The Taras Shevchenko State Museum is located on the boulevard of the same name in Kyiv. To some extent, the museum carries a double burden: it tells about Shevchenko the poet and Shevchenko the artist, which is why it was originally called the literary and artistic museum. The first exposition was built in 1949, it was compiled on the basis of the thematic exposition plan of the detailed biography of Kozbar. There was also a separate hall in the museum dedicated to the topics "Shevchenko and the Soviet democratic revolutionaries", "Shevchenko in the Great Patriotic War".
The exposition of the museum was updated and formatted several times. In the second half of the 1980s, repair and restoration works were carried out. It was at this time that the question of creating a new museum with a new concept arose. It was created on the basis of the former gallery of paintings by T.G. Shevchenko, which was located in Kharkiv, and the Central State Museum of T.G. Shevchenko in Kyiv. A kind of competition was organized for the best project of artistic decoration of the museum. After a long debate, the artistic commission settled on the project proposed by the artist Anatoliy Haydamaka. The exposition appeared in the form of large frames with strings stretched over them, which symbolized Taras Shevchenko's two gifts - artistic and poetic. Exhibits, mainly paintings, were attached to the strings. It was decided to leave the previous thematic structure (1949) as the semantic core of the new exposition, but to significantly supplement it. In particular, all quotations from the classics of Marxism-Leninism and the works of Soviet artists were removed.
Today, the museum holds about 4 exhibits related to the life and work of the great Kobzar. This number includes about 8 hundred paintings (26 painted in oil, 522 watercolor and pencil drawings), as well as portraits, drawings, oil paintings that belong to the hand of the master. Shevchenko's personal belongings are exhibited separately. Visitors can see pens and pencils, an easel, a sketchbook and other materials. The book collections of the Taras Shevchenko State Museum consist of about 34 copies. The pride of the museum is the complete collection of all Shevchenko's publications, starting with "Kobzar" of 1840 and ending with the last copies. Some books have author's inscriptions. There are also documents about the construction of monuments to Shevchenko.
In the hall of the museum is the composition "Prometheus", and at the entrance to the first hall - the tapestry "Wreath to Kobzarev". Samples of Ukrainian embroidered fabrics, towels and the national musical instrument kobza - Shevchenko's eternal companion - are displayed directly in the halls. The museum staff did not ignore the poet's famous triptych "Fate", "Muse", "Slava". Therefore, these three main themes are intertwined in the exhibition. The first theme "Fate" is represented by the following documents: a letter from the metric book with a record of the birth of a son of Taras in the family of serf Hryhoriy Shevchenko, a portrait of V.A. Zhukovsky (author K. P. Bryullov), at the price of which freedom was purchased. The theme "Muse" is a kind of embodiment of Kobzar's poetic and artistic heritage. As the materials of the exposition tell, the muse began to visit the young Taras in the Summer Garden of St. Petersburg. The third topic "Glory" is represented by materials on the perpetuation of the memory of T.G. Shevchenko.
Shevchenko the artist is represented by copies of plaster statues brought from St. Petersburg, which Taras Hryhorovych repeatedly mentioned, by graphic works (a separate hall dedicated to graphics has been created in the museum). Organizing the exposition of Shevchenko the poet turned out to be much more difficult. In order not to burden visitors with reading long texts and annotations, the museum staff decided to illustrate one of the central works of the author - the poem "Dream" with the works of the French artist Honoré Daumier (1808-1879), who, like the Ukrainian poet, depicted the Russian tsar in in the form of a helpless bear. Unfortunately, all these materials were subsequently removed in order to "unload" the exposition. Portraits of the members of the "Brotherhood" - P. Kulish, M. Gulak, O. Navrotskyi - were replaced on the photo reproductions. Scientists are still debating whether such an act was correct.
All museum halls are built according to the thematic principle. The first contains all materials devoted to the poet's birth and childhood. These are, first of all, Shevchenko's pencil drawings with portraits of his grandfather, father and the Kirill house. In the center, on a large table covered with a Ukrainian carpet, is a metric book with a record of Taras Shevchenko's birth. Then there are halls with exhibits that tell about Kobzar's work. Banners were a novelty of the museum - Taras Shevchenko's watercolors enlarged hundreds of times, hung in the halls from floor to ceiling, and above them hang the originals of Taras Shevchenko's works. In a separate hall of the museum, the works of famous artists, sculptors, writers and composers are exhibited, which tell about Shevchenko. Among them are the works of K. Bryullov, I. Repin, M. Bashilov, F. Balavenskyi, I. Kavaleridze, M. Lysenko, I. Makogon and others. The excursion ends with a visit to the hall dedicated to the death of the great Ukrainian poet. This is a four-tiered composition: Taras Shevchenko's personal belongings, above them the autograph to the last poem, the poet's posthumous mask with a crown of thorns.
