Author: Josh Wilson

Yazidi Temple in Aknalich, Armenia

While I was studying in Armenia I was able to request a trip to visit the Yazidi temples in Aknalich, Armenia. I arranged this through Hasmik, the guide that led much of the cultural portion for our SRAS study abroad program in Yerevan. I am fascinated with different religious groups, and this was a great […]

Exploring Bishkek’s Mosques

The Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek today features mosques scattered throughout its streets. Amazingly, nearly all of these mosques were constructed after the Kyrgyz Republic declared independence in 1991. The city was constructed mostly by Tsarist Russia and the USSR, neither of which encouraged the construction of mosques. The construction boom in Bishkek is testament to […]

The Wanderers: An Early Revolution in Russian Art

The Peredvizhniki, or the Wanderers, were a movement of Russian Realism born from the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1863. Under the rule of Alexander II, Russia was struggling through a series of liberal reforms that were part of a greater humanitarian movement. The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 deconstructed much of the social […]

The Leningrad School: Preserving Tradition and Testing Boundaries in Soviet Painting

The Leningrad School was a prominent school of painting during the majority of the Soviet period, 1930-1990. Emanating from the Ilia Repin Institute for Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (named for the famous nineteenth century realist painter and renamed the St. Petersburg Institute for Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture after the collapse of the USSR), it produced […]

Riga Museums: History, Art, Science, and Architecture in the Latvian Capital

Riga’s museums offer a fascinating look at Latvia’s culture, history, and especially architecture and transport infrastructure. From the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, housed in the iconic Riga Dom, to the Latvian National Museum of Art, showcasing the finest works of Latvian artists, and the Art Nouveau Museum, exhibiting the city’s famous […]

Yerevan Museums: The Best in History and Art

The following is a brief introduction to some of the best Yerevan museums for history and art. As SRAS has recently launched study programming in Armenia, MuseumStudiesAbroad.org is also now opening a new region that we hope to fill with museum reviews and artist biographies! History Museum of Armenia The History Museum of Armenia holds […]

Government Sponsored Organizations

The following are organizations that have been set up to assist or regulate art in Russia. “Official Art” – Government Sponsored Agencies The Ministry of Culture and Mass Communication (MinCult) is a federal body responsible for the development of state policy and normative legal regulations in the sphere of culture, art, cinematography, archiving, mass media, […]

Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow

The Central Armed Forces Museum (formerly known as the Museum of the Soviet Army) is an extensive collection of artifacts and exhibits narrating Russia’s military history, from tsarist times, though the Soviet Union, to the present day. Displays cover everything from the 1905 war with Japan to the revolution and the formation of the Red […]

What was Russian Futurism? Seeking Societal Rebirth

Futurism, an artistic movement started in Italy, quickly found fertile ground in Russia starting in 1909. Futurism thus emerged in Russia in the period between the 1905 and 1917 revolutions when artistic, social, and political thought were in foment. Russia’s unique brand of Futurism helped form the basis of the Russian avant-garde, conveying its social […]

What was Suprematism? Seeking Transcendent Simplicity

Suprematism was an artistic and philosophical movement that drew inspiration from the philosophically non-objective, geometric, and technology-focused Futurism as well as the geometric, depth-focused Cubism. Most strikingly Suprematism opposed art for political or religious utility, and even art as a depiction of the objective world. For the Suprematists, art was produced for its own sake […]

Elena Martilla: Artist of the Blockade

Elena Oskarovna Martilla came of age as an artist during WWII in Leningrad. She created haunting images of the suffering the residents of that blockaded city lived through as well as proud images of their perseverance. Today, she is 98 years old and still producing art. The Russian Museum, one of the St. Petersburg’s largest […]

9 Recommended Theaters in Moscow

Russia is known for its theater and ballet. Take advantage and see all that you can while here. You can buy tickets at the theater or concert hall itself or from a reseller such as Parter or Ponominalu, which allow you to reserve tickets pick them up at location near you or even have them […]

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