Noskova A. How to enjoy art in Astrakhan “– Look at this picture, this character’s sight following you! – Dude, it’s the watcher…” authors unknown Stage one: Get forced to visit Astrakhan Picture Gallery. Get lost on the way. Finally find your way in. Stage two: Get lost in the building. Finally get your student free ticket. Grab your friend, make your way to the send floor. Don’t get lost. Stage three: Enter the Picture Maze. Stare at the walls. Find the pictures. … Try, try not to get lost! Grab your friend, get inspired… “Dear my friend, Can you see it? Can you see how light the brush strokes are? Look at these shades of green, look at the blue sky, and there, there – can you see this swan, how shiny its feathers are? Can you feel the warmth of the depicted sun, don’t you wanna swim in this crystal clear lake, don’t you wanna feel the scent of these flowers? And this, this tree, I wanna touch its warm bark, I wanna hear sweet murmur of its branches, whisper of young foliage…” “Come on…” Make your way to the next hall. Stare at the pictures again (Really, what else to do in a gallery?). Listen to your friend… “Dear friend, look at this! So simple get to inspiring. This angel, her rosy cheeks and tender smile, blue toga with shiny stars… Fluffy clouds – oh goddess, so fluffy! And I can feel the wind in her wings, in every trembling feather. How peacefully she looks at us…” Get inspired. Stare at the picture for good 30 minutes… Carefully take out your camera and try to make a shot. Say “Just checking time” to the puzzled Gallery watcher. Stage four. Get lost in Picture Maze. Notice that you don’t care about getting lost anymore. Make some circles around the pictures. Find the exit. Decide to take a look at some pictures again. Stage five Notice the time. Hurry to the exit, write down the name of the artist whose exposition you just visited “Vla-di-mir… Ga-la-ten-ko » ... Stage six Through the Galley Maze make your way outside. Get an icicle under your nose. Enter “Foreign art section”. Think about getting lost… Stage seven Follow the watcher. No, you won’t get lost anymore. Stare at the… No, not the pictures. Yet. Stare at the vases, at the ancient tableware from Asia. Hear, “don’t get too close! Watch your bags” from the Staring Watcher. Lose the inspiration you got from looking at masterpiece brushworks. Stage eight. Keep following your silent convoy as known as The Staring Watcher. Try to get inspired or at least to get lost. Try to carefully study the pictures. Try to enjoy works of art., try to concentrate. Try to get inspired… Finally feel that the “staring feeling” on your back is gone and find yourself looking at the picture “Sunrise” with your friend. Silently use your telepathy. Whisper that you love the colors. Whisper that the picture is epic. Wake up the watcher. Stage nine. Find your way out. Share opinion with your friend. Share that sadly the maintaining of the Picture Gallery leaves much to be desired but that won’t change your opinion about the masterpieces it managed to trap. It’s good that people can “touch” at least some art in Astrakhan. If they don’t get lost… Mashina A. The Dogadin Art Gallery Astrakhan Art Gallery is one of the greatest art museums in the Volga Delta. It is situated in an antique three-storied building with its wing facing the backyard of the house. The gallery was founded by Pavel Dogadin who was fascinated by visual arts. He was the first keeper of the Gallery and soon as he died it was named in his honor. Then the Gallery was renamed to commemorate Boris Kustodiev, a famous Astrakhan-born painter whose life was closely connected to the Gallery. In recent years the name of P.Dogadin was returned to the Gallery. The Gallery consists of hundreds of fabulous works and has also participated in a variety of exhibitions abroad. The whole gallery collection was awarded an Honorary diploma and the golden palm (palm D’Or) of the International Council of museums in France. The richest and the most peculiar is the Russian section which is much more comprehensive, when room-by-room guided, and is well worth looking at to get a taste of the Gallery. It is possible to know here all the schools and directions of Russian art ever existed. Some icons by Novgorod and Moscow schools as the earliest form of Russian Art are presented at the entrance hall. The 18th century period is characterized mainly by portraits exhibited in a separate hall. Here we can see the portraits performed by Fyodor Rokotov, Vladimir Borovikovsky, Dmitry Levitzky. The first half of the 19th century, of so called romanticism is marked by works by Alexander Varnek, Karl Briullov, Alexei Venetsianov, Vasily Tropinin. The following halls devoted to the second half of 19th century represent a more realistic view of painting with a lot of works by Peredvizhniki. Here one can enjoy genre paintings of Konstantin Savitsky, Nikolay Yaroshenko and Abram Arkhipov, the landscape paintings of Ivan Shishkin, Isaac Levitan, Konstantin Vasilyev, Lev Kamenev, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Alexei Savrasov and the historical paintings of Vasily Polenov, Vasily Surikov, Ilya repin. At the halls of the 19th – 20th centuries exhibited mainly the works of artists associated with the “Mir Iskusstva” – “The World of Art”: Konstantin Somov, Nicholas Roerich, Viktor Vasnetsov, Alexandre Benois, the portraitist Valentin servo, the symbolist Mikhail Vrubel and Victor Borisov-Musatov prominent for his unique Post-Impressionistic style that mixed Symbolism, pure decorative style and realism. The last halls of the 20th century are notable for the works by the first purely- abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky, the pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement Kazimir Malevich, an early modernist Marc Chagall and one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko. This is not even the whole list of painters whose works are exhibited at the Gallery and everyone can come here any day he wants to see this variety of masterpieces of the great Russian artists. Ledovskaya D. Visiting The Kustodiev Gallery The Kustodiev Gallery is the most outstanding place in Astrakhan. I do not remember when first I had a chance to visit it, but I must say it didn't impress me at all. (Though I was a child then, so probably I was not that into art). However, few days ago I again went to the gallery, as it was necessary to visit it as some special home task. At first it seemed like obligation, but when I came into the gallery everything's changed. First thing I should mention was a just-married couple leaving the gallery while we were entering it, which I thought was a good sign. So I found the reception and asked a woman if there was something to look at in the gallery. According to her words I could find two active exhibitions: one of Russian art and one of Foreign art. As all of them were free of charge I decided not to think and took both tickets. While being at the wardrobe I can't stop thinking how inspirational was her voice while she was talking to me, like she really did like her work. So, I put on special shoes (which I bought in the wardrobe for twopence) and the main action began. Started with Russian art or, to be more precise, from the exhibition of Vladimir Galatenko I had to turn on my art-switch as the pictures were painted in different style variations and with different materials. The author not only used oil painting, but also watercolors, pencils (as color as black'n'white) and gouache, which was amazing! Some of his works reminded of the Picassos, some of impressionists, and some were just sketches, but made with a high technique. I think everyone could find the very piece of art that really impressed him. Delighted in these works I left the exhibition for Foreign department placed in another building of the gallery. The first section I visited was the section of Asian art full of Chinese vessels, statuettes and small bric-a-bracs, reminded me of good days in China. It's interesting how these things could stir up the brightest memories, isn't it? Well, back to the art, the section also included some works of Indian and Persian art, which were also magnificent. The final destination of my travel was the hall of European art, as I was eager to see it from the very beginning. So I walked up the stairs and....was totally disappointed as the hall was small and full of utensils which I considered were French according to the graphics on it. Save god they actually have some pictures to look at and I decided to make a full gaze examination of them. Carefully looked at each picture I concluded they were worth it. Unfortunately, most of the works were of unknown authors, which was grievous as they really were The beauty. Me personally pointed out two most remarkable works named "The last Lord's Supper" and "The Daybreak". "Why were they so special?" you may ask. I'll tell you. The fist one depicted Christ and apostles not in the way we used to see them: middle-aged tortured men with sad eyes depicted as plane as it possible sitting at the table full of meal and so on, and so on.