With my two day pass for the hermitage, I gained access to the Hermitage General Staff Building too.
It was an amazing building on the inside (click image above to open gallery) with a balanced mix of modern and traditional.
The pictures on display were amazing . There were lots of Monet’s, Renoirs, Van Gough’s and Kandinsky’s pre bauhaus work. It was quite a remarkable building with some inspiring art work.
I then walked 2 miles across town to the contemporary art gallery called Erarta. What this walk, both there and back, showed me first hand was the kindness of Russians. I saw a man slow up traffic to let a pigeon cross in front of him. Then on the way back a guy tapped me on the shoulder to let me know my map had fallen out of my pocket, I was very grateful.
The most apparent information which was clear from Erarta was that Contemporary Art is each individuals representation of what they see in how they feel best express it. I really like this concept and feel that this statement is alot like life. I though about this because I made my self look at the historic stuff in the Hermitage yesterday but I loved the more modern work today. In life we should listen to the messages out body and emotions are saying. If we are lacking interest it something it may be a sign that it is not our calling in life.
I had a large Indian Meal at Tandoor on the way back to my hotel room, which alerted me to the fact that this is the first meal I have eaten where I was not looked at in an odd way for ordering vegetarian. In the menu it had an interesting quote which made me think of – Location, Location, Location – it said “There are 500 million (1/14 of the whole world) vegetarians in India” that seemed high, but I will go with it.
What I have learnt today:
- Kindness of Russians
- Lots of vegetarians in the world
- I prefer modern art galleries to historic museums
