1418 Days. Dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the Great Victory

The exhibition “1418 Days” is a true artistic epic that includes over 250 exhibits and several halls filled with paintings, sketches, graphic works, and sculptures from the Tretyakov Gallery’s collection, created across different years. The project’s author, Irina Sedova, called it an “emotional exhibition” that allows viewers of all generations to understand and feel the events of 1941–1945 through the eyes of artists. Visitors enter a “labyrinth hall,” a metaphor for the Road of Memory. It is this road they must walk, from beginning to end — from 1941 to 1945 — together with those who fought for Victory. There are scenes from the battlefields, human emotions, mothers waiting for sons, portraits, and historical sketches. It must be said right away that the exhibition is beautifully designed. The Tretyakov Gallery has presented not only the necessary works — paintings, graphics, and sculpture — but also major names such as Arkady Plastov with his moving painting “A Fascist Has Passed,” Pavel Korin with his famous “Alexander Nevsky,” Yuri Pimenov with “Tire Tracks,” Vera Mukhina with a series of wartime hero sculptures created in 1942, and Alexander Gerasimov with “The Tehran Conference of the Three Great Leaders.” The result is not a report, but a grand reflection on the fate of the Soviet people.

The exhibition features five sections: “Fiery Miles of War,” “Altar of Victory,” “Echo of the Past War,” “Faces of Victory,” and “The Tretyakov Gallery during the Great Patriotic War.” There are many interactive elements, quotations on the walls, and monitors in certain rooms broadcasting film footage.

The first section, “Fiery Miles of War,” is represented through artistic images depicting departure to the front, hardships of evacuation, and the fight for life. The second section tells of hope, joy of liberation, and the triumph of victory. The most poignant is the section “Echo of the Past War,” where the works convey the memory of pain and suffering endured for the sake of victory. A special place is given to the gallery “Faces of Victory,” featuring painted and sculpted portraits of participants in the war — from privates to marshals. The final section, “The Tretyakov Gallery during the Great Patriotic War,” tells in detail how the museum’s collection was heroically evacuated, preserved, and returned to its home walls. Here visitors can see a unique video installation devoted to exhibitions held by the Gallery during the war, as well as hear recollections of employees who lived through those tragic events, voiced by professional actors.

Today, the Tretyakov Gallery stands at an unrivaled level in its ability to create exhibitions. Its displays are always thoroughly thought out, calculated, and impeccably executed. But this time, the challenge was special — because the theme is extraordinary.

History does not end. The exhibition has not forgotten the losses, and before moving forward, we pay tribute to the fallen heroes…

The exhibition “1418 DAYS. 80 YEARS SINCE THE GREAT VICTORY” continues at the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val until the end of January.