Moscow Guide
The Beliy Gorod
The Glazunov Gallery
Address: Across the road from the Museum of Private Collections
Opening time: Tues– Sun 11am–7pm
Price: R160
The Ilya Glazunov Picture Gallery (Kartinnaya galereya Ilyi Glazunova) showcases the work of Russia's most popular living artist. A child of the Soviet system (orphaned during the siege of Leningrad), Glazunov was taught by Boris Ioaganson, the head of the Artists Union, and looked set for success until his fascination for Orthodox and Tsarist culture led to him being "exiled" to Kazan in the 1970s. His status as a dissident was enhanced by tales of a gigantic canvas, The Mystery of the Twentieth Century – featuring Hitler, Stalin, Nicholas II, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky and a host of other historical and cultural figures – and of how senior apparatchiki secretly collected his works. By 1980 retro-patriotism was celebrated: Glazunov was awarded the title of Peoples' Artist; UNESCO chose his painting The Contribution of the Soviet Peoples to World Culture and Civilization for its permanent art collection, and later gave him their Picasso Gold Medal. His view of the Yeltsin era is embodied by another huge painting, The Market of Our Democracy, which shows Yeltsin waving a conductor's baton as two lesbians kiss and the oligarch Berezovsky flaunts a sign reading "I will buy Russia", while charlatans rob a crowd of refugees and starving children. Subtle it's not – but his 2002 exhibition at the Manège drew over two million visitors in a month, so his art clearly resonates with many even if Moscow's intelligentsia shudder with distaste.