The weather was nice, so I was able to walk to the museum which was a nice change of pace. I drive by it all the time, and have been wanting to go since moving 2 years ago. The building was previously a church, so the gallery is stunning:
Currently, the museum is showing two exhibitions. First, the artwork of Oleg Vassiliev, a Soviet artist who did not conform to the government's standards when it came to artistic style. As a result, he did not publicize much of his art and illustrated kids' books to earn a living. Vassiliev now lives in Minnesota and much of the art on display is from his personal collection.
The other exhibition currently in house is a collection of ancient artifacts from the Ukraine. This exhibition attempted to tell the story of different groups of migrants over the centuries, coming from the east, invading the Ukraine. Many of these groups built Kurgans, which were earthen burial mounds, that functioned much like the Egyptian Pyramids. Certain worldly goods were included with the deceased, and many of the artifacts that were part of the exhibition were excavated from these mounds.
The oldest objects were these Trypillian clay pots.
There was also lots of beautiful gold jewelry - this is just a tiny sampling. The metal work was fantastic!
All in all, I enjoyed my afternoon's visit to the Museum of Russian Art. While the exhibition space is quite beautiful, it really is pretty small. These two exhibitions were the only ones on display - the Museum doesn't seem to have a permanent collection. I hope to make another visit once new exhibitions are installed!
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