Baku Museum of Modern Art

Summary

Baku Museum of Modern Art (Azerbaijani: Bakı müasir incəsənət muzeyi) is a museum of modern art located in Baku, Azerbaijan.[2]

Baku Museum of Modern Art
Map
Established20 March 2009
LocationYusif Safarov Street 5, Baku, Azerbaijan[1]
Collection size800
Public transit accessM 2 Şah İsmail Xətai metro station
Websitewww.mim.az

History edit

The museum was built at the initiative of the First Lady of Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva and opened on 20 March 2009.[2] It was funded by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, of which the First Lady is head. The foundation has also created projects with the Louvre Museum and the Palace of Versailles.[3] The museum is intended as a focus for an "eco-cultural zone" conceived of by Thomas Krens, former director of the Guggenheim Foundation, that will also include a white-sand beach, a Frank Gehry skyscraper, and a walkway that projects out over the Caspian Sea.[3]

The museum does not have fixed subject areas. The architectural concept of the museum avoids halls with corners and has open passages and walls that meet at different angles, creating a multidimensional perspective of exhibits. Conspicuous metallic structures and the use of the color white unite all parts into a single "moving abstract structure."[2] The chief designer and architect of the museum (2008), collection and exposition (2008-2023) by the artist Altay Sadigzade; [3][4]

Displays edit

 
Mehriban Aliyeva and Svetlana Medvedeva visited the museum

The museum focuses on the second half of the twentieth century and contains over 800 works by notable Azerbaijani painters and sculptors, particularly avant garde art of the 1960s and 1970s, including Rasim Babayev, Ashraf Murad, Gennady Brejatjuk, Fazil Najafov, Mamed Mustafaev, Aga Houssejnov, Ali Ibadullaev, Mir-Nadir Zeynalov, Fuad Salayev, Farhad Halilov, Darvin Velibekov, Eldar Mammadov, Mikail Abdurahmanov, Museib Amirov, Mahmud Rustamov, Huseyn Hagverdiyev,[5] Eliyar Alimirzayev, Nazim Rahmanov, Rashad Babayev and Altay Sadikh-zadeh. There are also non-Azerbaijani modern masterworks by Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, and Marc Chagall from private collectors.[2]

Exhibitions of Azerbaijani photographers such as Elnur Babayev, Fakhriya Mammadova, Ilkin Huseynov, Rena Efendi, Sergei Khrustalev, Sitara Ibrahimova, Tahmina Mammadova are often held in the museum.[6]

The museum includes a children's fine arts department, a video hall, a café, a restaurant, a separate hall for private exhibitions, a library, and a bookstore with materials pertaining to world art, architecture and sculpture.[2]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Музей Современного Искусства". Archived from the original on 2012-04-03. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Müasir İncəsənət Muzeyinə Xoş Gəlmişsiniz! Tarix" [Official website: Welcome to Modern Museum of Art! History] (in Azerbaijani). Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  3. ^ a b c Abbasov, Shahin. "Azerbaijan: Ex-Guggenheim Director Betting on Bilbao-Style Project for Baku". Eurasianet.org. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  4. ^ "Bakıda Müasir İncəsənət Muzeyi açıldı" [Museum of Contemporary Art opened in Baku] (in Azerbaijani). kultaz.com. 20 March 2009. Archived from the original on 17 January 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  5. ^ "Baku Museum of Modern Art: At the heart of Azerbaijan's art scene". euronews. 2022-11-21. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  6. ^ "В Музее современного искусства открылась выставка фоторабот". Archived from the original on 24 April 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011.

40°22′41″N 49°51′53″E / 40.37806°N 49.86472°E / 40.37806; 49.86472