The Primorye State Picture Gallery
Aleutskaya St. 12/ Partizanskiy Ave. 12
The Primorye State Picture Gallery is often called the cultural gem of the Russian Far East. And it deserves this status, for it is the only art museum in the region that keeps the unique collection of Russian, Soviet and West European paintings dated to 18th-20th centuries, and has very valuable decorative and applied arts collection.
The Gallery was opened in 1966. Its original collection, however, started to form long before that - back in the 1930s the art division of the V.K. Arsenyev Museum of Local Lore received over one hundred unique works of painting and graphics from the famous museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The legendary Tretyakov Gallery, Russian Museum, the Hermitage Museum and the Academy of Fine Arts were among the museums that shared their treasures with Vladivostok. It was then that world-famous canvases by Marc Chagall, Ivan Shishkin, Sylvester Shchedrin, Ilya Repin, and rare Old Russian paintings moved to Primorye.
It was decided to create a separate gallery for these valuable works of visual art in order that they don't get lost against the background of other museum's exhibits. The Primorye State Picture Gallery's unique collection of artistic valuables was enlarged on its opening day too: several Russian museums presented it with very interesting pictorial canvases. Today the Vladivostok museum's greatly expanded collection keeps the gems that could be envied by many art museums of the world.
Art Gallery's exposition consists of several divisions: Russian Art of 18th - early 20th century, West European Art of 16th - early 20th century, Icons and Church Utensils, Soviet Art and Artworks by Primorye Painters. The greater part of the museum's collection is located in the ancient building on the Aleutskaya Street at Vladivostok's downtown. Built in 1903 for the local branch of the Russo-Asian Bank, it is an important monument of Primorye capital's architecture. Another part of the collection is kept in the exhibition hall on the Partizanskiy Avenue.
