A Museum of Soviet Art--Aptly in a Decomissioned Church (in Minneapolis)

Minneapolis is a medium-sized city that has had three major art museums. The striking stainless-steel Weisman Art Museum on the campus of the University of Minnesota on the east bank of the Mississippi River has recently expanded. The Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walker Art Center have also just added wings, with the Walker expanding further following the demolition of the old Guthrie Theater (the theater has its own grand new home on the west bank of the Mississippi).

The Art Institute has a world-class collection of Chinese and Japanese art and some outstanding European modernist paintings (and much else). The Walker specializes in modernist and postmodernist art and the strength of the Wiesman is also in modernist American painting.

The newest art museum on the already rich (and getting richer) Minneapolis scene is the Museum or Russian Art. Unlike any other museum in American (and, as far as I know, the world!) it exists solely to show Russian impressionist, Soviet social realist, and post-Soviet Russian art.

Given state support--and control--over art in the Soviet Union, paintings were not exported (or made with any export market in mind). A large amount of kitsch was produced, although, as in other artistic media, some artists were able to produce works of some artistic value while at least appearing to follow cultural guidelines (the Shostakovich 5th symphony is a prime example).

The current main exhibit, "The Soviet Breadbasket" includes some uninspired work, but also a few striking landscapes and pictures of peasants from the farther (non-Russian) reaches of the Soviet Union. I found more of interest in the "Works on Paper" that is in what was the vestry of what was a Congregationalist church (though I didn't know that Congregationalists went in for vestments), off behind the left of where the altar would have been (as viewed from the nave through which visitors pass).