The New Tretyakov?Why this museumThe Russian avant-garde is the one Russian artistic system to enter the world canon on equal terms, and its largest collection is here. MoMA and the Pompidou show Malevich and Tatlin torn from their setting; here they hang beside what they rebelled against, which changes the reading.
Getting there — step-free. Oktyabrskaya and Park Kultury have no lifts. There is convenient parking at the door and low-floor buses along Krymsky Val. Moscow metro stations almost never have lifts to the platform, except on the Big Circle line and the MCC. A wheelchair user is better served by the surface buses, which are low-floor across the centre.2–3 hours
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The Tretyakov Gallery building on Krymsky Val: the permanent display Art of the 20th Century and the gallery’s main temporary shows. Officially named the New Tretyakov since 2018.
The building. Built 1979–1983 by Y. Sheverdyaev and N. Sukoyan, shared with the Central House of Artists.
Good to know. A separate ticket from Lavrushinsky Lane.
Malevich’s Black Square, Petrov-Vodkin’s Bathing of a Red Horse, work by Kandinsky, Chagall, Goncharova and Larionov, the model of Tatlin’s Tower. Next door: the Muzeon park of dismantled Soviet monuments.
Start with the Black Square and the avant-garde hall — Kandinsky, Goncharova, Larionov, Tatlin’s Tower. Then Bathing of a Red Horse. Leave time for the temporary show: the gallery’s biggest projects are here.
| Mon | closed |
| Tue, Wed, Sun | 10:00–18:00 |
| Thu–Sat | 10:00–21:00 |
Work by the sculptor who carved quebracho and algarrobo: in his hands wood holds shapes impossible in marble.