The State Committee of Information Technology & Telecommunication of Uzbekistan Republic The Tashkent State University of information Technology Urgench Department Computer Engineering Faculty Self - Study Subject: English Topic: Museums and art galleries. Done by: student 914-15 group Mengliyev Davlatyor Millions people al over the world spend their holidays visiting museums and art galleries. They visit them to see new things, to know more about other countries, their traditions, about history and even future of the mankind. There are different type of museums : historical, military The Tower of London is a historical museum. It is the oldest palace, fortress and prison in Europe. It’s also one of the most popular museums nowadays. The great central tower, the White tower was built around 1090 by William the Conqueror on the site of a Roman fort built there more than 1000 years earlier. Massive defensive walls and other towers were added later. Through the centuries, the Tower of London has been a citadel, a palace, a prison for offenders against the State, the home of the Mint, the treasury for the Crown Jewels, a menagerie, and the first Royal observatory. Three queens of England have been beheaded within its walls. The Tower’s guardians are the Yeomen Warders who wear splendid scarlet and gold uniforms dating back to Henry VII’s time. Sir Hans Sloane was a great collector. He filled his house with rare books and pictures, precious stones, stuffed animals, birds and butterflies, and ancient remains from all over the world. People reflect their life in art. Real, live art appeals to the heart and mind of man, to his feelings and ideals and it proclaims life. Art is truthful only when it serves life, only when the artist hopes to arouse a warm response in the heart of man. This was the case in the days of Giotto and Raphael, this was the case in the subsequent stages of man's artistic development, and this is the truthful relationship of art and life in the day of Renato Guttuso and Rockwell Kent. Art belongs to the people. The history of art from the Renaissance to our days confirms this. An artist is a worthy son of his time if his art is addressed to the people, when it deals with life, when he welcomes the sunrise as a wonderful symbol of man's finest hopes. It is close contact with the life of his people that gives an artist's work its power. One can see masterpieces of old and modern art in various picture galleries and museums. There are nearly a thousand museums in Russia” many of them being world famous. The largest collection of Russian art is the Tretyakov Art Gallery in Moscow. It is a real treasury of canvases by prominent Russian painters. It contains price-less collections of icons, 17—20th centuries paintings and sculptures and contemporary Russian painting and sculpture. One of the largest and most remarkable museums of the world is the Hermitage, more than three hundred halls housing its exhibitions of articles of the greatest artistic value. The museum's collections now comprise work of various periods in the development of art, from ancient I times up to the present day. Famous painters from different countries are represented there. The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg is another picture gallery which contains the richest collection of Russian paintings of 18-19th centuries and the best collection of Russian sculpture. In the Pushkin Museum of the Fine Arts in Moscow the art of the Ancient East and Western Europe is represented. This museum possesses a unique collection of co-pies of the finest sculptures of the old time. It is in this museum that many famous foreign expositions of the Fine Arts are displayed almost every year. There had never been a collection quite like it , and visitors were amazed by what they saw. When Sir Hans Sloane died in 1753, his wife let the King buy the whole collection for just 20 000 pounds so that it could belong to the nation for ever. This was the start of the British Museums. It took thirty years and thousands of tons of stone to complete the building and the forty-four massive columns which decorated the front. The building of the British Museums was finished in 1948. The state Tretyakov Gallery is one of the best-known picture galleries in the world. It takes its name from its founder Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow merchant and art connoisseur. In the mid-19th century, Tretyakov began to collect Russian paintings. He visited all the exhibitions and art studios and bought the best pictures of contemporary artists. Little by little Tretyakov extended his range of interest and began to collect earlier Russian paintings. More than once he had to add wings to his house, because his collection grew larger and larger. In 1881 Pavel Tretyakov opened his collection to the public. 11 years later he donated it to the city of Moscow. Since then the gallery has received hundreds of pictures from other museums and private collection. Today the Tretyakov gallery is not only Russia’s biggest and most important museums of Russian art, it is also a research, cultural and educational center. Speaking about art galleries of London we should first of all mention The national gallery, The national portrait gallery and The state gallery. I would like to tell you about National portrait gallery and about Tate gallery. The national gallery houses one of the richest and most extensive collections of painting in the world. It stands to the north of the Trafalgar Square. the gallery was designed by William Wilkins and build in 1834-37. The collection covers all schools and periods of painting, but is a specially famous for it's examples of Rembrandt and Rubents. The British schools is only moderately represented as the national collections are shared with the Tate gallery. The National gallery was founded in 1824 when the government bought the collection of John Angerstein which included 38 paintings. The Tate gallery houses the national collection of British painting from the 16-th century to the present day. It is also the national gallery for modern art, including painting and sculpture made in Britain, Europe, America and other countries. It was opened in 1897 as the national gallery of British art. It owes it's establishment to Suie Henritate who built the gallery and gave his own collection of 65 painting. Art plays an important role in the life of a man and sometimes it is next to impossible to live without it. It is natural that the first thing that comes to my mind at the mention of the word ‘art’ is museums. A museum is a stock of the world’s masterpieces, it is the place, where you can enrich knowledge, you can look at the achievements of mankind, you can satisfy your aesthetic taste. Museums give the possibility to be always in touch with the past and every time discover something new for yourself. Besides, museums play an important role in the life of any nation. A museum is just the right place to find out lots of interesting things about history, traditions and habits of different peoples. One may find in museums papers, photos, books, scripts, works of art, personal things of famous people etc. All this helps us to better understand historical events, scientific discoveries, character and deeds of well-known personalities. I think museums somehow effect the formation of personality, his outlook. Every educated person is sure to understand the great significance of museums in our life, especially nowadays, when after the humdrum of everyday life you may go to your favorite museum, relax there with your body and soul and acquire inner harmony and balance. I am a regular museum-goer. In fact I visited no less than 20 museums. Among them: the Louver, the National Gallery, the Shakespeare House in Stratford-on Avon, the Oxford story exhibition, Museum of Reading, Madam Tussaud’s Exhibition ,the Tretyakov Gallery and others. We can hardly find a town in our country without its «Fine Arts» Museum. I’ve been in Voronezh, Kislovodsk, Essentuky and some other regional museums. Now I want to write about the Tretyakov Gallery, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, Buckinngham Palace and Hermitage, about their history and their collections. Art Galleries, Craft Centers and Museums of Uzbekistan Most popular museums, craft centers and galleries of Uzbekistan Presently, there are 110 different museums in Uzbekistan, 98 of them, including branches of the state museums are under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The largest number of museums is located in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Other interesting Uzbekistan museums are located in major tourist cities, such as Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. State Museum of Art named after I.V. Savitsky, located in Nukus, the capital and administrative center of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, is one of the most famous museums in Central Asia. The art galleries and craft centers that promulgate the Uzbek modern and classic art as well as folk crafts are gaining ever increasing popularity in Uzbekistan. Tashkent with about a dozen major art galleries, hosts regular exhibitions of fine art to display folk pieces of virtu, antiques and other items that compose the cultural heritage of Uzbekistan. Art studios and galleries, opened in other major cities of Uzbekistan such as Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, are enjoying great success both among Uzbekistan tourists and residents. The craft centers or centers of Uzbek arts and crafts showcase hereditary artisans’ workshops, whose hand-made pottery as well as silk carpets and suzanne, jewelry and accessories, forged products and costumes make up the original national wealth of the Uzbek people. There you can not only buy the thing you like, but also attend a master class where you will be shown a process of creating unique gift items in ethnic style found only for the Central Asian region. Urgench, Uzbekistan Urgench is the name of two cities, one of which is located in Uzbekistan and second one is located in Turkmenistan near the village of Kunya-Urgench and is the ruins of ancient settlement. Ancient Urgench today is located on the territory of Turkmenistan, close to the state border. The exact time of origin of the settlement is not known, however according to some records it is considered that the city had already existed in the 1st century AD. It was quite large trade and industrial city with developed irrigation system. In the 10-11th centuries it was the capital of Khorezm, but in the 13th century the city was destroyed by army of Genghis Khan and century later it was ruined to the ground by Amir Temur. The city had being struggled for its existence untill the 17th century, but then it was left with all its mosques, minarets, fortresses and irrigation systems. Today ruins of ancient Urgench attract a lot of tourists from all over the world. Modern Urgench is located on the territory of Uzbekistan close to the UzbekTurkmen border. So both cities are divided not only by time but also by state border. This city was founded in the beginning of 20th century. There is almost no any historical sightseeing in the city. Being the administrative center of Khorezm region of Uzbekistan, Urgench plays role of transport nodal point in the region. There are railways running through the city and connecting south and north of Central Asia. Within the city there is the international airport “Urgench”, which is capable to receive aircrafts of any type and serves flights from Tashkent, Moscow, SaintPetersburg and other cities of the world. Also Urgench is connected with Khiva by unique trolleybus line with 35 km of length. By the way, all major sites and monuments of Khorezm region are located in Khiva. So Urgench is the perfect place for start point to tours to Khiva and Kunya-Urgench. Khiva, Uzbekistan Khiva - The City Museum Probably, Khiva is the most peculiar Uzbek city. Its history is inextricably connected with the history of the legendary Khorezmshah’s State with its capital in Urgench before. Khiva is a very ancient city. In the 10th century Khiva is mentioned as a major trading center on the Silk Road. All the caravans had a stop here on their way to China and back. From dawn to dusk, until the gates were opened, an endless stream of moving string of camels with baggage passed them. At the beginning of the 16th century Khorezm State became home for Uzbek nomadic tribes, who founded Khive Khanate here. However, Khiva did not become immediately the Khanate’s capital. It happened only after Urgench, an existing capital, had been destroyed due to the change of Amu Darya’s channel. In 1598 Khiva became the main city of the state. In the 19th century Russia annexed part of Khiva Khanate. One century later, in 1919, the last Khan was liquidated of the ruling dynasty. So Khiva became the capital of the new Khorezm Soviet People's Republic. In 1924 territories of Khorezm oasis became a part of modern Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Legend about Khiva There are many interesting legends that tells about the origin of Khiva. Allegedly, the city grew around the well Hewvakh, with tasty and cool water. The well was dug by the order of Shem, the elder son of Biblical Noah. Today one can see this well in the old part of Khiva, Itchan-Kala. Khiva - a unique city, rightfully claiming the title of "the seventh wonder of the world", thanks to its authentic atmosphere of the 'era of the beginning of time. " Most of the city of Khiva is similar to the open-air museum. And the nucleus of this museum castle Itchan-Kala. It is inside this fortress concentrated all the architectural masterpieces of Khiva. Everyone who enters the fortress, are among the marvelous minarets, stone-paved alleys curves, leading to a madrassa with lacy rough mosaic of the ancient walls. This oriental tale! In 1990 the city was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
