The 20th-Century Art Department of the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum always features exhibitions of various contemporary artists, mainly from Nizhny Novgorod, while on the third floor you can find a real treasure trove of paintings by Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov and many other avant-garde artists.

It is for the first time in the history of the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum that 20th-century art has been granted its own museum space, this being one of the most significant collections among regional Russian museums.