The Belarusian National Museum of Art contains one of the largest collections of works of art. The museum is actively developing and has become a real art space of the Republic of Belarus.
National Museum of Art: History
The history of this museum begins in 1939. When the state art gallery was opened in the building of the communist agricultural school (the former building of the female gymnasium). The gallery occupied 15 halls, in which there were departments of graphics, sculpture, painting.
Museum workers actively collected artworks from museums in the cities of Belarus. Several works were donated by Moscow museums and galleries. By 1941, the gallery's fund was more than 2, 500 works. Paintings, the art industry, antique furniture and tapestries, Meissen and Chinese porcelain, and various mantel clocks were collected.
In June 1941, German troops entered Minsk on June 28. The gallery was looted and most of the valuable exhibits were taken to Germany. They did not have time to describe all the collected exhibits in the Minsk Gallery, so a huge part of them never returned.
After the war, only a small part of the works that were at exhibitions in Russia at that time returned. Since 1944, the gallery has been housed in the House of Trade Unions. Two years later, the gallery contained about 300 works, including K. Bryullov, V. Polenov, I. Levitan, B. Kustodiev. Later, they began to design a new building for her.
On November 5, 1957, the new building of the State Art Museum of the BSSR was opened. In 1993, the museum became known as the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus with a bias in the national art of the country.
Museum building
Initially, the museum building was planned to be placed on the corner of Kirov and Lenin streets. The main entrance was supposed to be from the Ulyanovsk street. The author of the project M.I. Baklanov planned to create an empire-style building with columns and semicircular windows.
The building design ideas had to be revised when another plot of land with adjacent buildings was allocated for it. Baklanov changed the design so that the new building matches the surrounding houses.
The National Museum of Art significantly expanded its fund, and later extensions were added to the building. In 2007, the museum was reconstructed. The idea of the new architect of the building, Vitaly Belyakin, was to create a kind of museum city, where the past and the present are connected. The modern museum is decorated with stucco, arches and columns, and the dome of the building is made of glass.
In the future, they plan to create a museum quarter in Minsk, in the center of which there will be a national art museum. The quarter will house new pavilions for works of art, souvenir shops and art cafes will open, and a sculpture park will be located in the courtyard.
Museum expositions
The museum has about 27, 000 works. The exhibits in the museum are divided into collections, in which collections of both national art and world art are presented. World art is mainly represented by the works of masters of East and Western Europe.
The Old Belorussian collection is represented by arts and crafts, which dates from the X-XII century, as well as medieval archaeological finds. Here you can see old glassware, chess figurines, stone carved icons, wooden plastic objects, jewelry religious objects (chalices, liturgical cells).
The paintings of the National Art Museum are represented by a collection of Russian art of the 18th-20th centuries. Sculptures, objects of decorative art and graphics count about three thousand exhibits. The collection contains works by Fedor Bruni, Maxim Vorobyov, Dmitry Levitsky, Vasily Troponin and others.
In addition to those listed, the museum also houses collections of Belarusian art of the 19th-20th centuries, European art of the 16th-20th centuries and eastern art of the 14th-20th centuries.
Oriental art is represented by ceramics and porcelain, painted enamels, wood and bone carvings, paintings, miniatures, sculptures and weaving.
Events
In addition to exhibitions, the museum hosts a lot of interesting events. A children's art workshop is open here for children. The museum hosts meetings with artists, workshops and music evenings.
For all the years of its existence, the museum has established itself in research activities. NHM workers carry out restoration of works of art and maintain an electronic catalog. Albums and books about art are released. The last book published by the museum is dedicated to Belarusian artists of the 19th-20th centuries.
Visitors can attend lectures and interactive excursions on national and world art. In the museum art cafe, everyone can watch themed films.
National Museum of Art: opening hours, address
Exhibitions of exhibitions are open from 11.00 to 19.00, visitors are allowed to enter until 18.30.
Tuesday is a day off.
The price of excursions ranges from 50 to 165 thousand Belarusian rubles.
The National Art Museum is located in the city of Minsk, on Lenin Street, 20. It is located near Independence Avenue, near the Oktyabrskaya and Kulapovskaya metro stations.
Currently, the director of the National Museum of Art Vladimir Ivanovich Prokoptsov.
