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Sculptures, New Treyakov, Oriental Musuem

It was a good morning and I decided to hit the ground running. I started off in a different part of the city walked out of the metro and walked across a large bridge. I was looking for the New Tretyakov gallery but instead walked into a large open air art market that was still pretty sleepy despite it being pretty late in the morning. There were a couple of hundred vendors and it took me at least 15 minutes to quickly browse the works of art for sale.  I didnt stop to ask how much they were because I had a full day planned but I would guess the prices started around 30 dollars. I was impressed by the quality of the art available and the mulitude of styles.

While still headed towards the art gallery I noticed the monstrousity that is a monument to Peter the Great.  Its about 50 meters tall with a pirate ship and fountains at the base. It is a crazy sort of thing. Quite gawdy, at the time I assumed it had been there for a 100 years but learned that like many of the monuments to czarist times, that it had been built quite recently. Even more ironic was that Peter the Great moved the capitol to St Petersburg which resulted in a massive decline of the city over a 200 year period.

After that I noticed that I was next to a sculpture park which I had red about in my guidbook.  Among many other things it contained many statues from the soviet period which would have been confined to the trasheap if someone hadnt had the sense to save them for posterity.  Of course like many of the museums in Russia foreigners typically pay double or triple the price.  For this sculpture park the differential was 5 times the price, but it was quite interesting and still only about 3.50.  All the soviet leaders were represented, there were statues of workers, farmers. Young people learning the joys of communism and quite a creepy memorial to people who died from stalinist purges which consisted of a few dozen of the discared statue heads fenced in, surrounded by barbwire and it was one of the saddest things I have seen.

Next off was the New Tretzakov gallery, which was in a building that looked like a warehouse with an advertisement for a telephone company on the top. It was a large building, and the art museum was virtually empty.  The art contained inside was mostly Russian stuff from the 20th century. The museum contained dozens of galleries complete with a host of soviet art, strong soldiers, standing defiantly. Prominent workers and partz members. Portraits of generals.  I was certainly on a bit of a time crunch as I was trying to meet the ever so pregnant Lena at the Oriental Museum at 2 oclock. Towards the end of the museum was my favorite piece created shortly after the break up of the soviet union.  It was an artsy scultpure staring defiantly down on Lenin. 

It was a quick hop on the metro and then 10 min walk to meet Lena at the museum of Oriental art. It was a comprehensive collection of most every eastern civilzation. I was convenientlz quiet while Lena purchased the tickets so that I could get the Russian admission pricce saving 50 roubles or two dollars. It should be noted that Lena insisted on paying for mz entry and that I will make it up to her many fold. Eat that Lena, when you read this. The oriental museum was good.  Extremely diverse and quite relevant to a grand circle tour of Asia.

What can I say of Lenas hospitality. It was really super. She insisted on cooking a big supper every evening, making a nice breakfast and even sending me off for my day with sandwhiches and apple pie. It really made me feel special and at the same time a little guilty.

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