Art museum looks back to the USSR

Amid the din of power saws, hammering and sanding, a new home is taking shape in a former church for a stereotype-shattering museum, the only one in North America dedicated to Russian art from the Soviet era.

The Museum of Russian Art, founded in 2002 by art dealer Raymond E. Johnson, is scheduled to reopen May 9 in the former Mayflower Church in southern Minneapolis.

The inaugural exhibition, “In the Russian Tradition: A Historic Collection of 20th Century Russian Paintings,” currently on view at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., features 27 paintings on loan from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, as well as 23 from the museum’s own collection.

“We’re not suggesting that this is necessarily the greatest art since the French Impressionists,” said Brad Shinkle, the museum’s president. “But we are suggesting that if you think you know something about Russian art, you might want to come by and challenge yourself to see if your dispositions and paradigms fit what visitors will see on the wall. Because I think they’ll change.”

The feature painting is Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin’s “The Bathing of the Red Horse.” It’s a large pre-Soviet piece from 1912 depicting a nude young man riding an enormous red horse above swirling waters. Some art historians see it as a prophetic indication of the turmoil to come.

Johnson began acquiring Russian Realist art during the 1990s, concentrating on the years since 1921. The museum’s collection is dominated by so-called conformist art that complied with Soviet doctrine of the era; many of the paintings are still lifes, portraits and landscapes, with themes of labor and party. The feel is French Impressionist.

The $5.5-million project is funded largely by a $3-million contribution from country music star Ronnie Dunn, half of the duo Brooks & Dunn, who sits on the museum’s board. Dunn became interested in the Russian art period when he saw it at a friend’s house. A longtime art collector, he called it an “overlooked genre” and said he hoped his gift would help spread it to a wider audience.

“I like the imagery,” he said. “I don’t know if I can intellectually box it in other than to say it’s striking to me.”

Shinkle said the museum’s collection is different from the image many Americans may have of Soviet-era art.

“They’re familiar with the strident propaganda pieces, they’re familiar with the poster art, but ... they just haven’t had any opportunity to view the fine visual art that was produced over ... years of Russian history,” he said.

The Museum of Russian Art opened in September 2002 at an out-of-the-way office-warehouse that houses Johnson’s art businesses. Since then, the museum has drawn an estimated 18,000 visitors, Shinkle said, adding that he hopes the new location -- just a few minutes drive south of downtown Minneapolis -- the expanded hours and the larger exhibition space will draw even more.