A theme exhibition “With a brush in the hands” was opened in the museum to the 60th anniversary of A.Osmerkin. The basis of the exposition is composed of original photographs and documents of Alexander Osmerkin, that were given to the museum by his widow N.Osmerkina, and of the archive of N.Osmerkina. Documents, letters, certificates, manuscripts of memoirs of contemporaries and students written specially for the book “Osmerkin. Reflections on art. Letters. Criticism. Memoirs of contemporaries” published in Moscow in 1981 edited by one of the artist’s student, Russian painter Anatoliy Nikich. There also many photographs at the exhibition that were taken on June 29, 1953 on Vagankovo cemetery during the funeral of the painter.
   From the memoirs of the artist’s student, a painter and a graphic artist, People’s Artist of Armenia Mariam Aslamazyan: “Sometimes true painters can be powerless in front of a nonentity. A cold iron can ruin a living material. Slander in complicity in cosmopolitism and accusation of formalism fallen upon A.Osmerkin deprived him of possibility to participate in exhibitions, he was dismissed from the universities where he taught for more than half of his life, he was forbidden to sell his works. I visited him at his place on Kirovskaya Str. and admired his courage and confidence of a real artist. He continued to paint. He went to the plant and painted a big group portrait of the best workers (studies to the painting "The best people of the car plant named after Stalin" 1949 are shown in A.A.Osmerkin Art-Memorial Museum). Captivated by the work he remembered Rembrandt and said that “derives his strength from the great Dutchman”. This painting also was not accepted for the exhibition… Soon the painter was affected by a death ailment. In June 1953 he passed away. For then authorities of the Union (of artists) he was an outlaw-formalist and a farewell with the dead was not allowed in the building of the Union, it took place in the premises on Gorkiy Str. 48. The best Moscow painters, composers, writers, directors and architects came to say goodbye and to say the last cordial words. There were a lot of people, some of them were standing on the street. It was the last time I saw petrified from grief Anna Akhmatova. Wonderful paintings by A.Osmerkin were hung on the walls – they shone with imperishable beauty of painting”.
   And that is what was written about those memorable days of 1953 – June 25, when Alexander Osmerkin’s heart stopped beating, and June 29, when he was buried, by his friend and countryman, a painter Amshey Nurnberg: “After the second stroke it was difficult for Osmerkin to work, but as soon as he felt better he took his brush. One could feel that painting keeps him alive and that he was obsessed by it… The third stroke happened in the creative house… It was a hard apoplexy that for a long time deprived him of capability to work. We all were afraid of a hard disability. But the fate took pity on him and returned him a part of his former strength. Osmerkin began to paint again. During this hard creative time he painted only joyful, full of optimism canvas. Not a single sullen, pessimistic work. I was told about the fourth stroke by his wife Nadya. It happened in the morning when he was painting a wonderful unforgettable and the last landscape. He died with a brush in his hands, the way he wanted…”