Under the Gracious Protection

The exposition of the Gallery Under the Gracious Protection is based on works by artist Sergey Simakov.

In 1970, he took a great interest in avant-garde art and was a member of the non-conformist art association Twenty Moscow Artists. In 1983 he got baptized, bought a house in a village near Uglich and began to increasingly turn to Slavic and Orthodox subjects.

The gallery presents both early, surrealistic paintings by Simakov, as well as his works of the late 1980s and early 1990s, in which icon-painting traditions almost left no room for the avant-garde style. In 2005, after the death of his wife, Sergey Simakov took monastic vows with the name of Rafail and became hegumen of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the forest. 

The Gallery also holds ancient church utensils — items for administration of sacraments and rites.

Exhibits are marked with AR stickers for identification purposes.