Description of the attraction
Erarta Museum is the largest private museum of contemporary art in Russia. Located in St. Petersburg on Vasilievsky Island. The main mission of the museum: collection, exhibition and popularization of the most original and masterfully executed works of contemporary artists. These are graphics, painting, sculpture, video art, installations.
On May 20, 2010 the museum received its first visitors. In the summer of 2010, the work of the museum was organized in a test mode. The arrangement of the halls and the hanging of paintings continued. The official opening of the museum took place on September 30, 2010.
The collection of the museum includes more than two thousand works by contemporary artists. When choosing exhibits for a collection, museum workers pay attention, first of all, to 3 main qualities in art: originality, freedom and skill. The basis of the Erarta collection is represented by the works of St. Petersburg masters. But the museum is constantly looking for talent across the country, offering collaboration to artists from other regions.
The main goal of the museum is to search among contemporary artists for those whose works will outlive their creators and, after many years, will delight the viewer. In general, with regard to the time frame, the museum adheres to an international standard and by contemporary art means art that was created since 1945, that is, from the time of the end of the Great Patriotic War to the present day. The artists whose works are in the collection of the Erarta Museum represent different generations and trends in contemporary Russian art: from realism to primitivism and abstraction. The earliest works in the museum collection date back to the 1950s and were created by unofficial Russian artists during the Khrushchev Thaw.
To date, the list of authors consists of more than 250 names. The most famous artists are Vladimir Dukhovlinov, Vyacheslav Mikhailov, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Valery Lukka, Elena Figurina, Andrei Rudiev, Rinat Voligamsi, Alexander Dashevsky, Nikolai Kopeikin, Vladimir Migachev, Petr Gorban, Evgeny Ukhnalev, Andrei Rudiev.
As far as Erarta's activities are concerned, it is multifaceted: organizing exhibitions, conducting excursions, publishing museum catalogs, and implementing educational programs. The museum focuses on a wide audience and seeks to provide an opportunity for the viewer of any age to discover contemporary art, understand it and find in it what is close and interesting to him.
The five-storey building that houses Erarta was erected in 1951 for the local district committee. However, in the Soviet years, the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Synthetic Rubber named after S. V. Lebedev.
The entrance to the museum is decorated with two sculptures: Era and Arta, created by the sculptor Dmitry Zhukov. Erarta's interiors are decorated with author's wall-art.
There are several cinemas in Erarta. In one of them, located on the third floor, iso-animations are shown, presented by animated paintings, animations based on paintings.
