I do not sing, nor do I play an instrument, and given the fact that I can hardly write with a pencil at hand please do not even get any ideas about my painting skills… Doodling was the best that I could do as a kid, and that should tell you a thing or two about just how much art really is there in my life. That being said, I do like looking at art, pondering about them, especially if they are full of details that I can just fixate on for hours. Luckily, Nizhny Novgorod is home to quite a lot of art museums. Some are dedicated to modern arts, whereas some others are more on the ethnographic side of the things. I for one am most interested in paintings, especially the “older kind.” That is why, the three museums listed below are my favourite art museums in town, in no particular order. They all cost 300 roubles to enter for those without a discount (150 with the discount), and they do all have their niches. Let us now see what each of them specialize in, though to be fair, it is all in the name…
Museum of Foreign Art – https://yandex.com/maps/-/CCUC5AQshD
This will not come as a shock to any one of you (I hope), but the Museum of Foreign Art has a collection that is made up of almost only non-Russian artists, most being European. I could not notice any real “big names” when I was there, but then again Nizhny is not the city any such works would be harboured in given that Moscow and St. Petersburg are just better candidates for keeping and displaying such pieces. It has two floors, and the upper one also has a dedicated area for temporary exhibitions, which is also included in the ticket price. I was lucky enough to be there when there was an ongoing project on Minin, which featured a wall-encompassing painting of him and his followers, as well as a VR set-up to explore the era with your own eyes. It is not a huge museum, and as such if you are not into Western art, that 300 roubles may be a steep price to pay.
Museum of 20th Century Art – https://yandex.com/maps/-/CCUC5Ae0OA
This one has a little less to do with its name. It does showcase a ton of 20th century art, mostly done by paintings from Soviet republics. However, the ratio of temporary to not-so-temporary exhibitions in this museum was quite skewed to say the least. It seemed like more than half of the displays were there for a while only, which is great because you can basically keep visiting it for new eye candies. That being said, it comes with some “negativity” as well in the form of not all art being of the same quality. For example, my friend was slightly put off with the idea of paying to see some schoolchildren’s paintings, which were not much to look at. If the whole museum was full of them, that would indeed be an issue for many. However, as it stands now, it seems like an ideal place to put some seemingly random but sometimes rather cool art pieces up for everyone to see.
Museum of Russian Art – https://yandex.com/maps/-/CCUC5AuJ0A
Though I said that I was listing these museums in no particular order, I must come clean and add that the Museum of Russian Art was the one that I truly fell in love with due to a plethora of reasons. Firstly, all the staff working there seemed extra friendly, and having three huge floors dedicated to its wonderful exhibitions, it was certainly the one that was the most bang for our buck. It offers some six century old paintings, as well as a decent selection of early Soviet works, and really anything in between. One can find beautiful icons here, as well as some works by Levitan. It goes without saying that all the painters and sculptors here really seemed to be of Russian origin. Most interestingly for me, It also had a few rooms dedicated to more “oriental” vistas, where I found this amazing rendition of Istanbul.
I feel a bit responsible to add that, once again, these are not the only museums on art that you can find in Nizhny Novgorod. This is not an exhaustive list, none of my articles offer such lists. A simple Google search will turn out more options to pick from, quite a few specializing in modern arts especially. However, I am not really a huge fan of that and as such these three were the museums that really called for me, hence my coverage of them.