Art on a Grand Scale:
Monumental Painting in Moscow

City:

Moscow

Year:

2025

Location:

Moscow Musum

Team:

Curator: Alina Koren
Architecture: Nadezhda Babenko
Equipment: ALEDO

The exhibition Art on a Grand Scale: Monumental Painting in Moscow presents the development of monumental and decorative art in Moscow from 1918 through the 1980s. It showcases various stages of creation and techniques of monumental painting, including mosaics, frescoes, and sgraffito, designed for building facades and public spaces throughout the city.

The lighting design for the exhibition is based on static, architectural lighting that supports the narrative flow. In the central nave of the exhibition, several key light accents help guide visitors through the story and different sections, serving as the main lighting focal points in the space.

Hall with drawings and paintings from different periods, accent lighting from overhead tracks highlighting each exhibit on light and gray surfaces

Walls with graphic sketches lit by track lighting from above, and a tilted display case with an architectural model at the center of the exhibition

Wide gallery view with red accent wall, multiple display pedestals, framed artworks on varied backgrounds, and exposed brick

Multi-level exhibition with prints and paintings on black walls, where track lighting creates contrast between illuminated artworks and dark

Architectural model under glass with side panels on black pedestals in cool directional lighting

Brightly lit geological map in the center with mineral and stone samples displayed in side niches

Brick vaults and columns form the exhibition's framework, with an enormous carved panel illuminated by accent lighting

Exhibition with dark blue wall displaying graphic sheets, layouts and photographs, with three-dimensional models on light pedestals

Corridor between two exhibition pylons with graphic works and sketches on blue wall left and gray wall right

Museum space with colorful walls and paintings, illuminated by track lighting

Ancient artifact on a black pedestal in the center of a hall, lit from above, with vaulted brick columns and blue exhibition walls on either side

The side naves, especially in the section titled On a Human Scale, are built on a carefully constructed hierarchy of light across various planes. Through subtle contrast and brightness adjustments on each wall, we brought to life the past ideas of monumental artists and architects, who believed that form is evaluated through the distribution of brightness, while the visibility factor — contrast created by light and shadow — becomes an aesthetic category itself.

Exhibition of graphic works on blue walls illuminated by track lighting that contrasts bright artwork with dark ceiling

Ancient mosaic with figures in blue and yellow tones, divided by a central seam, lit by directed light that reveals the relief of the smalt cubes

Photographer: Vasily Bulanov