National Art Museum (Belarus): history, exposition, address

The Belarusian National Art Museum contains one of the largest collections of art works. The museum is actively developing and has become a real art space of the Republic of Belarus.

Museum of National 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 women's gymnasium). The gallery occupied 15 rooms, in which there were departments of graphics, sculpture, painting.

Workers of the museum actively collected art works from the museums of Belarusian cities. Several works were donated by Moscow museums and galleries. By 1941, the gallery fund accounted for more than 2,500 works. Collected items of painting, the art industry, antique furniture and tapestries, Maysenskoye and Chinese porcelain, various mantel clocks.

In 1941, on June 28, German troops entered Minsk. The gallery was plundered and most of the valuable exhibits were taken to Germany. To describe all the collected exhibits in the Minsk Gallery did not have time, so a huge part of them never returned.

After the war, returned only a small part of the works that were at that time at exhibitions in Russia. Since 1944 the gallery was located in the House of Trade Unions. Within two years, the gallery had about 300 works, including K. Bryullov, V. Polenov, I. Levitan, B. Kustodiev. Later, a new building was being designed 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 located on the corner of Kirov and Lenin streets. The main entrance was to be on the side of Ulyanovskaya street. Author of the project M.I. Baklanov planned to create a building in Empire style with columns and half-peaked windows.

Ideas for the design of the building had to be reviewed when another plot of land with adjoining buildings was allocated for it. Cormorants changed the project so that the new building would correspond to the surrounding houses.

The National Museum of Art significantly expanded its fund, and later additions to the building were added. In 2007, the museum was reconstructed. The idea of the new architect of the building Vitaly Belyakin was to create a unique museum city, where the past and the present unite. The modern museum is decorated with decorative stucco, arches and columns, and the dome of the building is made of glass.

In the future, Minsk plans to create a museum quarter, in the center of which there will be a national art museum. The quarter will accommodate new pavilions for works of art, souvenir shops and art cafes will open, and a sculpture park will be located in the courtyard.

Expositions of the museum

In the museum there are about 27 000 works. The exhibits in the museum are divided into collections, in which collections of both national art and the world are represented. World art is mainly represented by the works of masters of the East and Western Europe.

Ancient Belarusian collection is represented by decorative and applied art, which dates back to the 10th-12th centuries, as well as medieval archaeological finds. Here you can see antique glassware, chess statuettes, stone carved icons, wooden plastics, jewelry items for religious purposes (chalices, liturgical keliha).

The paintings of the national art museum are represented by a collection of Russian art of the XVIII-XX centuries. Sculptures, arts and crafts and graphics have about three thousand exhibits. The collection includes works by Fedor Bruni, Maxim Vorobiev, Dmitry Levitsky, Vasily Troponin, and others.

In addition to those listed, the museum also contains collections of Belarusian art of the XIX-XX centuries, European art of the 16th-20th centuries and Eastern art of the 14th-20th centuries.

Eastern art is represented by products from ceramics and porcelain, painted enamels, carvings on wood and bone, painting, miniatures, sculptures and weaving.

Events

In addition to exhibitions, the museum hosts a lot of interesting events. A children's art workshop is open for children here. The museum hosts meetings with artists, master classes and musical evenings.

For all the years of its existence the museum has established itself in research and development. Workers of NXM carry out restoration of works of art and conduct an electronic catalog. There are albums and books about art. The last book, issued by the museum, is dedicated to Belarusian artists of the XIX-XX centuries.

Visitors can attend lectures and interactive excursions dedicated to national and world art. In the museum art cafes, everyone can watch thematic films.

National Art Museum: working time, address

Exhibitions of expositions are open from 11.00 to 19.00, visitors enter to 18.30.

Tuesday is a day off.

The price of excursions varies from 50 to 165 thousand Belarusian rubles.

The National Art Museum is located in Minsk, on Lenin Street, 20. It is located near the Independence Avenue, near the Oktyabrskaya and Kulapovskaya metro stations.

Currently, the director of the National Art Museum, Vladimir Ivanovich Prokoptsov.

Conclusion

The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus is interesting with a huge number of exhibits. Collections of the museum represent the national Belarusian art from ancient times to the present, as well as European and Oriental art. Various entertaining and educational events take place on its territory.