Russian language literature is not best known for tales of horror or the supernatural. However, it does have some striking examples in the genre. The most successful are often short stories and, rather than using shock tactics, use ghosts, monsters, or witches to reflect the guilt or inadequacies of those that they visit. Below, we […]
In the remote Nukus Museum of Uzbekistan, a vast collection of banned Russian avant-garde art has been preserved for decades. The museum and its collection were founded by Igor Savitsky, a Soviet artist who defied censors to rescue and safeguard these works. His success was also made possible by the unique geography and history of […]
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 […]
Welcome to Tbilisi, a city of amazing history, breathtaking creativity, and constant innovation. Showcasing this are an astonishing number of great museums. This guide will take you through some of the city’s best institutions – from well-known staples like the National Museum of History to off-the-beaten-path gems like the Pirosmani House Museum, to often overlooked […]
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 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’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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
