This exhibition explores various aspects of Russian realist painting and its application as a medium of social communications to the citizens of the Soviet Union.  In practical terms, the Soviet government structured the educational system to produce two generations of Russian artists whose creativity was directed to producing representational paintings that would memorialize, inspire and motivate Soviet citizenry.

A brochure for this exhibition was produced and is archived.

“Windows to the Russian Soul” offers glimpses into the lives and the cultural legacy of the people who lived in political turmoil from the pre-Revolutionary period through the 1980s.  Curated with the assistance of staff from the renowned State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the exhibition explores the length, depth, and scope of the country that encompassed 11 time zones and hundred of racial, religious, and ethnic groups.

A brochure for this exhibition was produced and is archived.

This exhibition examined Soviet life along the following themes:  Industrial and Agricultural Development, Youth & Education, Urban & Rural Lifestyles, World War II, Religion in Art.

A brochure for this exhibition was produced and is archived.

In the museum’s inaugural exhibit, nearly 100 landscapes, portraits and genre paintings depict life in many of the 15 former USSR republics during the Soviet era (1921-1991).  As the government encouraged artists to record social progress throughout the vast reaches of the land, the artists also responded to their own creative visions.

A brochure for this exhibition was produced and is archived