The New Tretyakov Gallery is the second building of the Tretyakov Gallery, located in Moscow in Krymsky Val in the Museon Park. It was built in 1983 according to the project of architects Yuri Sheverdyaev and Nikolai Sukoyan in Soviet modernism style. The first exhibitions were opened in 1986, the museum presents art trends of the 20th and 21st century: Russian avant-garde, socialist realism, art of the "austere style", underground and the newest trends. The museum has a creative workshop for children. The building of the New Tretyakovka will be closed for reconstruction from 2023 to 2027–2028.
History
Location background The first plans to develop the location on the bank of the Moscow River near the Krymsky Bridge appeared in the 1920s. At that time it was planned to create a system of parks with a permanent agricultural exhibition on the territory. The project failed for bureaucratic reasons, and in 1930 the Government of Moscow discussed the possibility of building a Palace of Arts on the site. In 1936, a large scientific center was needed after the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Unionmoved to Moscow. In the same year an architectural competition was held, and the project of Alexey Shchusev won. Construction began in 1939, but due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War the work was suspended, and in the post-war years the construction site was moved to Vorobyovy Gory. In the 1950s the architect Ivan Zholtovsky proposed to build a new House of the Unions on the site. At the same time, the government began to discuss the construction of a new building for the 100th anniversary of the Tretyakov Gallery. The location near the Krymsky Bridge seemed to be the most suitable: in addition to the fact that the area was large enough to accommodate a multifunctional building, the founder of the gallery, Pavel Tretyakov, was born nearby —in Golutvinsky Lane— in 1832. But due to internal disagreements in the management of the gallery, the project was not realized. In 1959, the city authorities decided to transfer the property to the State Art Gallery of the USSR.
Building construction The building was designed by the Ivan Zholtovsky Architectural Workshop according to the sketches of Yuri Sheverdyaev and Nikolai Sukoyan in the style of early Soviet modernism. The architects decided to give the building the form of a park pavilion oriented to the embankment of the Moskva River. According to the project, the building should be consistent with the ensemble of Neskuchny Garden and Gorky Park and be a large low pavilion with a continuous colonnade around the first-floor perimeter. The total area of the exhibition halls was 12,000 square meters. In 1962 it was decided to construct a building for two objects: the State Picture Gallery and the Central House of Artists.
Construction began in 1965. In 1977, the part of the building that belonged to the Artists' Union was partly finished. Two years later, the Central House of Artists was opened there. The building was completed in 1985.
Inauguration of the New Tretyakov Gallery In 1986 the State Picture Gallery of the USSR was merged with the Tretyakov Gallery to form the All-Union Museum Association, which also included the Museum-Apartment of Appolinariy Vasnetsov, the House-Museum of Viktor Vasnetsov, the Museum-Museum of Anna Golubkina, the House-Museum of Pavel Korin with his studio, the Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi, and the Memorial Estate of Pavel Tretyakov.
The first temporary exhibitions were opened to the public in 1986: "40 Years of Victory over Fascism", "The Youth of the Country" and "Stages of the Great Patriotic War". At the same time the main building of the Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane was closed for restoration and a part of the works of painting, graphics, sculpture, theater and decorative art of the 20th century was transferred to the building on Krymsky Val. After the restoration of the main building was completed in 1996, the works of art of the 20th century were moved to the building in Krymsky Val, where the first permanent exhibition was organized.
Exposition By 2018 it had over 5,000 20th and 21st century artworks. One of the largest collections consists of paintings by the Russian avant-garde of the 1900-1920s, represented by the following artists: Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Pavel Filonov, and Lyubov Popova. The works of major painters and sculptors of socialist realism are widely represented in the exposition. In the permanent exposition of halls 15–20, 24 and 25, entitled "The Art of the Soviet Era. 1920-1950s", there are the paintings New Moscow (painting) (1937) by Yuri Pimenov, Stalin and Voroshilov in the Kremlin (1938) by Aleksandr Gerasimov, Spring (1954) and Haymaking (1945) by Arkady Plastov. In Halls 26–30, 33, 35 and 36, united in the section "Art of the Soviet Era. 1950s–1980s", the work of Dmitry Zhilinsky is well represented, especially the paintings A Family on the Seaside (1964) and Sunday Day (1973).
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