New Tretyakov Gallery

The museum collection reflects clearly how people felt the XX century in Russia.

In the 1900s-1910s a revolution spirit was in the air, and the feeling, that everything is allowed now, and all old life rules are to be canceled immediately, inspired artists to paint as newly and original, as they could. So, vivid colors and primitive, naïve forms of the canvases of Natalia Goncharova, Marc Shagal, Vasily Kandinsky, full of wild, out-of-control energy, became well-known all around the world. The period of Russian avant-garde had been lasted to the 1930s, when art had come under the total control of the state and had unified.

Socialist realism was proclaimed the only possible form of art in the country. That doesn’t mean there’re no masterpieces among these works. A cult of youth, strength and happiness is lively reflected in these oils, gradually changed to romantic sadness of past-war years. However, official realistic line in Soviet art wasn’t the single one: starting from 60s, non-conformist art went parallel with the official one: ”Iron Curtain” made of iron is among them. The latest exhibits of the Gallery are of the 2007.

Museon Sculpture Park, that is also known as The Graveyard of Fallen Monuments, adjoins the gallery building, also worth a visit.