Saturday 20 September 2008

Climb Higher

Quote of the Day : "Please switch off your handphone, you cannot use it in here. If you don't, the frequency will set off the alarm, the militia will come and you will have to pay a fine. I have explained to you, better listen to me" - An old lady curator of the museum.

Talk of the town is that Roman Abramovich's girlfriend, Ms.Zhukova has opened her own art gallery called The Garage in Moscow. Turkish and I are putting that place on hold, assuming that it could be packed with art enthusiasts. Plus the admission is free. Actually we just wanted to carry out our plan which we had postponed since last week LOL We visited the Nicholas Roerich Museum today ;)

Founded by the International Centre of The Roerichs

I am a big fan of Nicholas Roerich ever since I saw his paintings in the Oriental Art Museum (2006). Oooohhh.. the Song of Shambhala took my breath away. Nicholas Roerich was a Russian painter, philosopher and an explorer who conducted numerous expeditions (with his family) to the East. I admire his landscape paintings of the mountains, almost no two paintings are similar in colour nor shape. Most of his works were used with tempera on canvas which gave his art a smoooooooth matte finish. Very classic, truly brilliant!

I couldn't take any pictures in the museum, too bad. The old ladies guarding the halls have hawk eyes despite their old age. Can't even stand properly but still could tell us this is prohibited, that is prohibited LOL There is a souvenir shop that sells posters of the paintings but my favourite was out of stock *sniff, sniff*. I really liked the "She who leads" piece. The background is majestic, I love the pinkish hue. I just found a few from Google Images, try to see if you can see the calmness and depth in these few paintings :)

"Remember"

"Book of Wisdom"

"Star of the Hero"

"Red Steeds"


"She who leads" (my favourite)

Posing next to Nicholas Roerich!

Nicholas Roerich and his family migrated to India, where he explored not only higher altitude of lands but spiritual pathway as well. He was a man on mission. I didn't really understand why the museum had this sect/cult-looking symbol hanging at every corner. Turkish pointed it out to me LOLWe returned home to read more about it and guess what, the sect/cult-looking symbol is actually the Banner of Peace aka Pax Cultura, meaning "Peace Through Culture". Nicholas Roerich founded the movement in 1930s to protect historic monuments, museums, scientific, artistic, educational and cultural institutions at all times.

Good man!

The sect/cult-looking symbol I was talking about :P

ps. there's even a planet named after Roerich!

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