience of being outdoors on a beautiful day, enjoying a meal at an open-air canteen.Īnd in your experience and observations, what does your audience appreciate most about the collection? The artist captures him pausing while he drinks tea and observes something beyond the picture frame. This genre painting shows an Uzbek man cooking a traditional pilaf dish in the open air. There is also “Try Some, Dear” by Valery Kovinin. This work is a favorite among museum visitors. Your gaze wanders until you catch the sight of her smiling face, and from there you begin to recognize the rest of her. Her clothes match the trees, to the extent that it’s hard to discern her figure. It’s not in the picture, but it’s a well-known story that makes the scene so human and relatable.Īnother canvas I particularly like is “Among the Birches” by Akhmed Kitaev, featuring a young woman in a forest. It always reminds me of this famous episode: Gagarin walking down the red carpet with his shoelace untied. It depicts Nikita Khrushchev greeting Yuri Gagarin after his first flight into space. One of my favorite paintings is “Motherland Greets a Hero” by Ukrainian artist Mihailo Khmelko. What are your favorite works in the permanent exhibition? If you had to name three of them, what would they be? And I always tell her that this is such an important aspect of what she brings to the museum. Because we live in a different environment, we can not see the underlying stories of the works that she reveals thanks to her background. So when she gives her talks or gallery tours, she offers a perspective that most of us Americans would never have. Petersburg and grew up in the Soviet era. Our only curator, Maria Zavialova, does a great job taking care of the collection and planning exhibitions. We also publish catalogs, although not for every exhibition, as we don’t have enough resources for that. It usually takes the form of didactic labels and audio tours. Our research tends to be exhibition-based. What kind of work do you do in this regard? Motherland Greets a Hero, 1961Īside from conservation, such a large collection requires a lot of research. New additions come only through donations, as we have no fund for purchases. As in many other museums, only a small portion of these are on display at any given time. Today we have over 7,000 objects in the permanent collection. We have the largest collection of nesting dolls in the United States and probably the best museum collection of socialist realism outside of Russia, and it has grown considerably in recent years thanks to the contributions from the Jurii Maniichuk & Rose Brady Collection, which includes works by Soviet-era Ukrainian artists. The collection began with 20th-century art, primarily Soviet-era socialist realism, but has since expanded considerably to include some 19th-century works. It became a nonprofit organization, separate from the work Raymond Johnson did as his business. And it was not until 2002 that the museum was founded. Raymond Johnson began as a collector and dealer in the 1990s. How did the collection originate and grow? What is its focus? The exhibition program of The Museum of Russian Art is very diverse and covers not only the art of the 20th century but also cultural and ethnographic aspects such as New Year masquerades, Christmas in Tsarist Russia, traditional Ukrainian dresses, Russian lacquer miniatures, and much more. The Museum of Russian Art: Inside a Unique Collection Meister, to talk about TMORA’s history, concept, and mission. We sat down with the museum’s Executive Director and President, Mark J. With its rich and comprehensive collection, encompassing thousands of works, TMORA holds a unique position among American museums. This year marks the 20th anniversary of The Museum of Russian Art since its founding in 2002.
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