“High Underground”
"High Underground" is the first art-research project revealing the Moscow Metro as a unique underground museum. This joint exhibition of the Moscow Transport Museum and the Museum of Moscow presents over 350 works from more than 25 collections: mosaics, stained-glass panels, sketches, scale models and archival documents.
Concept
The Moscow Metro is not merely a transport system but a treasure trove of art. Beneath the city streets lie halls of marble, bronze and glass, adorned with frescoes and mosaics by outstanding 20th-century masters. Every day, millions of passengers hurry down escalators unaware that they are traversing one of the world’s largest underground art galleries.
Concept
The Moscow Metro is not merely a transport system but a treasure trove of art. Beneath the city streets lie halls of marble, bronze and glass, adorned with frescoes and mosaics by outstanding 20th-century masters. Every day, millions of passengers hurry down escalators unaware that they are traversing one of the world’s largest underground art galleries.
Exhibition Sections
"Familiar"
Elements we encounter daily: original sketches, medallions, lighting fixtures, architectural details.
Key exhibits: A. Dushkin’s original sketch for Mayakovskaya (Grand Prix, 1939 New York World’s Fair); P. Korin’s stained-glass model "The Pianist" for Novoslobodskaya; fragment of the porcelain capital from Kievskaya station.
Elements we encounter daily: original sketches, medallions, lighting fixtures, architectural details.
Key exhibits: A. Dushkin’s original sketch for Mayakovskaya (Grand Prix, 1939 New York World’s Fair); P. Korin’s stained-glass model "The Pianist" for Novoslobodskaya; fragment of the porcelain capital from Kievskaya station.
"Forgotten"
Lost pavilions and decorative elements erased by reconstructions and shifting historical contexts.
Notable artifacts: models of the above-ground vestibules for Lubyanka and Kurskaya stations; P. Korin’s mosaic sketch "Peace Throughout the World"; V. Mukhina’s medallion for Semenovskaya (1944).
Lost pavilions and decorative elements erased by reconstructions and shifting historical contexts.
Notable artifacts: models of the above-ground vestibules for Lubyanka and Kurskaya stations; P. Korin’s mosaic sketch "Peace Throughout the World"; V. Mukhina’s medallion for Semenovskaya (1944).
"Forthcoming"
A multimedia neural-network installation visualizing artistic concepts for metro stations to be built in the coming years.
A multimedia neural-network installation visualizing artistic concepts for metro stations to be built in the coming years.
"Unrealized"
Competition entries and sketches for stations that were never built: Library of Lenin, Avtozavodskaya; B. Iofan’s above-ground vestibule for Baumanskaya with unexecuted sculptural ensembles.
Competition entries and sketches for stations that were never built: Library of Lenin, Avtozavodskaya; B. Iofan’s above-ground vestibule for Baumanskaya with unexecuted sculptural ensembles.
© From the collection of the A.V. Shchusev Museum of Architecture
Featured artists
Vera Mukhina, Pavel Korin, Alexey Dushkin, Boris Iofan, Leonid Berlin, Andrey Kuznetsov and others.
Vera Mukhina, Pavel Korin, Alexey Dushkin, Boris Iofan, Leonid Berlin, Andrey Kuznetsov and others.
Format and Collections
Over 350 works drawn from the Tretyakov Gallery, Russian Museum, A.V. Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, family archives and private collections
Mosaics, stained-glass panels, sculptures, sketches, architectural models, medallions, and video archives
Over 350 works drawn from the Tretyakov Gallery, Russian Museum, A.V. Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, family archives and private collections
Mosaics, stained-glass panels, sculptures, sketches, architectural models, medallions, and video archives
A Living Dialogue with the City
The exhibition poses the question: “Could Moscow’s main transport artery be its principal museum?” It invites visitors to rediscover the Metro as an artistic landscape uniting the city’s past, present and future.
The exhibition poses the question: “Could Moscow’s main transport artery be its principal museum?” It invites visitors to rediscover the Metro as an artistic landscape uniting the city’s past, present and future.
НАЗАД
Click on the photo to browse the gallery
