The Tretyakov Gallery (The new buiding)
The gallery's collection reflects clearly how people felt during the 20th century in Russia. In the early 1900s there was a spirit of revolution in the air. The atmosphere was one of 'anything goes' now and that the old 'rule book' can be thrown away. Artists were inspired to paint in very different way.The vivid colors and primitive, naïve forms that typified the work of Natalia Goncharova, Marc Shagal, Vasily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin are full of wild, out-of-control energy, became well-known around the world.
The period of Russian avant-garde had been lasted into the 1930s, when art came under the control of the state. Socialist realism was proclaimed the only permissible form of art in the country. That isn't to say that there were no masterpieces among these works. A cult of youth, strength and happiness is reflected in the work of this period, gradually changing to romantic sadness in the post-war years. However, the officialy sanctioned line in Soviet art wasn’t the only one: from 60s onwards, non-conformist art developed in parallel with the official style: ”Iron Curtain” made of iron is among them. The latest exhibits in the Gallery date from 2007.