osmerkin art-memorial museum

Olexandr Osmerkin, born Elisavetgrad (presently Kirovograd), is one of those artists whose life was ruined by merciless Soviet machine fighting with «formalism in art» (an ideological cliche used in the SU to destroy «pejorative art» like that by Kazimir Malevich or Dmitri Shostakovich). He was an author of over 700 artworks that can be found in many famous art museums, including The State Tretyakov Gallery and Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (both Moscow, Russia), The Russian Museum (St.Petersburg, Russia), The Russian Art Museum (Kyiv, Ukraine) and many others. Unfortunately, there isn’t that many works by Osmerkin in his memorial house-museum in Kirovograd. Personal belongings, some documents and photos, a few paintings and sketches are gathered in one memorial hall. And this is the only hall where you can’t take pictures. The other two smaller halls and the vault are given to temporary exhibitions, but none of them kept much of my interest. The entire experience was, however, awarding thanks to the nicest intelligent museum attendant. She was very enthusiastic sharing tons of information regarding the museum’s past and present and apologetic they didn’t possess many paintings by Osmerkin. She was also sorry I came too early as they were preparing an interesting tempo exhibition shortly. What impressed me the most: the museum makes up for its small collection by arranging various cultural events - chamber concerts, lectures, master classes, competitions. If not for the tiny collection, it is anyway worthy to come here for the building that hosts the museum. It was erected in 1899 by famous and productive (over 20 buildings in Kirovograd alone built in 48 years) architect Yakov Pauchenko, an uncle of Osmerkin, as his own house. Olexandr Osmerkin spent his early days there, in the artistic atmosphere of «cultural salon» created by his uncle Pauchenko. The house in Neorussian style resembles Russian «terem» and is surely an architectural gem of Kirovograd, one of the houses that I liked the most. Unfortunately, the original interiors were destroyed in mid 1950s.