Society and Culture: Exhibition "Shukhov. Formula of Architecture" launched in Nizhny Novgorod

On July 20, 2021, the Volgo-Vyatka Branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Nizhny Novgorod - Arsenal) launched the exhibition "Shukhov. Formula of Architecture''. The exposition is the joint project of the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, Arsenal, the United Metallurgical Company and the OMK-Uchastie charitable foundation. It ideologically continues the Moscow project of the same name, which took place at the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture at the end of 2019. It portrays the great engineer, who represents the golden age of the Russian engineering school in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries, and also focuses on his design. The exposition's opening is timed with the 800th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod and the 125th anniversary of the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition, which became a triumph for Vladimir Shukhov.

Vladimir Shukhov's archive arrives in Nizhny Novgorod. It is not only a tribute to the city. It is also a symbolic meeting of the design laboratory of an engineer and architect with a key place for his legacy. Vladimir Shukhov gained fame in Nizhny Novgorod - at the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in 1896. There he demonstrated his author's designs for the first time. In 1897, Shukhov created a sheet-rolling workshop equipped with the world's first shell curved in two directions. A workshop was built in Vyksa. There is also a 40-meter Shukhov's water tower. Experts state that the hyperboloid supports of the power transmission line across the Oka, erected in 1927-1929, were the best designs by Shukhov. Two hyperboloid structures discovered near Nizhny Novgorod - fire towers - are also presented to the public.

The exhibition showcases more than 200 exhibits of Shukhov's artworks from Russian and foreign collections - graphic works, models, papers, photographs. The engineer's ideas may be compared with the achievements of modern masters of architecture - Norman Foster, Fry Otto, Werner Sobek, and others, who rediscovered cellular and light structures decades later. This approach allows comprehending the role and significance of Vladimir Shukhov's discoveries.

The exhibition program includes the screening of a 3D film "The Stereoworld of Engineer Shukhov". Its authors tried to represent the unique photographs of Vladimir Grigorievich by cinema means. A kind of visual diary records everyday life in Russia at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries.

The exhibition will run until November 7, 2021.