Moscow’s New MoMA (Not Quite)

Via C-Monster I learned that the celebrity girlfriend of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, Daria Zhukova, opened a major new Moscow art gallery billed as “Russia’s answer to London’s Tate Modern and New York’s MoMA.”

The most intriguing part for me is the building that will house the gallery:

A cavernous former bus depot in northern Moscow, the Garage gallery…

With gallery space measuring 8,500 square metres (91,490 square feet), Garage was built by avant-garde Russian architect Konstantin Melnikov in the 1920s and is considered a Constructivist masterpiece. (source)

So, I searched online and find these pics. I’ve always loved Melnikov’s architecture but this one is a very marriage of Melnikov’s love of geometric simplicity and industrial materials. The horseshoe shape is unique (good for museum branding I’m sure) and the building looks surprisingly contemporary–boy those early Soviets sure knew their architecture.

UPDATE: Thanks for a keen commenter on this blog I discovered this is the WRONG building…so I continue my search for Moscow’s new MoMA–stay tuned!!!

And a model of the building via the web:

2 responses to “Moscow’s New MoMA (Not Quite)”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Hi Hrag!
    I live in Moscow, and just wanted to tell you that you have the wrong building. The garage that Dasha Zhukova wants to make into a MoMA is actually not an arch, but a rhomboid shape, and is in a different location (Ulitsa Obrotseva, 14, I think.)

    Sorry to point this out, but the building in question is actually still functioning as a bus depot, as far as I know…Melnikov built several…

    Thanks,

    David Riff

  2. Hrag Avatar

    I’m glad you said something…I’ll keep looking for an image. Do you have an image of the building or know of one online?

    This is why I love the internet!

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