To mark the 90th anniversary of the Moscow Metro, the Moscow Transport Museum and the Museum of Moscow present the exhibition "High Underground"—a large-scale artistic research project dedicated to art in the Moscow Metro. The exhibition explores the metro as an "underground museum," where millions of passengers daily encounter works of art: mosaics, reliefs, sculptures, stained glass, and much more. The exhibition features over 350 objects from over 25 public and private collections, including the Tretyakov Gallery, the Shchusev Museum of Architecture, the Russian Museum, and the Museum of Moscow, as well as family archives of the descendants of artists who worked on the metro's design.
Among the artists featured in the exhibition are Vera Mukhina, Pavel Korin, Andrey Kuznetsov, Leonid Berlin, and other artists and architects who shaped the visual language of metro stations. Particular attention is being paid to the Moscow Transport Museum's own collection—models and multimedia materials created specifically for the future permanent exhibition in Konstantin Melnikov's garage on Novorizhanskaya Street will be on display for the first time. "High Underground" marks the beginning of a larger cultural research series by the Moscow Transport Museum, whose goal is to systematize and understand the art of the Moscow Metro as a cultural phenomenon.
The exhibition features unique photographs of the construction of metro stations and their openings. Other interesting exhibits from the museum's collection will also be on display, including Alexander Strelkov's 1959 design for the escalator gallery on Vorobyovy Gory, a relief inlay with oak leaves for the Belorusskaya metro station's circular route from the 1950s, a tablet with ceramic tile samples from the Bulganin Moscow Ceramic Tile Factory from the 1930s, and majolica tiles for seamless cladding developed specifically for metro construction and used, for example, at Komsomolskaya metro station to decorate the walkways in the 1950s.
Although the exhibition is dedicated specifically to the Moscow Metro, it was possible to gather exhibits from many Russian cities. A sketch for the Avtozavodskaya metro station from the K.A. Savitsky, Pavel Korin's sketch for Alexander Nevsky's mosaic at the Arbatskaya metro station from the Rybinsk State Historical, Architectural, and Art Museum-Reserve, and a decorative medallion for the Semyonovskaya station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line, on loan from the State Russian Museum.
The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections: "Familiar," "Forgotten," "Future," and "Unrealized." The "Familiar" section features originals and digital copies of works seen by Moscow metro passengers every day—mosaics, stained glass, medallions, lamps, architectural details, as well as archival photographs and video footage. Among the exhibits, for example, are Alexey Dushkin's original sketch for Mayakovskaya Station, which won the Grand Prix at the 1939 New York World's Fair; a model of Pavel Korin's "Pianist" stained-glass window for Novoslobodskaya Station; a fragment of a porcelain capital for Kievskaya Station; and an SK-300 ring light by Abram Damsky.
The "Forgotten" section is dedicated to artistic elements that disappeared from the metro over time: pavilions, reliefs, and decorative elements lost during reconstruction or as a result of changes in the socio-political context. On display are models and sketches of the original designs for the above-ground vestibules of Lubyanka and Kurskaya Stations, the lost Okhotny Ryad vestibule in the Hotel Moskva building, and a model of the Paveletskaya station pavilion, now incorporated into the Paveletsky Station building. This section features, for example, Pavel Korin's sketch for the mosaic "Peace in the World" and Vera Mukhina's medallion for Semyonovskaya (known as Stalinskaya Station until 1961), created in 1944. These are genuine artifacts of a bygone era and testament to how the art of the Moscow Metro reflected and survived the cultural and historical changes of the 20th century.
The "Future" section of the exhibition looks to the future: a multimedia installation created using neural networks visualizes artistic solutions for new stations to be built in the near future. And the total installation "Unrealized" presents architectural designs and artistic sketches that were never realized—a metaphorical "paper metro." These include digital copies of the competition designs for the Biblioteka imeni Lenina and Avtozavodskaya metro stations, a sketch of the ground-level vestibule of the Baumanskaya metro station by Boris Iofan with unrealized sculptural compositions, and much more.
Among the artists featured in the exhibition are Vera Mukhina, Pavel Korin, Andrey Kuznetsov, Leonid Berlin, and other artists and architects who shaped the visual language of metro stations. Particular attention is being paid to the Moscow Transport Museum's own collection—models and multimedia materials created specifically for the future permanent exhibition in Konstantin Melnikov's garage on Novorizhanskaya Street will be on display for the first time. "High Underground" marks the beginning of a larger cultural research series by the Moscow Transport Museum, whose goal is to systematize and understand the art of the Moscow Metro as a cultural phenomenon.
The exhibition features unique photographs of the construction of metro stations and their openings. Other interesting exhibits from the museum's collection will also be on display, including Alexander Strelkov's 1959 design for the escalator gallery on Vorobyovy Gory, a relief inlay with oak leaves for the Belorusskaya metro station's circular route from the 1950s, a tablet with ceramic tile samples from the Bulganin Moscow Ceramic Tile Factory from the 1930s, and majolica tiles for seamless cladding developed specifically for metro construction and used, for example, at Komsomolskaya metro station to decorate the walkways in the 1950s.
Although the exhibition is dedicated specifically to the Moscow Metro, it was possible to gather exhibits from many Russian cities. A sketch for the Avtozavodskaya metro station from the K.A. Savitsky, Pavel Korin's sketch for Alexander Nevsky's mosaic at the Arbatskaya metro station from the Rybinsk State Historical, Architectural, and Art Museum-Reserve, and a decorative medallion for the Semyonovskaya station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line, on loan from the State Russian Museum.
The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections: "Familiar," "Forgotten," "Future," and "Unrealized." The "Familiar" section features originals and digital copies of works seen by Moscow metro passengers every day—mosaics, stained glass, medallions, lamps, architectural details, as well as archival photographs and video footage. Among the exhibits, for example, are Alexey Dushkin's original sketch for Mayakovskaya Station, which won the Grand Prix at the 1939 New York World's Fair; a model of Pavel Korin's "Pianist" stained-glass window for Novoslobodskaya Station; a fragment of a porcelain capital for Kievskaya Station; and an SK-300 ring light by Abram Damsky.
The "Forgotten" section is dedicated to artistic elements that disappeared from the metro over time: pavilions, reliefs, and decorative elements lost during reconstruction or as a result of changes in the socio-political context. On display are models and sketches of the original designs for the above-ground vestibules of Lubyanka and Kurskaya Stations, the lost Okhotny Ryad vestibule in the Hotel Moskva building, and a model of the Paveletskaya station pavilion, now incorporated into the Paveletsky Station building. This section features, for example, Pavel Korin's sketch for the mosaic "Peace in the World" and Vera Mukhina's medallion for Semyonovskaya (known as Stalinskaya Station until 1961), created in 1944. These are genuine artifacts of a bygone era and testament to how the art of the Moscow Metro reflected and survived the cultural and historical changes of the 20th century.
The "Future" section of the exhibition looks to the future: a multimedia installation created using neural networks visualizes artistic solutions for new stations to be built in the near future. And the total installation "Unrealized" presents architectural designs and artistic sketches that were never realized—a metaphorical "paper metro." These include digital copies of the competition designs for the Biblioteka imeni Lenina and Avtozavodskaya metro stations, a sketch of the ground-level vestibule of the Baumanskaya metro station by Boris Iofan with unrealized sculptural compositions, and much more.