Donetsk, 83055, Pushkina Boulevard, 35
Tel./Fax 305-37-27
E-mail: artmuseum@mail.ints.net

The Donetsk regional museum of art has over 11 thousand pieces of painting, graphic, sculpture, decorative and applied art.

The museum was founded on September 23, 1939 as the Museum of fine arts and stopped its functioning in 1941 because of the beginning of the Great Patriotic war. In 1958 it started its work again as the fine arts department of the Stalino museum of regional studies; in 1960 it became the Stalino picture gallery, and in 1965 - the Donetsk regional museum of art.

The collection of the museum was formed through receiving exhibits from republican and all-union artistic exhibitions, from funds of state museums of the USSR: Tretyakov gallery, the museum of fine arts named after A. Pushkin, Hermitage, Russian museum, museums of Ukraine, from private collections, donations of painters.

The collection of the Russian art of the fund of the museum was created almost completely during the after-war period of its existence. Only 9 exhibits from the pre-war collection returned to the museum in 1975. Among the unique paintings one can find "The portrait of the unknown man with the Konstyantynovsky Order of Saint George" (the beginning the 30-ies, XIX century), the work of the famous portrait-painter Orest Kyprensky; "The interior of the picture gallery of V.O. Kokorev" (1864) created by the young talented painter Olexander Grebnev: "The Azure Grotto" by I. Ivasovsky (1941); "The clouds over the quiet sea" (1873) and "The sea landscape. Kocktebel" (1880); "The birch forest" by I. Shishkin (1871), "The portrait of the painter I.S. Krachkovsky" by V. Surikov (1884); "The Portrait of O.K. Lansere" by Z. Serebryakova, etc.

The small department of Ukrainian art of the second half of the XIXth century — the beginning of the XXth century presents creative works of the famous painters of Ukraine. The paintings "Meeting the evening" by I. Dryapachenko, "The evening in Ukraine" by K. Kryzhytsky, "The fair" by S. Vasylkovsky, "The house of the painter" by S. Svitoslavsky, "At walk" by G. Svitlytsky are among them.

The department of foreign art exhibits works of the painters from Italy, Holland, France, Germany, Austria created in XVII - the end of XIX centuries.

The department of modern art is the richest one as for the number of works, both paintings and graphic pieces as well as sculptures.

Among the numerous artistic works of the XXth century the masterpieces of the famous painters are presented, whose creative activities follow the best traditions of Russian and European art of the XIXth century, namely, P. Konchalovsky's, O. Kuprin's, R. Falk's, I.Mashkov's, I.Grabar's, S. Malyutin's ones.

The prominent place in the exposition of the museum belongs to the works of famous masters of Ukrainian art - L. Kramarenko, M. Glushchenko, S. Grygoriev, M. Bozhii, T. Yablonsky.

In the department of the decorative and applied art various exhibits are presented, including the Poltava and Lviv carpets, the Kiev, Kosivo and Opishnya ceramics, decoratively painted things, glass, wood-carvings, national costumes created by the well-known masters M. Pryimachenko, G. Sobachko-Shostak, M. Tymbenko, P. Tsvilyk, O. Zheleznyak.

Collecting the works of the Donetsk artists is one of the main tasks of the researchers of the museum. The works of the famous painters V. Polonyk, M. Yasynenko, G. Olempiyuk, V. Shendel, P. Shakalo, G. Tyshkevych, G. Zhukov, Y. Zorka are exhibited in the museum.

In the museum the regularly functioning expositions "Russian and Ukrainian Art of the XVIII - the beginning of the XX centuries", "Native Art in 1910-1950" are opened, as well as the regularly functioning exhibitions "West-European painting of the XVII-XIX centuries", "Ukrainian decorative and applied art". During the recent years the expositions "The ancient decorative and applied art" and "The Russian and Ukrainian Icon Painting Art" are created.

The Museum of people's architecture, every-day life and children's creativity in the village Prelesne, Slovyansky district of the Donetsk region, founded in 1983, is a department of the Donetsk regional museum of art. In its territory there is a monument of the garden and park architecture of the XIXth century, the estate and the park of the landlord O.F. Bantysh. The center of the museum complex is the peasant's farmstead of the XIXth century with household and living structures: the house itself, the forge, the mill, the shop of the jointer, the barn, the well, etc.

The researchers of the museum hold scientific investigations and work on attribution of the objects of the collection, develop methods of museum science and concepts of exposing exhibits and presenting exhibitions, on creation of catalogues. They prepared the scientific catalogue "Russian and Ukrainian painting of the XVIII - the beginning of the XX centuries in the collection of the Donetsk regional museum of art" for publication. During the three last years the museum published the catalogues "Ukrainian decorative painting", "The artists of Moscow and Leningrad in 1960-1980. Painting, graphic", "The war graphic of the Donetsk artists - front-line soldiers", "China and glazed pottery of the XIX - XX century in the collection of the museum", "Mykola Glushchenko. His paintings and Aquarelles in the collection of the museums of Donechchyna" and the advertisement booklet "The Donetsk regional museum of art".

Annually over 30 various exhibitions are presented in the halls of the museum, both from the fund of the museum and from different other museums and private collections, as well as the works of local artists, children being trained in special studios, folk masters of decorative and applied arts. The previous year the exhibition "The village of Sedniv in the works of the Donetsk artists" and the jubilee one to the Mykola Glushchenko centenary including paintingand graphic, the exhibition "Decorative and applied art of Donechchyna".

The guests of the museum are suggested general and subject excursions, creative meetings with artists, musical parties, folklore and ethnographic events.

In the halls of the museum the presentations of regional awards named after the composer S.S. Prokofiev, the painter A. Kuindgy, the poet V. Sosyura, the writer V. Shutov are held as well as regional exhibitions - creative reports and the exhibitions of the works of the challengers for membership in the Association of the Artists of Ukraine, the regional competition exhibitions of children's creativity.