25 Petrovka

The main building of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art is an architectural monument, constructed in 1793. It was designed by the famous Russian architect Matvey Kazakov. The building was part of the city estate of Mikhail Gubin, a wealthy Ural industrialist and merchant.

Together with the side wings (one of them still exists) the mansion was a typical Moscow manor ensemble, facing the “red line” of the street, with a park and a small pond behind the buildings. The estate existed like this until the end of the 19th century. Then the property was divided, and most of it, together with the garden and the pond, was sold and built up. In 1880 the main house was given to a high school. The famous poet, one of the principal members of the Russian Symbolist movement Valery Bryusov and businessmen and philanthropists Bakhrushin brothers studied there.

In 1920 the building was given to the Institute of Physiotherapy and Orthopaedics. Throughout the Soviet period the building hosted a hospital. The exterior decoration and the interior became very dilapidated during this period, a major restoration was required. Now the visitors of the museum can see the unique paintings of the mansion's ceilings made in the classicist spirit.

The idea to adapt a historical mansion for modern art expositions is quite typical in the world museum practice. The combination of old and new forms, close proximity of different epochs opens both the artist and the viewer the possibility of self-defining in the synthetic space of culture.