"Images of Moscow in Russian Art" – an exhibition for City Day

The 878th anniversary of the Russian capital was widely celebrated over the past weekend. Among the vast number of interesting cultural events, the main one was undoubtedly the opening of the "Images of Moscow in Russian Art" exhibition in the recently restored Central Pavilion of VDNKh. The first to view the unique exposition, consisting of 104 paintings and 11 sculptures brought to the capital from the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg for City Day, were Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova, and General Director of the State Russian Museum Alla Manilova. She gave a tour for the distinguished Muscovites, talking about the most significant paintings at the exhibition. "This is the largest presentation of the Russian Museum in Moscow in its entire history. This exhibition is not a result of inter-museum cooperation. It's hard to surprise the capital with works from the Russian Museum because right now in Moscow you can see masterpieces by Kuindzhi and Bryullov, which we provided to the Tretyakov Gallery for an exhibition. But this exposition is special: we worked directly with the Moscow Government and the VDNKh team on this special project, which became an important message for Muscovites. That is why we took masterpieces off our walls that usually never leave the museum, that few have seen – to please Muscovites," said Alla Manilova.

The exposition is divided into several thematic halls dedicated to different time periods. The first one, called "Old Moscow," features 15th-16th century icons by Andrei Rublev and his students, Daniil Chyorny, Dionysius, and Simon Ushakov, Mikhail Nesterov's painting "Holy Rus," and works by the French artist Gérard Delabarte with historical views of Moscow before the 1812 fire. The artists' canvases bring Moscow's past to life: Maslenitsa festivities in Alexander Garden, sledding down hills on the Neglinnaya River (which has long since gone underground), and the Serebryanichenskie Baths. Apollinary Vasnetsov captured a predawn wooden Kitay-gorod with its merchant rows. Andrei Ryabushkin depicted a Moscow street in the 17th century on a holiday, and on Ilya Repin's canvas, the capital is ablaze during the French invasion. One of the jewels of the exhibition is Vasily Surikov's legendary painting "Stepan Razin." At the beginning of the 20th century, the artist painted this picture in Moscow – special conditions were created for working on this large-scale canvas in the building of the Historical Museum.

The "New Moscow" section tells the story of the city as embodied in works from the 1920s-2010s, including those by Apollinary Vasnetsov, Anatoly Lebedev-Shuisky, and the most "Moscow" artist, Yuri Pimenov.

The third section – "Moscow – the Capital" – is opened by Ilya Repin's large-scale painting "The Ceremonial Session of the State Council on May 7, 1901, on the Centenary of its Foundation." The "Muscovites" section features portraits of outstanding 20th-century residents – the Russian storyteller Vasily Shchegolenok, the great director Konstantin Stanislavsky, Princess Zinaida Yusupova, Academician Nikolay Zelinsky, pianist Sviatoslav Richter, film actress Tamara Makarova, and Soviet female shock workers by outstanding masters.

"This is truly a major historical event in the cultural life of the capital," believes the exhibition's first visitor, head of the Russian Culture Support Fund, Viktor Levanov. "Never before has VDNKh hosted so many important works dedicated to Moscow and the image of Moscow in art. Moreover, Moscow is shown in several dimensions at once: as a center of spirituality, as a center of Russia's political life, as a center of innovation, and, perhaps most importantly, as a center that creates and attracts talented and gifted people." "Moscow is the greatest city, the best in the world. A collection of paintings about different stages of its life is a reason to look at familiar landscapes from a new angle. And to fall in love with Moscow all over again," says Darina Alekseeva, editor-in-chief of "Moskvichka" magazine.

"Images of Moscow in Russian Art" will kick off a whole series of major international exhibitions and national cultural projects in the capital's museums, within which citizens will see the best masterpieces and unique exhibits from across the country and the world. "We are starting to implement a whole range of projects with the largest Russian museums," noted Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, "international projects with museums from China, India, Brazil, and Mexico. This will certainly breathe new life into our museum affairs."