Museum of Russian Art

The Museum of Russian Art is the only museum in North America devoted solely to Russian art. Given it's name, I would find it odd if it were something other than a museum devoted to Russian art. In an attempt to get some Slavic culture, we made the short drive down there today to check it out. Unfortunately, photography is expressly banned so my pathetic description will have to do. I may get some exterior shots put up some day.

The building looks like an old church, inside and out - minus the pews and altars on the inside, of course. This fit nicely with the current exhibit, Transcendant Art: Icons of Yaroslavl, Russia. After viewing a bit of an educational display in a small room, we unleashed ourselves on the main exhibit. I promptly forgot everything I had just learned and just looked at the various pieces, which looked somewhat similar to the stained glass in my parents' church. Eventually all of the halos, clouds, pointed fingers, and colors blurred together. Very nicely done, but I reached my limit fairly quickly.

The downstairs was mercifully icon-free and full of paintings falling under the theme of darkness and shadows, in contrast to the official art of that time period which was required to be full of light and energy. I could identify with this stuff more readily - it was good to see something more solid than religious symbols and icons.

After maybe an hour total, we had our fill of Russian art and went to Perkins where we got out fill of unhealthy food. In a couple months, the museum will have 2 new exhibits and I plan to go back and see how I feel about more modern Russian art.