At the end New Year's holidays Tretyakov Gallery director Zelfira Tregulova found herself at the center of a scandal: Aeroflot canceled flights from New York, and the Russian art critic was stuck in a foreign land. According to source, the woman was very angry and promised the airline a scolding from the government.

What's interesting about this story isn't even that it refused to wait for the flight– which was delayed due to heavy snowfall! - together with other passengers. Unfortunately, this behavior is quite common for Russian leaders. At one time, the public’s favorite, Leonid Yakubovich, and many others had scandals because of this. But the fact that she threatened Aeroflot with a “call from the government” is an almost unique phenomenon. And again, what is important is not the fact of the threats itself, but the fact that, as it turned out, she really does have a “roof” in the government.

Medinsky's "trusted manager"?

Ms. Tregulova, before heading one of the country's main museum complexes, served as general director of the ROSIZO museum and exhibition center from 2013 to 2015. What can you do in such a position in two years? Yes, a lot of things! For example, hiring the sister of the Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky...

Tatyana Medinskaya came to the post of Tregulova’s deputy in December 2014. At the same time, according to media reports, the minister’s sister earned much more more than the head of the organization- apparently, the education of a financier came in handy.

Was there a conflict of interest in such an appointment? After all, ROSIZO is subordinate to the Ministry of Culture. And after the appointment of Tatyana Medinskaya, the State Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) suddenly “joined” the center. Moreover, judging by rumors, "joined in" forcibly. At the same time, ROSIZO - probably not without the help of Tregulova and Medinskaya - actively worked on joint projects with Medinsky’s favorite brainchild, the Russian Military Historical Society.

But the minister, of course, was the last to know about his sister’s appointment—these are his own words. And this despite the fact that the fact of Medinskaya’s work at ROSIZO was revealed several months later, and until that time no one said a word about it.
Maybe this is how Tregulova earned herself the post of general director of the Tretyakov Gallery? Providing assistance to the Minister of Culture is a very profitable business. And apparently it doesn’t remain unpaid. But Zelfira Ismailovna didn’t limit herself to just one minister—apparently, she decided to play it safe?

"Hungry" for work?

Tregulova most likely moved to the Tretyakov Gallery precisely under the patronage of Mr. Medinsky - such appointments are unlikely to occur without a minister. But in her new place, she found another way to contact the government. How else to explain the fact that her deputy turned out to be the daughter of Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets?

One can, of course, assume that Tatiana Mrdulyash worked honestly and deserved this place. Or, in her new position, Tregulova acted according to the old, well-established scheme of providing jobs to the “necessary” people.

It’s just that she uses her existing connections too shallowly - instead of threatening the airline, she could have asked for half the kingdom. Otherwise it’s like throwing a goldfish into a frying pan.

As a result, the situation with Tregulova and Aeroflot casts a shadow specifically on Mrs. Golodets, who, in theory, should have stood up for her daughter’s employer. However, there are already so many of these “shadows” that the Deputy Prime Minister will definitely not become “darker” from this...

Past achievements?

Golodets has held the post of Deputy Prime Minister for almost seven years. But she began to stand out as soon as she finished academic science and moved into the business sphere. So, after she joined the Reformugol company, which was engaged in the reformation of mines, more than 50 open-pit mines in Kuzbass alone were closed, and hungry miners went to block the Trans-Siberian Railway. The company, by the way, was financed by the World Bank - that is, from the USA.

Madam Deputy Prime Minister, however, in principle prefers to arrange a complete “Golodets” with money, and best of all, from abroad. If before she at least worked for the well-known Alexander Khloponin and Mikhail Prokhorov - and took the NPF of the same name from Norilsk Nickel! - then, according to some information, she finally switched to abroad.

For example, in 2013, Golodets announced the resignation of the head of Rospotrebnadzor Gennady Onishchenko, while the prime minister, who was supposed to fire the official, knew nothing about it. It is worth paying attention to the fact that Onishchenko was considered an “enemy” of Petro Poroshenko even when he was just the modest head of the Roshen confectionery factory. And the attempt to initiate the resignation of the head of Rospotrebnadzor could well have been made by Golodets in the interests of the Ukrainian oligarch...
Naturally, a true lady should help not at her own expense. And, for example, at the expense of ordinary people - and those same pensioners! So, apparently, Olga Yuryevna decided. And we’re not even talking about NPF Norilsk Nickel, but about all the pension savings of Russians.
The funded part of pensions in Russia has been frozen for four years now. And few people remember that it was Golodets who initiated the freeze - at the very beginning of her career in the government! Her dream came true, it turns out?

And where does she end up spending her money? To protect the Unified State Exam from hacker attacks that never happened? To develop designs for school classrooms in the shape of a circle rather than a square? Actually, for “tearing apart” Russian Academy sciences, which she completed together with ex-Minister of Education Dmitry Livanov and is now finishing without him?

And if Livanov is no longer in the government, then the head of the Ministry of Health, Veronika Skvortsova, who was also suspected of “unhealthy” connections with Golodets, is still in place. According to rumors, these enterprising individuals quite easily managed to receive money from tenders for medical services and supplies of drugs. And perhaps they just as easily shared them among themselves. And since science and medicine in the country are, in general, finished, as well as pensions, Olga Yuryevna has no choice but to switch to culture. Fortunately, there is a “sent Cossack” in the form of a daughter, and Minister Medinsky, if anything, can easily be directed to the right path... In general, Mrs. Golodets has her mouth full of worries. The main thing is not to choke.

Fitness at the Tretyakov Gallery

Director of the Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova talks about the museum's little-known offerings

Director of the State Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova Sergei Pyatakov, RIA Novosti

Director of the State Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova and Minister of State of Monaco Serge Tell at the opening of the exhibition “The Romanovs and Grimaldi. Three centuries of history. XVII-XX centuries" by Evgeny Novozhenin, RIA Novosti

Director of the State Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova at the opening of the exhibition “Constellation of Absheron. Azerbaijani artists of the 1960-1980s" in the State Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val Evgeniy Biyatov, RIA Novosti

Does the Tretyakov Gallery compete with the Pushkin Museum? Whose money is used to buy new works of art and organize exhibitions? Is it possible to play sports and watch a movie in the museum building? The site answers the questions of the site correspondent CEO Tretyakov Gallery Zelfir Tregulov.

Zelfira Ismailovna, three major exhibitions have now completed at the Tretyakov Gallery, including an exhibition of works. Tell us, how long does it take to prepare a high-quality exhibition?
- Two to three years, and some take even longer to prepare, although sometimes quite successful projects can be completed in a year. The exhibition must rest, the curator must step away from it a little, then return and look again at everything he has done with fresh eyes. In fact, each exhibition project is the same artifact as the works that are shown within the framework of this project.

- Now the Tretyakov Gallery is a huge success among visitors, and this is largely due to the fact that you have extended opening hours to make it convenient for people to get to the museum. What mode is the gallery working in now?
“We understand well that the museum’s usual opening hours from ten to six do not allow those who work seriously and intensively to come there on weekdays. And on weekends, people who spend a lot of time at work try to pay attention to their family and some household chores. That’s why two years ago, instead of one extended day – Thursday – we made three. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday you can come to all our spaces from 10 to 21, ticket sales end at 20 o'clock. Thanks in part to these innovations, we received one million more visitors in 2016 than in 2014.

- Is the gallery capable of paying for itself?
- Now the cost of a full ticket is 500 rubles, the cost of a discounted ticket for pensioners and students is 200 rubles, and children and young people under 18 years of age enter the museum for free. If you compare the prices of museum tickets with the cost of tickets to a non-popular movie show, you will realize that a ticket to the museum costs the same. But at the same time, you can spend the whole day with us and at the same time come to our sessions and film screenings by pre-registering online.

However, as far as self-sufficiency is concerned, of course, a museum is a huge, very expensive structure. The Tretyakov Gallery is in charge of 26 buildings, we are responsible for the collections that we store, and this includes ensuring safety, temperature and humidity conditions, and much more.

Therefore, we are trying to attract our partners, patrons and sponsors to help us create a new modern museum of the 21st century that would be comfortable and convenient for visitors, which could accommodate a huge number of people. After all, we are the second most visited art museum in the country - the Hermitage is in first place.

Our wonderful long-term partners help us organize exhibitions, publish books, and purchase works of art. And VTB Bank is one of the main partners of the Tretyakov Gallery, which works with us in all these areas.

- Colleagues from the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Are Pushkin's friends or competitors for you? They, in turn, have already answered this question, and now it is interesting to hear your opinion.
- If you now compare the program of the Pushkin Museum and our exhibition programs, you will see that we think and think similarly and in parallel. At the Pushkin Museum there was an exhibition of Raphael, we had an exhibition “Masterpieces of the Vatican Pinacoteca”; The Pushkin Museum hosted the exhibition “Facing the Future. The Art of Europe 1945–1968”, and in parallel with it we had the “Thaw” exhibition. And at the same time we do not agree with each other. I present these facts because they indicate that we are like-minded people.

Becoming director of the Tretyakov Gallery - was this your dream or are you more interested in something more ambitious, for example, taking the post of Minister of Culture?
- (Laughs.) You know, I never dreamed of being the director of the Tretyakov Gallery, I can say this for sure, and the offer that I received was made to me three weeks before my appointment. As for the position of the Minister of Culture, I know very well how Vladimir Rostislavovich Medinsky works, and I would not wish such a regime and such a degree of responsibility on my enemy.

- You have such a project in your gallery - “Sports in the Museum”. How is this possible?
- This is a very interesting program that we have been organizing for several years in the summer. We are trying to attract a young audience to the building on Krymsky Val, who today are trying to conduct healthy image life, which is wonderful. Therefore, we organize morning physical education classes in the museum courtyard or, if the weather is rainy, in the lobby. These classes are preceded by a unique walk through the halls of the museum during the hours when it is closed to visitors, that is, people get the opportunity to get an absolutely exclusive acquaintance with the museum when no one is there, and then they have sports classes with highly professional trainers.

- How do you see the Tretyakov Gallery in a hundred years?
- This, obviously, should be a very modern museum, which by that time will have formed the best collection of 21st century art in the world and the country, and which will at the same time be the most democratic museum, thinking about the people who come here.

Irina Lebedeva leaves the post of director. One of the leading experts in the field of avant-garde was considered an insufficiently effective manager. The gallery will be headed by Zelfira Tregulova, who is called a highly qualified specialist in the field of art.

Until recently, she spent hours wandering through the museum halls and peering at the masterpieces of painting. But now Zelfira Tregulova looks at the paintings not just through the eyes of a famous art critic, but through the eyes of the director of the State Tretyakov Gallery. She admits that she pondered the offer to head the museum, which is rightfully considered a national symbol, for several days. And finally I decided to take the fate of the legendary Tretyakov Gallery into my own hands.

“This was a rather unexpected offer for me, and I won’t hide it, I took some time to think about it, because I worked as director of Rosizo for a year and a half, and a large number of projects were launched there. However, I understood perfectly well that being a director The Tretyakov Gallery is an incredible honor, but also an incredible degree of responsibility,” she says.

She hasn’t yet seen what her office will be like, but she says it doesn’t matter at all, the main thing is that a computer with the Internet is at hand. For this love for high technology, and also energy and creativity Zelfira Tregulova is called in a professional environment one of the most effective managers in the field of art. Wherever she worked - in the Pushkin Museum, in the Moscow Kremlin Museums, to which she spent ten years, or in Rosizo, she promoted our art abroad.

She organized exhibitions of Russian artists from New York to Berlin and made each exhibition a real event. The project “Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde” alone was seen in Amsterdam, London, Bonn.

I am sure that exhibitions at the Tretyakov Gallery will be talked about even more all over the world if the museum’s capabilities are used one hundred percent.

“A large building is being built on Lavrushinsky Lane, and this will make it possible to turn this part of Moscow into a real museum portal with other opportunities that can be offered to visitors,” says Zelfira Tregulova.

She is confident that a museum that does not need introduction needs to be developed. According to Zelfira Tregulova, the center of attraction should become not only the museum quarter - its construction is planned to be completed in 2018, but also the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val, where tourists often do not go at all.

“This building is part of the cultural cluster unfolding today on both sides of the Crimean Bridge, and it seems to me that the Tretyakov Gallery has every opportunity to become significantly more attractive to visitors, including young visitors,” notes Zelfira Tregulova.

There are more than a lot of plans for the future, says Zelfira Tregulova. Moreover, the inheritance was not the easiest. Experts have been saying for years that not everything is going smoothly at the Tretyakov Gallery. The pace of construction of the new building is not high enough, its cost is too high - this problem was discussed at Government meetings, and besides, the main art museum never became a methodological center. And what is also important is that the so-called “comfort zone” with free Internet, cafes and shops is almost absent.

“All museums live according to very strict, serious indicators. And these indicators are not going up and there are no development programs that can increase the number of visitors, create comfort for visitors. Today the Ministry of Culture is not satisfied with all this, and, of course, we need to move forward,” - says the director of the department cultural heritage Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation Mikhail Bryzgalov.

However, Irina Lebedeva herself is sure that during the seven years that she was director, she was able to do the most important thing - to maintain her love for the Tretyakov Gallery.

“Everyone knows the national love for the Tretyakov Gallery, our task was to preserve the love and work with the public in a new modern format,” says former director of the Tertyakov Gallery Irina Lebedeva.

Where there will definitely be no revolutions after the change of leadership is in terms of exhibitions. It is scheduled until the end of 2016. The Tretyakov Gallery has no doubt that all projects will be implemented. This means that, as usual, there will be kilometer-long queues at one of the main museums in the country.

Director of the Tretyakov Gallery about big plans in Kazan, the legacy of Bulat Galeev and impressions of the Smena CSK

At the end of April, a large exhibition of Russian painting from the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries is planned to open at the Hermitage-Kazan center. It will mark the start of the implementation of a cooperation project between the famous Tretyakov Gallery and Tatarstan, which was agreed upon in January by Rustam Minnikhanov and Zelfira Tregulova. In an exclusive interview with BUSINESS Online, the director of one of the country’s main museums spoke about her conversations with the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, the intricacies of curatorship and her national roots.

Zelfira Tregulova: “Now the situation in the regions is such that we need to forget about the “center-region” hierarchy” Photo: president.tatarstan.ru

“WE EXPECT TO BE ABLE TO DEVELOP A WIDE CAMPAIGN IN TATARSTAN TO PROMOTE EXHIBITION PROJECTS”

— Zelfira Ismailovna, what project has been developed between the Tretyakov Gallery and Tatarstan?

— We have concluded a long-term cooperation agreement with Tatarstan. This cooperation will be mutual: not only the Tretyakov Gallery in Kazan, but also Kazan and Tatarstan will be exhibited in Moscow on the territory of the Tretyakov Gallery. All our projects are planned as joint ones. When thinking about possible topics, we first of all proceeded from the fact that in State Museum fine arts The Republic of Tatarstan houses absolutely unique collections of Russian painting from the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. It seemed interesting to combine this painting within one exhibition, which we will unfold in the halls of the Hermitage branch in the Kazan Kremlin. Today this is the best space in Kazan for displaying classical art, and the Kazan Kremlin itself is a very lively and visited place.

From its collection, the Tretyakov Gallery will present about 50 works for the exhibition of Russian art of the turn of the century, and the State Museum of Fine Arts of Tatarstan will present about 20. In some cases, things will be combined into a series. For example, from Natalia Goncharova’s Jewish series we will show “The Jewish Shop”, which will hang next to the famous painting “Shabbat” from the collection of the Kazan Museum. And “The Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles” from the same collection will be shown next to the iconic - and not only for the Tretyakov Gallery, but for all Russian art - Mikhail Vrubel’s painting “The Swan Princess”.

— How exactly is the strategy for long-term cooperation between the Tretyakov Gallery and Kazan formulated and what is it aimed at?

— It is important for us to make not just a temporary exhibition in Tatarstan. We would like to be able to transfer the know-how that we have developed over recent years, when exhibition projects turn into real events that attract enormous attention from viewers and have a very serious educational potential, to Kazan. Not just move it, but also see how it will interact with the situation that is developing in Tatarstan today.

“Meetings with the President of the Republic of Tatarstan made me consider our project in Tatarstan as a test of the effectiveness of everything that we offer today to the Moscow audience”
Photo: president.tatarstan.ru

— What kind of situation, in your opinion, is developing in Tatarstan?

— I’ve been to Kazan a couple of times over the past two or three years, and, of course, the way the city is developing, the way the republic is developing, cannot but surprise. On the one hand, we have a lot to learn from Kazan and Tatarstan. On the other hand, with the incredible development of the urban structure and generally some very intense life of the city, the museum history here has not yet attracted people’s attention.

With our first joint exhibition in Kazan, we would like to make a breakthrough in relation to museum and exhibition projects. Therefore, we are preparing not just an exhibition from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, which will also include works from the collection of the State Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan. This is a project that we think through from start to finish, both in terms of the content of the exhibition and the design of the exhibition space. We will do the same as we do at our exhibition venues: we will invite interesting architects to transform the halls, which have seen more than one exhibition from the Hermitage collection, into something completely different from what Kazan viewers are accustomed to. We will accompany the exhibition with interesting educational programs, as was done in the fall at the exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the museum and the famous Nizhny Novgorod Fair. Lectures there were given by probably our most serious researchers, starting with the deputy director for science. In my opinion, there was not a single “graduate” lecturer, some even had a doctorate in art history. Although the matter, of course, is not only about the scientific degree...

- What else?

— In order to attract people who do not yet have the habit of going to museums, exhibitions, lectures, it is important to use the maximum modern capabilities, act on the Hamburg account. We very much hope that thanks to our cooperation in Tatarstan we will be able to launch a broad campaign to promote exhibition projects. I am not afraid of the word “promotion”, because when people come to the museum, they should realize how some other dimension is added to their everyday life. And this is incredibly important today.

“We have concluded a long-term cooperation agreement with Tatarstan. This cooperation will be mutual: not only the Tretyakov Gallery is in Kazan, but also Kazan and Tatarstan will exhibit in Moscow.”
Photo: president.tatarstan.ru

“THE EXHIBITION OF BULAT GALEEV SHOULD BE MADE NOT ONLY TO Draw ATTENTION TO THIS AMAZING FIGURE AGAIN...”

— How many projects are currently included in the plans for cooperation between the Tretyakov Gallery and Kazan?

— So far, I’ve talked about the first of three projects that we would like to do in Tatarstan. The second project is a joint exhibition dedicated to an absolutely amazing person and artist Bulat Galeev. During the Soviet years, he made breakthroughs in many areas, but then, unfortunately, was forgotten. They remember him right now. I was very pleased when at the exhibition “Art of Europe 1945 - 1968” in Brussels, and then in Karlsruhe ( Now this exhibition is coming to the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin — approx. ed.) I saw two of his projects, which rightfully took their rightful place in the exhibition, presenting the artistic development of post-war Europe as a whole, without distinguishing between the countries of the Western and Eastern blocs. It's amazing how much more we had in common than different! A phenomenon of art arose, on the verge of art and science, which incredibly expanded the horizons of artistic thinking itself.

The problem is that, against the backdrop of the European radical movements of the late 1950s and early 1960s, many people do not perceive Russian art of the Thaw era as it deserves. But in the Soviet Union in those years a situation was created that incredibly provoked the freest and most radical artistic expressions. This situation contributed to the creativity, in particular, of people like Bulat Galeev. For me, it is rather an indicator of what was happening in our country. To what extent his art is the result of growing on Tatarstan soil is more difficult for me to say. But the fact that he was an important part of Russian artistic expression in the early 1960s is completely undeniable.

“The second project is a joint exhibition dedicated to an absolutely amazing person and artist Bulat Galeev. During the Soviet years, he made breakthroughs in many areas, but then, unfortunately, was forgotten. They remember him right now.”Photo: Elena Sungatova, art16.ru

— Just the materialization of a “prophet in his Fatherland”...

“The Bulat Galeev exhibition needs to be done not only to once again draw attention to this amazing figure. We must help ensure that the artist’s legacy, which is now stored in storage rooms in one of the industrial buildings, is museumified and takes its rightful place in the museum and cultural life of Tatarstan.

— What will the third project be?

— The third project planned with Kazan will be based on what is probably the core of the Tretyakov Gallery’s collection - this is an exhibition of paintings that Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov bought. First of all, paintings by his contemporaries. Not everyone is aware of this, but Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov collected contemporary art. He collected all the most interesting, bright things that were created by his contemporaries. Sometimes he even bought works, for example, paintings by Nikolai Ge, which he understood that he would not be able to show them during his lifetime due to the sociocultural restrictions of that time. We would like it to be interesting for modern viewers to look at and think about.

“IN KAZAN I WAS MANAGED TO VISIT THE “SMENA” CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART. I was STUCK BY THE ABSOLUTE NON-PRINCIALITY OF WHAT I SAW”

— In the case of Pavel Tretyakov, the idea of ​​patronage investments in contemporary art justified itself. And in contemporary art Did you see any horizons of Tatarstan?

— In Kazan I managed to visit the center modern culture"Change". I was struck by the absolute non-provinciality of what I saw. Firstly, it was a successful exhibition of contemporary artists. Secondly, this is an incredibly vibrant place with an enviable bookstore, a modernly designed space, while the center itself is effectively integrated into the historical buildings. I enjoyed communicating with the result-oriented and highly motivated people who work there. This suggests that the regions have excellent potential. And it’s wonderful when regional leaders support such initiatives, regardless of their own preferences and artistic tastes.

In Tatarstan, it seems to me, such a policy is obvious. I can add that those two meetings with the President of Tatarstan that I had during last year- one, when he received me in his office in Kazan, and the second, when he was with us at the exhibition “Masterpieces of the Vatican Pinacoteca” - were not just very interesting. They made me pull myself up a lot and consider our project in Tatarstan as a test of the effectiveness of everything that we offer today to the Moscow audience.

— Did I understand correctly that we are talking about a system inspired by Rustam Minnikhanov to bring the museum and exhibition life of Tatarstan closer to the capital level?

— Now the situation in the regions is such that we need to forget about the “center-region” hierarchy. The region cannot in any way be perceived as a “little brother” to which you come with your “big brother” laws. That is why we want to interact, and not just transfer our ideas, our projects, our concepts to Kazan soil.

“Roma Aeterna is an exhibition of 42 works; never before has such a number of works left the walls of the Pinakothek Photo: kremlin.ru

“I IN GENERAL THINK THAT SETTING BOUNDARIES IS ABSOLUTELY NOT USEFUL THING”

— Probably, part of the concept you transfer will be the institution of curation. This is an author’s category, and it is still unusual for the museum life of Tatarstan. Could you, as an educational program, tell us about Arkady Ippolitov, the curator of the exhibition “Masterpieces of the Vatican Pinacoteca”, which recently closed in the Engineering Hall of the Tretyakov Gallery. Bellini, Raphael, Caravaggio" ( RomaAeterna - “Eternal Rome”)?

— If we talk about Roma Aeterna and the curator of this exhibition, Arkady Ippolitov, actually the senior researcher State Hermitage Museum, I have been working with it for a long time. From the time when I was a curator and coordinator of Russian projects at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. There, Arkady put on an absolutely brilliant exhibition, “Robert Mapplethorpe and Classical Art: Photographs and Engravings of Mannerism.” Before the exhibition from the Vatican, he and I did a couple more projects. When I realized that the Vatican exhibition was becoming a reality, I did not doubt for a minute that I should invite him to work.

Select from relatively small collection Pinakothek - only 500 works - works that would not just be masterpieces hung on the walls, but would carry a very serious message, only a very serious, deep connoisseur of Italian art could do so. Moreover, a person who was able to propose an idea that was so received by the Vatican Museums that they agreed to give it away - and give it away for almost four months! - your best works. The idea of ​​Roma Aeterna, i.e. “Eternal Rome”, really appealed to them. At the same time, I know for sure: not everyone believed that it would be possible to make an exhibition of works such level.

So, if we talk about Kazan projects, we entrusted the first of them to the young curator Olga Furman, an employee of the Tretyakov Gallery. My colleagues and I are ready to admit that, based on the material of Russian painting at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, it has turned out to be a very beautiful, aesthetically subtle story that does not end, as one might assume, in 1917. This exhibition will show what happened to some of the artists represented after the revolution, how they continued to work and how difficult situation- until 1932 - everything continued to develop quite extraordinary.

— An interesting curatorial move to overcome the standard chronology “before the revolution - after the revolution.”

- You know, I generally think that setting boundaries is absolutely not a useful thing. In all senses. It seems to me that we should take advantage of the advantages that our current position gives us, when we can look at the twentieth century not as a period divided by “partitions”: avant-garde, socialist realism, austere style, etc. These definitions do not give a complete picture and they identify a certain preferential line, which, being highlighted (artificially, by the way!), is divorced from the incredibly interesting context within which it existed. If we talk about the 1950s, 60s, 70s, there was a very strict position on the existence of official and unofficial art: along with the realistic tradition, there was unofficial, non-figurative, experimental art.

In fact, we now see that they did not exist in a vacuum and were not completely isolated from each other: talented artists who worked in both fields created incredibly significant, powerful things that very accurately reflected their time, despite the fact that this expression of time was sometimes carried out in extremely opposite forms. But let's agree that we are talking about talented artists! Because there were a huge number of people who received professional skills, but did not rise above the level of artisans both in the sphere of official art and in the unofficial sphere. When time puts everything in its place, you begin to understand which of the artists, hidden for the time being from our eyes, really made a breakthrough, and which was quite secondary.

“When people come to a museum, they should realize how some other dimension is added to their everyday life. And this is incredibly important today"
Photo: president.tatarstan.ru

ABOUT THE FEATURES OF TATAR FAMILIES

— Is it too early to ask about counter projects - Kazan in Moscow or is it already possible?

— In 2018, we are preparing an exhibition “The Legend of the City of Sviyazhsk”, dedicated to the unique iconostases of two churches in Sviyazhsk, which are stored in the same State Museum of Fine Arts of Tatarstan. We are very interested in showing them in Moscow along with artistic monuments from other museums, such as the Kremlin museums, the Historical Museum, the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius Museum, which would tell about the history of Sviyazhsk as a unique artistic and cultural center, which this city has been to this day remains in the multicultural landscape of Tatarstan. I would really like for the artistic life of Tatarstan to bubble up, just as the republic itself bubbles up. It is very important to correspond to the development that is currently observed in Tatarstan - just look at the development of cities, new neighborhoods, embankments, and parks. In principle, it is clear that these concepts received initial development in Moscow, but turned out to be very creatively and fruitfully used in Tatarstan.

— Creative concepts are just good for their creative applicability in the most different conditions. Today the Tretyakov Gallery is seen as a leader in cultural exchanges at different levels. Continuation of the exhibition Roma Aeterna, for example, will be a counter-exhibition of masterpieces from the Tretyakov Gallery in Rome. How do you think it will be possible to maintain the chosen tonality?

— I think it will succeed. Work of the first order will go to Rome. Therefore, yes, we will remove masterpieces from the walls of the Tretyakov Gallery. On the one hand, debt is repaid. On the other hand, when you present exhibitions in places like the Vatican Museums - ours will be in the Charlemagne wing, if you look at St. Peter's Basilica, that building on the left behind Bernini's colonnade - you understand how important it is to show those works that will tell a lot to a person who is not at all familiar with the national history of Russian art. By the way, this is also a curatorial project, which is being worked on by gallery employee Tatyana Yudenkova, and co-curated by Arkady Ippolitov.

— Traveling exhibition events are always production complex. In order for Tatarstan to appreciate, say, the upcoming touring exhibition, for which fifty paintings will come from the Tretyakov Gallery, tell us about what it cost to bring the exhibition from the Vatican Pinacoteca to Moscow.

— Here, perhaps, we need to be specific. First of all, an exhibition of 42 works, each of which came from the permanent exhibition of the Vatican Pinacothecae, means - and my colleagues at the Vatican spoke directly about this - that such a number of works have never left the walls of the Pinacoteca. Even when the Vatican organized a large exhibition not only from the Pinakothek, but from the entire Vatican collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Therefore, of course, it was huge insurance, compliance with all possible precautions, the most careful packaging of each work in a separate climatic box, climatic vans, special control over loading onto the plane and the same special control over unloading at the arrival airport. And this is also a thorough inspection during unpacking to ensure the safety of the work, this is the vigilant monitoring of restorers to see how the work is proceeding, these are increased security measures, this is an armed policeman in the hall, these are difficulties with selling tickets, this is limited access to the hall, because there There should not be more than a certain number of people.

But if we talk about what preceded it - in fact, about logistics - of course, it was the most difficult work to implement agreements on the provision of certain works. I must say that it was very pleasant to work with colleagues from the Vatican: they responded to everything very quickly, and they were really passionate about the idea that we proposed to them. Feeling this, we, of course, tried to ask for as many paintings as possible. And, in general, we got the maximum of them.

— So that our readers have the same — to the maximum — idea about you, finally, tell us about your “Tatarness.”

— (Laughs.) Well, who else can I be, other than a Tatar by nationality, if my name is Zelfira Ismailovna, and my last name is Tregulova? Although I was born in Latvia, I don’t speak Tatar. “Grandma”, “grandfather”, “dad”, “mom”, “sit down” and “thank you” do not count. A lot of my relatives on my mother’s side live in Kyrgyzstan. At one time I tried to go there more often, but now O Most of their children moved here to Moscow and live here.

I’m very happy when one of my nephews or nieces calls and says: “It would be nice if everyone could get together!” “Come on, come!” - I answer. It's incredibly nice. I think this is one of the features of Tatar families: people feel their kinship very keenly, especially if relatives and friends are also brothers in mind. This need for regular family meetings, when 20 - 25 people of different generations gather and everyone has something to talk about with each other, always makes me very happy and very warms me.

Zelfira Tregulova

She graduated from the art history department of the history department of Moscow State University, completed an internship at the Guggenheim Museum, and was the head of the foreign relations department at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin and deputy director of the Kremlin Museums, headed the Rosizo organization. In February 2015, she was appointed director of the Tretyakov Gallery.

Marina Loshak

Philologist, graduated from Odessa State University. She managed the Moscow Arts Center on Neglinnaya and the Tatintsyan Gallery. In 2012, at the invitation of Kapkova, she headed the Manege exhibition association. In July 2013, she became director of the Pushkin Museum.

What is a thaw? Why are exhibitions dedicated to this time being held simultaneously in the main museums of the city this year? In many areas, a rethinking of modernism is taking place - even to the point of declarations of love for and. Is there a rational explanation for this?

Tregulova: There is both a rational explanation for this and an irrational one - as in any phenomenon. and our project unites the vector for the future. In the Soviet Union, the Thaw became a period of explosion of creativity with breakthroughs in physics and nuclear energy, and space exploration. It was an amazing era: it seemed that everything was possible. At the same time, we understood what was happening in our country in the 1920s and 1930s, but we preferred not to talk about it. And the release of creative energy from the Thaw era surprisingly continues to remain relevant to this day.

Probably, we were somehow prompted to create two projects dedicated to this period by the interest in this time on the part of television. I recently re-read the prose of Yuri Kazakov and was surprised at how good the Russian language is, how modern it is. Of course, these exhibitions will not attract crowds. We present a serious analysis of the era today, when you can look at the Thaw calmly - through the eyes of people who did not live at that time, through the eyes of young curators.

Opening of the exhibition “Thaw” at the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val

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“Thaw” in the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val

© Vladimir Vyatkin/RIA Novosti

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Victor Popkov. Two. 1966.
Work from the exhibition project “Thaw” at the State Tretyakov Gallery

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Yves Klein. Blue globe. 1957

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Mikhail Roginsky. Wall with socket. 1965

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Hinny: I agree with Zelfira, although Pushkinsky had an emotionally different task. We wanted a more subjective view, and the museum staff went through the difficult process of answering their own questions. At our exhibition - “Facing the Future. The Art of Europe 1945–1968” - there are not many things pleasing to the eye. The problems that Europe and the world as a whole faced after the war rhyme with the events that took place exclusively in the USSR. Artists were looking for different ways that could give this new meaning, from zeroing out art to searching for a pure form.

It is important that we are talking about people with different backgrounds and geographies who are going in the same direction. We know some of them very well, they were lucky enough to become stars: Beuys, Freud, Richter, Picasso. But at our exhibition they are mixed with not so famous names from Eastern Europe (Hans Mayer-Foreyt, Jerzy Nowosielski, Lajos Kasszak, Endre Toth. - Note ed.), who were in no way inferior to the stars - they simply lived in a part of the world that was considered more marginal. Yes, they did not have the same opportunities as artists Western Europe, but they represent no less powerful phenomena in art. This is encouraging, because today the categories of global and local coexist to the same extent as then.

The museum world spent the entire last year in conversations - public and government. How do you weigh the risks? When you show, for example, a Japanese person who, after a scandal with a sick mind, might be considered a provocative artist?

Hinny: We try not to think about it - and at the same time we cannot help but think about it. As directors of two major museums, we are responsible for what is happening and do not want crazy people coming to us. Particularly because these populist reactions destroy exhibitions: everyone is attracted by the scandal, not the project itself. Of course, the censor sits within us, the museum is responsible both for those who work here and for the influence on society that it has.

We are currently preparing an exhibition of drawings by Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt - it will be shown in the fall. We recently spoke with the director of the Albertina (the Vienna museum, where the largest collection of Klimt’s works is located. - Note ed.), and I carefully studied each drawing, thinking about how our viewer would see it. It's a difficult art, but we decided we were willing to take the risk. We will write “25+” or “65-” on the announcements. People should be prepared for the fact that this art will not bring great joy: it is about a person’s loneliness in the world, about a terrible time. In this regard, it does not matter whether the person depicted by the artist is naked or not.

The queue for the exhibition “Valentin Serov. To the 150th anniversary of his birth" in the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val. January 2016

© ITAR-TASS

Tregulova: Schiele is, first of all, the incredible nakedness of a person’s inner world.

Hinny: And about the very essence of human life. Museum directors around the world, including Boston and Washington, are thinking about this.

This year, the Thaw festival is taking place in your museums, the project was shown at the Tretyakov Gallery, at the Pushkinsky, there were parallel shows for Bakst’s anniversary, ahead are the simultaneous projects of husband and wife Frida Kahlo at the Pushkin Museum and Diego Rivera at the State Tretyakov Gallery. It feels like you are competing. Or is this an example of coordinated work? And the second question: considering the current exhibition activity of all Moscow museums, do you have the feeling that Moscow is beginning to compete as an art center with other European cities? Or at least with St. Petersburg?

Tregulova: In the case of Thaw, a coincidence happened: the projects were conceived independently of each other, but when we realized that we were opening in parallel, we decided that we should unite.

Of course, I closely monitor what is happening in the Pushkin Museum, but we stand on the same side of the barricades, and what we do has a lot in common. We only benefit from cooperation, and the viewer also benefits. Together we defend ourselves against lack of spirituality and mass culture - together with Piotrovsky, together with our other colleagues, including foreign ones. Due to the aggravation of relations in the world, our mission becomes even more important for society.

Hinny: The Tretyakov Gallery and Pushkin are such different institutions that competition is impossible, and the movement will always be different. It’s the same with the Hermitage. There are some general plans, and while thinking through our own projects, we are thinking about how to integrate them on the site of the two museums. This provides more work for curators, who can look at the same events in their own way. This is a very profitable path. Sometimes we coordinate actions with our St. Petersburg colleagues: Pushkinsky with the Hermitage, and the Tretyakov Gallery cooperates with the Russian Museum.

Moreover, Moscow is an incredibly vibrant cultural city where demand continues to outstrip supply. And the exhibitions that take place in Moscow evoke great respect from our foreign colleagues. We feel like quite adequate players and have finally stopped worrying about our viewers not getting something. So many spaces have appeared in Moscow that work for a common cause, and together with the Tretyakov Gallery we can give people the opportunity to enjoy national art and learn something new. This is a great breeding ground for collaboration rather than competition.

Opening of the exhibition “Lev Bakst. To the 150th anniversary of his birth" at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin

© Vitaly Belousov/RIA Novosti

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An iPhone raised above a portrait of Gritsenko-Bakst by Lev Bakst. Exhibition “L.S. Bakst and the Tretyakov Family” at the Tretyakov Gallery

© Evgenia Novozhenina/RIA Novosti

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- Would you like more freedom?

Tregulova: Freedom can be understood broadly. There is freedom from financial restrictions, internal conservatism, which is present in every museum - and I would like to free myself from it with greater speed. But the most valuable thing, of course, is the freedom to have twice as many hours in a day.

Zelfira Tregulova said in one interview that she “goes crazy about two Western artists - Turrell and Viola.” Who do you like among Russian contemporary artists?

Tregulova: It's always difficult to name one favorite. Probably, in my case it will be a classic, not a current artist, - Mikhail Roginsky. I also like one of the younger ones - Dmitry Gutov. I really like him, and I regret that there are so few of his works in the Tretyakov Gallery. Eric Bulatov and Kabakov are “our everything,” and next year we are going to make the first large retrospective of Ilya Iosifovich in Russia. Of course, my favorite installation will also be there. In 1992, it made an indelible impression on all Russian museum workers when they realized that the ceiling on the first floor of a 20-story building could not leak. I would like to repeat this effect taking into account the leaking roof on Krymsky Val. Everyone will then write: “When will Tregulova fix the leaking roof?”

The queue for the exhibition “Masterpieces of the Vatican Pinacoteca” at the Tretyakov Gallery on Lavrushinsky Lane. January 2017

© Anton Denisov/RIA Novosti

How do you measure your media presence? Your presence in the artistic life of Moscow and in a variety of public discussions is felt more strongly than the voice of your predecessors.

Hinny: I am afraid that there are too many of us, and I try to maintain the level of my presence in the media in such a dose that the audience understands what is happening in the museum. I am struggling with the PR service, I ask that they use me less in all events. I insist that I not be filmed at openings. I think this is wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. In any case, we are looking for more complex and indirect solutions and hope that they will bring more results. In addition, we must not forget that no project is similar to another: some exhibitions need to be actively talked about, others require more complex paths.

Tregulova: I agree with Marina, but two years ago we had different situations. The building on Lavrushinsky Lane could not complain about the low attendance - more than a million people came there a year. However, this figure did not come from those Muscovites who followed their hearts, but rather from school excursions and parents with children.

But the building on Krymsky Val was visited by 270 people a day, and this figure told us about a complete lack of interest in Russian art of the 20th century. It was necessary not only to throw all the efforts of the PR service, but also to reformat the exhibitions themselves. When they asked me whether the Tretyakov Gallery was really located in the Central House of Artists building, I understood that it was necessary to turn on the heavy artillery so that people would know: here is the best collection of Russian art of the last century, which they need to know and be proud of.

We began to use the Internet space and new technologies, attracted media figures, and this brought super-effect: people lined up for Serov for a reason. Undoubtedly, I would also like to appear on the screen less often, although I cannot deny that the director today must be a very social person.

Tregulova: It's a difficult question because beauty can feel heartbreaking. This is something that causes an incredible inner movement of everything in you - mind, soul and heart. The perception and recognition of beauty is a feeling akin to what can be called love. At this moment you experience an incredible feeling of happiness... Is it possible to find a more precise word that expresses the utmost aesthetic pleasure? I don’t know, but in any case, I would put it in parallel with the feeling of love.