Aboutthe Museum

Erarta is the biggest in Russia non-governmental museum of contemporary art. Its task is to collect, exhibit, and popularize most ingenious and skillful works by contemporary artists. According to the goals declared, the museum deals exhibition projects, publishes its periodical catalogue, organizes excursions and educational programs.  Erarta Museum welcomes the widest audience. It's pursuit is to provide every visitor with an opportunity to discover contemporary art and to find something in it that would be interesting and close to them.

Museum News

21 July

Relevance of the Natural

Erarta galleries have opened the exhibition of Vladimir Semensky “Relevance of the Antique”.

21 July

A Cafe Opened in Erarta

On the map of the Northern capital ARTpoint is a cafe located in Erarta museum and galleries of contemporary art.

16 July

The Second Issue of “Non-StandArt” Is Published

The issue is devoted to the poet and artist Vladlen Gavrilchik.

Director's Welcoming Address

The expression «the museum of contemporary art» does not possess the meaning as unambiguous as «he museum of Saint-Petersburg history» or «the museum of sculpture» does. There are several approaches to contemporary art that form the framework to back on when answering the basic questions related to its temporal, stylistic, and geographical boundaries. A museum of contemporary art has its tasks and priorities developed depending on the approach chosen by its founders.

For that reason it is important to dwell on what we understand by contemporary art and what are the principles of collection formation. 

The established time boundaries correspond to the international standard, i.e. art created after 1945 that is after the end of the World War II, up to the present is considered «contemporary art». The earliest exhibits in the collection date back to the 1950s and were created by unofficial artist at the period of the «thaw». 

Now we should tell about the art we collect. In our choice we pay attention to the three main qualities: freedom, ingenuity, and skill. 

We are concerned that contemporary art embodies the idea of freedom of personal freedom. Therefore to us, the main indication of genuine art is its freedom from all kinds of diktats, political, economical, and professional. As soon as art becomes subordinate to any of those, it ceases to be free and genuine.

Freedom allows the artists to embody his/her own ideas and feelings in his/her works, thus making art genuine, deep, and interesting to other people. Art should enrich the observer by an influx of new impressions and experience.

The artist's mastery is the vital requirement for the observer to perceive the artist's ability to cast ideas in an objective shape. The criteria of mastery change in time. New arts imply new expressive devices and skills. Yet, the gap between talented and weak art always exists.

To conclude, some remarks about geography should be mentioned. One of the major tasks for our museum is to promote contemporary Russian art. Therefore, even though Erarta collection is based on works by Saint-Petersburg artists, the museum collaborates with artists from all over the country.     

In the future we intend to cooperate with foreign artists as well. Today we would like to present the collection of contemporary Russian art that is utmostly in line with the above-mentioned requirements.

Michail Ovchinnikov
Director of Erarta, the Museum of Contemporary Art