Regional Art Museum (Samara): description and exhibition

The Regional Art Museum (Samara), whose origins date back to the beginning of the 20th century, is the most easily recognizable historical memorial among the rest of the sights of this city. The building as it is today is the result of the superstructure and reconstruction of the facade part of the house of the Kurlin family. The only thing that now reminds of that house is the remaining decoration, stylized for modernity, the main staircase, the lobby and the exhibition halls. Preserved, albeit in an altered guise, a lecture hall, located on the first tier and previously represented a trading building.

Historical moments

In 1912 the building was purchased by the Volga-Kama Commercial Bank, on whose initiative the most significant reconstruction of the facade was carried out. And it was then that the art museum (Samara) acquired a number of columns with statues made in neoclassical style.

Filling with exhibits began in 1920, when Alfred von Wakano provided his collection, collected through multiple trips abroad. Also, a collection of avant-garde works was sent, consisting of about 80 copies.

In 1925, the storage facility of the GMF provided 12 works known in the past. These were paintings by such artists as Guchkov, Brokar, Vysotsky and Botkin. In the period from 1936 to 1937 the authorship of certain unidentified works became known, which became possible with the help of the former secretary of the Hermitage M. Filosofov.

History of the museum from 1940 to the present

During the Second World War, the Art Museum (Samara) suspended its activities, and the exhibits were sent to the storerooms. In the postwar years the museum acquired the works of Bryullov, Lebedev, Repin, Moller, Galkin and many others. By 1959, a huge number of exhibits from the East.

As a result, as of 1989, the museum had the opportunity to exhibit more than 1,000 works, and due to the existing 18,000 items of storage, the collection can continue to be replenished to this day.

Most popular exhibitions

The Regional Art Museum (Samara) on a regular basis provides visitors with a succession of diverse exhibitions, but at the same time there is always the opportunity to see sustainable expositions on the topics:

• Russian art of the XVIII-XX centuries. Exhibits are mostly paintings, but also there are porcelain products. Most of the collection of this area was collected at the very beginning of the museum.
• Exhibition in the art museum "Foreign Art", in particular Western European, Japanese and Chinese. Among the exhibits there is a lot of painting, but at the same time a considerable part is made of engravings, household items from Asian culture, and also other forms of creativity.
• Silver Age in the form of exclusively painting. There are works of such artists as Golovkin KP, Alabin PV, Vakano and others.
• The Art Museum (Samara) offers visitors a general plan of exposition with a focus on schoolchildren of the younger and middle age category, as well as a collection of exhibits on the subjects of the Bible and Ancient Greek mythology.

Prospects for the development of the museum

The museum staff tries to develop in every possible way an external connection with the world. For this, agreements were concluded with educational institutions and the media. The latter were attracted to advertising. Students of higher educational institutions often visit exhibitions for informative purposes. Some teachers read live lectures directly in the museum, using the exhibits for clarity. Literary evenings and concerts of symphonic music are held here.

This museum is a member of the regional, Russian and international community. This allows us to always be at the center of all the events taking place in the cultural sphere.