The State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow

The history of the Oriental Museum dates back to the establishment of the institution itself in 1918 as one of the first oriental centers in the country. Already in the 1930s, the first exhibitions were held, the main collections of art objects of East and West Asia were gradually supplemented and formed from the eastern collections of the National Museum Fund, antique shops, as well as nationalized noble estates. In the 1920s, the State Historical Museum, the Alexander Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, and the Polytechnic Museum donated part of their collections.

The earliest collections of Chinese, Japanese and Iranian art monuments were presented at the first permanent exhibition in 1919. With the expansion of the exposition structure after the restoration work of the museum, it moved to a new building in the “Lunins House” in 1984, where it becomes available for the location of halls permanent exposition and exhibition complex, excursion bureau, lecture hall, scientific library, etc. At present, the permanent exhibition consists of halls of art objects from the countries of East, Central, North and Southeast Asia, as well as the Arab and Caucasian peoples. For a complete review, the exhibitions “Faces of the Buddha”, “Erasing the Rust from the Eyes” and, finally, “Edmond Petrosyan. Mysteries”, which presents more than sixty paintings by the famous artist.

You can also view the main monuments and materials on the museum's website, which includes not only a gallery, but also publications, educational programs that provide historical contexts within which certain cultures and trends were created and developed. However, expositions are the core of any museum communication, and visiting a museum creates special conditions for the formation of perceptions and impressions in the original contexts of objects. So, for example, we can easily not only contrast, but also draw a direct parallel between Chinese Buddhist art and Vietnamese.

Undoubtedly, I would also like to highlight the Japanese Art Hall, where the space-planning and artistic solution of the hall skillfully repeats its thematic representation, which can be seen in the creation of an imitation of Mink (Jap. 民家), a traditional Japanese house.

In general, for me, the main feature of the permanent exhibition was indicated in the way it does not fully preserve the ideas of a didactic exhibition, and we can feel a clear synthesis of the factual and aesthetic principles in a single space of halls. The very nature of the communication technique with the visitor is passive, which allows us to take part in an unusual dialogue in which each exhibit, whether it is connected with the history of Indian theater or Persian miniatures, has its own specific and accessible identity.