The Tretyakov Gallery

Moscow is replete with art galleries and museums. Yet there is one gallery that remains a symbol of Russian art. It is the world-famous Tretyakov Gallery. The founder of the gallery was the entrepreneur Pavel Tretyakov (1832-1898), who was from the merchant class. Beginning in 1856, Tretyakov had a hobby of collecting works by the Russian artists of his time. He was a famous patron of the arts who helped to support the "peredvizhniki" (a movement consisting of realistic painters in the second half of the 19th century). Toward this goal, he intended to purchase a collection from a St. Petersburg collector, Fyodor Pryanishnikov, and, having added his own collection, created a museum. The government bought Pryanishnikov's gallery in 1867, but Tretyakov gradually acquired an excellent collection, exceeding all other collections in Russia in its volume and quality. In 1892, Pavel Tretyakov donated his entire collection to Moscow. His brother Sergey Tretyakov (1834—1892) was also a collector, but only of Western European paintings. The brothers' collections were at core of the Moscow Municipal Art Gallery,which opened on August 15,1893. At first, it contained 1,287 paintings and 518 pieces of graphic art by Russian artists, as well as 75 paintings by Western European artists. Later, the Western European paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery were transferred to the Hermitage and the A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, and the Tretyakov Gallery began to specialize exclusively in Russian art.

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Спеціальність: Культурологія

Tattoos and Body Piercing

Nowadays if you walk down the street in any big city, you'll see persons with a tattoo, or a ring in their ear or nose — or even in their eyebrow. Decorating your body with exotic designs seems to be more and more popular. A tattoo is any indelible mark under the skin, which is made deliberately. The most common method is to prick the skin with a sharp instrument, like a needle. But it used to be done and can still be done with a bone or a shell. Originally tattooing was part of religious ceremonies in some cultures, but it goes back at least to the ancient Egyptians. The Japanese have been tattooing for centuries. And the American Indians used tattooing as a way of identifying themselves with certain tribes. For warriors in Africa it was a way of showing how brave you were. If you wanted to frighten your enemy, you'd have to get yourself tattooed first. Today in some societies if young girls are not decorated with beautiful tattooing, they won't be allowed to get married. Maoris in New Zealand still tattoo their faces.

The fashion for tattoos and body piercing became more popular in recent years with teens. In the modern world body piercing began in the 1970s in California. It became popular with punk rock in the 1980s as teenagers chose to express their rejection of conservative behaviour by piercing their noses, ears or eyebrows. It was a way of saying: "1 am not like you: I am myself." It's a way to express person's individuality. But body piercing is not only a teenage trend, it goes deeper. Even middle-aged people are keen on body piercing. Some middle-aged persons used to be rebels when they were young. And body piercing reminds them that they were once young and revolutionary.

So a tattoo is certainly fashionable. A little red rose on your shoulder can seem like a good idea at the time. But be careful. There is a very real danger of getting a serious disease if you go to an unqualified tattoo artist.