National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus

Pre-war period

The official history of the museum begins on January 24, 1939 - according to a government decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the BSSR, the State Art Gallery was created in Minsk. It is located in fifteen halls of the building of the Higher Communist Agricultural School, the former Minsk Gymnasium. In addition to the departments of painting, sculpture and graphics, the Department of the art industry was organized by a special decree in the Gallery. The gallery was managed by the famous Belarusian ceramic artist Nikolai Mikholap .

By the beginning of the war, the most valuable works of religious art in churches and churches were exported and registered, and large funds of painting, graphic arts and decorative arts were collected.

The basis of the Gallery’s picturesque collection was works from the departments of fine art of the historical museums of Minsk, Vitebsk, Mogilev and Gomel. Several works from their funds were presented by the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin and the State Hermitage Museum.

After the accession of Western Belarus to the BSSR, art works from nationalized estates and castles were brought to the Art Gallery, including part of the collection of the Palace of the Princes Radziwills in Nesvizh. Thus, the collection was replenished with a rich collection of Slutsk belts, French tapestries of the XVIII century, portraiture of the XVI-XIX centuries.

At the beginning of 1941, the funds of the GKG BSSR totaled 2711 works, of which 400 were on display.

War losses

With the outbreak of war, the collection was prepared for evacuation. But they didn’t manage to take it out. Occupied Minsk was visited by G. Posse and K. Mulman. G. Posse is the director of the Dresden Gallery and the person authorized to create Hitler’s personal museum in his homeland, in Linz. K. Mühlmann is a person authorized to take into account cultural and artistic values ​​in the eastern lands. Representatives of the Heritage society, which was headed by Himmler, also visited Minsk. About 170 of the best works of Russian and Western European art [2] were confiscated by G. Posse, valuable collections were sent to the Reich and Königsberg. Until September 1941, the collection of the art gallery was almost lost. At that time, Wilhelm Kube complained to A. Rosenberg that Minsk had lost millions of valuables, since “valuable paintings, furniture of the 18th-19th centuries, vases, marble products, watches, etc. the SS gives to plunder the Wehrmacht”.

The collection of the art gallery ceased to exist, and its loss is assessed as irreversible. The fate of the pre-war meeting of the GKG is still unknown. The search for it is complicated by the absence of inventories. In the "Inventory of Museum Values ​​Exported by the Nazis to Germany and to the Countries of its Companions and Destroyed as a Result of Robbery Activities" of 1944, compiled by museum staff from memory, 223 works of Russian painting appear, 32 - Western European, furniture from the "Blue Bedroom" of Alexander II in The Winter Palace, 60 icons of the 16th – 18th centuries, 89 sculptures, 48 ​​Slutsk belts, 480 pieces of Russian porcelain, 800 - Western European, 30 pieces of ancient Urech glass, 200 hand-made covers of Belarusian weavers, hundreds of pieces nii Belarusian artists of the late XIX - early XX century.

Post-war period

After the war, only a small part of the works that were on the eve of the war at exhibitions in the RSFSR (for example, the bust of Prince P. A. Rumyantsev-Zadunaysky by F. Shubin) or found by Soviet soldiers in the cities of East Prussia (a collection of portraits from Nesvizh ) Some works were found in Minsk (Shakhtar with a light bulb by N. Kasatkin, Autumn by I. Levitan, Morning of Spring by V. Kudrevich from the unfinished building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus).

The second stage of the museum’s history is connected with the dedicated work of the Honored Artist of the BSSR, Director of the Gallery since 1944, Elena Aladova .

After the liberation of Minsk, the gallery received four rooms of the House of Trade Unions on Freedom Square. In August 1945, the gallery acquired paintings by B. Kustodiev, V. Polenov, K. Bryullov and I. Levitan. The Pushkin State Museum donated several paintings by Western European artists, the State Russian Museum - three landscapes of A. Kuindzhi, the landscape of A. Bogolyubov and the front portrait of Empress Catherine II. Surviving icons were found miraculously at the former Bishops’s Compound in Minsk - including masterpieces of the Belarusian icon painting “The Nativity of the Virgin” by Pyotr Yevseyevich from Golynts in 1649, “Paraskeva” and “Ascension” of the 16th century.

In 1946, there were already 317 works in the collections. There was not enough space for expositions. Aladova received permission to build a building for the Gallery. Design was entrusted to Mikhail Baklanov.

The construction of the Picture Gallery with ten spacious rooms located on two floors was completed in 1957. The building became one of the first museum buildings in the history of Soviet architecture. On November 5, the State Art Museum of the Byelorussian SSR solemnly opened with the presentation of the new exposition and the All-Belarusian Exhibition (the former Picture Gallery became known as July 10, 1957). The museum's collection then already reached three thousand works of Russian, Soviet and Belarusian art.

With the declaration of independence of Belarus after the collapse of the USSR, the status of the museum has changed - since 1993 the museum has been called the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus.

In 1957, the construction of the State Art Gallery was completed according to the project of architect M. I. Baklanov. At the same time in 1956-1958. A project for the equipment of an art museum was developed.

During the operation of the building, it became apparent that the envisaged exhibition space, storage facilities, office rooms are not enough. In 1989, house number 25 on ul. Kirova, in 1999 - a 5-storey building No. 22 on the street. Lenin. In 2007, a new museum complex was commissioned, which completed the first stage of the general reconstruction of the museum.

In 2000, a branch of the museum was opened for visitors in the former Vankovichi house in Minsk with a permanent exhibition “Culture and Art of the First Half of the XIX Century”.

Today it is one of the richest museums in Eastern Europe. The exposition, branches and depositories contain more than 27 thousand works, which form 20 collections and make up a collection of national art and a collection of art monuments of countries and peoples of the world.

The building of the modern National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus was designed as the State Art Gallery (project author M. I. Baklanov).

The author noted in the explanatory note to the design assignment: “During the design process, we found an architectural and compositional solution that allowed us to solve the problem of building up this segment and achieve a solid architectural solution in the volumetric composition of the entire building, in a single complex. The main facade of the building is oriented on Lenin Street. The entrance to the building takes the most advantageous place and is emphasized by a loggia. The wall in the depths of the loggia is enriched with stucco thematic high relief, the image of which will be executed against the background of the plane of the wall treated with smalt. "

Construction was completed in 1957. It should be noted that during the construction some adjustments were made to the originally designed architectural design. So, in particular, on the main facade, other images of the capitals of columns and pilasters were made, there was no thematic high relief in the entrance part, sculptural compositions were changed.

Two themes were closely intertwined in the museum's artistic solution - the triumph of victory (solemnity and monumentality) and the temple-depository of artistic treasures. The main facade is a synthesis of architecture and sculptural sculpture, conveyed with high aesthetic expressiveness.

The decision of the facade of the museum is characterized by a modernized interpretation of the classic theme, the active expressive element is a stylized attic pediment with a sculptural composition at the end (sculptor A. Bembel). Niches with allegorical sculptural compositions (sculptors P. Belousov, S. Adashkevich, L. and M. Robermani) flank the entrance niche with the colonnade of the composite order. The bas-reliefs on the plane of the attic support the division of the facade.

The dominant is a two-light lobby with a three-march staircase, around which on the second floor there is an open gallery. The exhibition halls are solved by the suite on the same second floor.

Ancient Belorussian art

The collection of ancient Belarusian art (about 120 works of the XII - the end of the XVIII century) of the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus is the most significant in the state. The active formation of the collection of ancient Belorussian art takes place in the post-war years through scientific expeditions of 1946-1978, thanks to which unique icons, carvings, weaving and art castings were preserved for posterity.

The exposition presents fragments of frescoes, icons and carvings, secular portraits, book graphics and samples of decorative and applied art of the 12th – 18th centuries.

The rarity of the collection is the miniatures of the hand-written Shereshev Gospel of the XVI century. (comes from the church in the town of Shereshevo, Brest Region, which has not been preserved). The icons of the 15th-16th centuries are shown nearby, made in compliance with the traditions of the Byzantine art school - “Our Lady of Hodegetria”, “Our Lady of Hodegetria of Smolensk”. The icons “Savior the Almighty” and “Paraskeva Friday” harmoniously combine the influences of the Byzantine, Russian and Western European art traditions that influenced the formation of the original Belarusian icon-painting school .

A number of portraits presented to the Art Gallery of the BSSR in 1939 from the Nesvizh Castle of the Radziwills are also on display. According to the inventories, the family portrait gallery of one of the most powerful magnate clans of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 70s of the XVIII century. totaled about a thousand canvases. Portraits were created both by unknown local artists and by court artists abroad, who include such artists as Bartholomew Strobel (1591–1650), Andrey Stekh (1635–1697), and others.

Belarusian art of the 19th century

As a result of the third division of the Commonwealth in 1795, Belarus entered the North-Western Territory of the Russian Empire. The art of this period in the collection of the museum is represented by artists who studied in St. Petersburg and Moscow and thus brought Russian art tradition into Belarusian art.

The museum has a large collection of works by Ivan Fomich Khrutsky, famous for his bright decorative still lifes ("Flowers and Fruits", "Flowers and Fruits", "Fruits and Candle", the second half of the 1830s). Landscapes and portraits of different years present on display the work of a native of the Minsk province Apollinaria Gilyarievich Goravsky, a graduate of the Petersburg Academy of Arts and a friend Pavel Tretyakov.

At the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century. it is the work of two famous landscape painters, natives of Belarus - S. Yu. Zhukovsky and V.K. Bialynitsky Biruli, who were educated at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and were influenced by the art of I. I. Levitan and V. D. Polenov. Their works constantly appeared at exhibitions of the Wanderers, the Moscow Society of Art Lovers, and the Union of Russian Artists.

The pearl of the collection is the work of the Belarusian-Polish artist Ferdinand Ruschits “At the Church” - one of the three works of this artist located in Belarus.

Belarusian art of the XX - beginning of the XXI century.

The exposition of Belarusian fine and decorative art of the twentieth - beginning of the twenty-first century was opened in 2006 and is the most complete for all the years of the museum's existence. Now on display are 380 works by 193 artists.

The Contemporary Art Fund began to be created in 1939, but the collection was almost completely looted during the Great Patriotic War. Works began to be purchased again in wartime from artists and private collectors. In 1947, some valuables were returned from Germany. In the late 1940s. Over 200 paintings from the former Vitebsk gallery were transferred to Minsk. Yu Pan. Since 1944, a targeted purchase of works by contemporary artists of Belarus began. To date, the fund of Belarusian art of the twentieth - beginning of the twenty-first century has about 12 thousand works of painting, graphic art, sculpture, decorative and applied art and is constantly updated.

Beginning in the 1920s in Belarusian fine art, there is a certain departure from the canons of academism and the pictorial and plastic principles of late mobility in favor of a new figurative speech related to the tradition of avant-garde. Artists do not strive for a detailed modeling of the reflected, abandon the academic rules of drawing and perspective, the illusory nature of color, build spatial volumes with local color spots, achieve a sharpened perception of the world through deformation and stylization of form.

All works presented at a permanent museum exhibit are “landmark”, most vividly reflecting a particular period in the history of Belarusian art.

Russian art of the 18th - early 20th centuries

The collection of Russian art occupies one of the leading places in the collection of the National Art Museum. It covers the period of its creation from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century and includes in the collection works of painting, sculpture, graphics and decorative and applied art. The works of Russian painting presented in five exhibition halls provide a unique opportunity to trace the main stages of the formation and formation of styles in Russian art from the Enlightenment of Peter I to the era of artistic associations of the beginning of the 20th century. In total, the collection has more than five thousand works, including canvases by V. A. Tropinin, B. M. Kustodiev, V. V. Pukirev, I. K. Aivazovsky, I. I. Shishkin, A. I. Kuindzhi, I. E Repin, V. E. Makovsky, I. I. Levitan, K. A. Korovin, M. A. Vrubel, I. I. Mashkov.

European art of the 16th – 20th centuries

The beginning of the museum's collecting activities in this direction should be attributed to the end of the 1940s. Especially intensively, the fund of European art was replenished in the 1960-1970s. The works exhibited in this hall allow us to trace the complex centuries-old path of development of European art from the end of the 16th century to almost the 20th century.

Portraits, paintings on mythological and biblical subjects introduce the art of Italy of the 16th-18th centuries.

The art of the Netherlands of the 16th century is marked by common features for European art. The focus of artists is still on man and his inextricable connection with the outside world. The main subjects remain religious, but in the interpretation of the Dutch masters they are filled with greater narration and a love of detail.

The idea of ​​the originality of Flemish painting of the 17th century is given by the paintings of J. F. Blumen, J. Kessel the Elder, P. Tiz. In the painting “Venus in the Forge of the Volcano”, written by P. Teese (1624–1677 / 1679), a famous master of the Flanaman school and one of the best students of Van Dyck, the plot from Virgil's Aeneid, the characters of the ancient legend are endowed with a real Flemish character, where with unbridled artistic imagination, everything acquires the features of a convincing truth, reality and authenticity of the world that they reflect. In parallel with large-format paintings, the so-called “cabinet painting” with all her favorite genres developed in Flanders, including the floral still life “Madonna in Flowers” ​​by Daniel Segers, typical of the artist’s work, the author of numerous garlands and flower wreaths that frame small scenes of religious content written by other artists.

The pride of the collection of French art of the XVII-XIX centuries are the works of G. Robert, K.-J. Vernet, A. Grimaud, F. Gerard, J.-B. Rainier, J.-F. de trois and others

The paintings of Austria, England, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Poland are introduced to the works of V. Peter, J. Morland, “The Return of the Hunter”, 1792, T. Barker, H. Jensen, D. Noter, J. Rapatsky and others.

In addition to painting in the exposition, you can also see the works of the largest sculptors of Italy, France of the XVIII — XIX centuries. and products of famous porcelain manufactories in Europe of the 18th - early 20th centuries, such as the Royal Saxon porcelain manufactory in Meissen, the Berlin Royal porcelain manufactory and others.

Art of the East XIV-XX centuries.

The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus has an extensive collection of cultural and art monuments of the peoples of the East. The history of this collection begins in the late 1950s, when the Ministry of Culture of the PRC transferred to the museum a significant collection of works of decorative and applied art in China. In 1960, the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow provided substantial assistance in replenishing the collection. Purchases from private collectors subsequently significantly replenished and expanded the collection. Today, the collection contains traditional types of art from the countries of the Near East, Middle, Central, South and Southeast Asia, the Caucasus and the Far East: painting and sculpture, miniature and folk art, weaving and art metal, ceramics and porcelain, painted and cloisonne enamel, wood carvings, bones, stone, painted and carved varnishes.

The museum conducts research, gathering and popularizing work, organizes exhibitions of works by Belarusian and foreign masters, carries out scientific and creative communication with foreign museums, organizes exhibition exchanges, conducts lectures, tours, classes of art critic clubs and art lovers, helps create art galleries, art departments in other cities of Belarus. Gives out catalogs, albums, cards.

The museum has a library, cinema club, lecture hall, children's art studio and art cafe.

• Department of Ancient Belorussian Art
• Department of Contemporary Belarusian Art
• Department of Russian and Foreign Art
• Science and Stock Department
• Scientific and restoration department
• Редакционно-издательский отдел
• Выставочный отдел
• Отдел научно-просветительской работы

• Дом Ваньковичей
• Музей белорусского народного искусства в Раубичах
• Музей Бялыницкого-Бирули

• Музеи Белоруссии
• Десять веков искусства Беларуси (выставка)
• Художники Парижской школы из Беларуси (арт-проект)

• Официальный сайт музея (англ.) (рус.) (белор.)
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