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 canvases 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 Tertyakovka 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.

13.02.2015 22283

Zelfira Tregulova: “A museum, like a theater, begins with a hanger”

On February 10, 2015, it was announced that the head of ROSIZO Zelfira Tregulova became the director of the State Tretyakov Gallery, replacing Irina Lebedeva, who was dismissed from the State Tretyakov Gallery with the wording “at the initiative of the employer.” Ekaterina Allenova hastened to ask the new director about exhibition policy, effective management, the ideal of a museum director, and how to attract spectators to the museum.

Zelfira Tregulova. Photo: Sergey Futerman

Ekaterina Allenova: In an interview with TASS, which you gave immediately after your appointment, you, in particular, noted that the Tretyakov Gallery “has the opportunity to make it even more attractive and comfortable for visitors.” This phrase almost literally coincided with the wording of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture, which explained the reasons for the dismissal of Irina Lebedeva: “The Tretyakov Gallery has never created a comfortable environment for visitors - there are no cafes, shops, no Wi-Fi.” It may seem that you knew the motives and arguments of the ministry in advance. Although I understand that you will not discuss them.

Zelfira Tregulova: You are right, I don’t think it’s possible to discuss this. But I can say that the offer to take this position was quite unexpected for me. And after I gave this interview, I sat down to read the ministerial papers at night and was amazed to discover this coincidence of wording. But you probably noticed that I spoke about general issues and did not propose any specific steps. Because the first thing I have to do is to delve very carefully into the essence of the matter and form my own opinion: either confirm it or correct it.

E.A.: The Ministry of Culture has been reproached many times for looking for “effective managers” rather than scientists who can raise the scientific and exhibition activities of museums to a high level. You are known primarily as a curator - you create extremely successful exhibitions, develop their concepts (although you don’t like this word), but suddenly it turns out that in your first speech as director of the State Tretyakov Gallery you are not talking about exhibition programs and not about science, but - in unison with the ministry - about the need to make the Tretyakov Gallery more attractive and “comfortable”... And how are you going to do this?

Z.T.: You can attract visitors to the museum by the most different ways, including exhibitions. And I pay tribute to what has been done and is being done at the Tretyakov Gallery in this regard, as well as in terms of science - this is, for example, the publication of a catalog of the collection, which is carried out at a very high level high level, or the recent exhibitions of Natalia Goncharova and the Costakis collection. I won’t go into details now, but I will say that the exhibition program planned for the future looks strong. And this is very important: we really need exhibition projects that will attract viewers. For me, the problem of the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val is acute, where the art of the twentieth century is exhibited - the period in which I deal as an art critic. Every time I get there, I see a huge empty lobby and barely twenty coats on the hangers - that is, unless there is some kind of exhibition going on like Levitan or Korovin. At the same time, I must pay tribute to Irina Vladimirovna Lebedeva: when Goncharova’s exhibitions and Costakis’ collections were conceived, there was no confidence that spectators would come to them. In museum reporting there is a serious column containing museum attendance figures. Attendance is a critical category in assessing the effectiveness of any manager. And just these two exhibitions showed that people finally began to come to exhibitions of the Russian avant-garde, which had not happened before. Let us remember the great exhibition “The Great Utopia”. Irina Vladimirovna and I met precisely on this project: she was a curator from the Tretyakov Gallery, and I was the coordinator of the entire project from the organization in which I worked then. (The exhibition “The Great Utopia. Russian Avant-Garde 1915-1932” was shown in 1992-1994 in Frankfurt am Main, Amsterdam, New York and Moscow, but the Moscow exhibition, unlike foreign ones, did not include works from Western collections. - Artguide.) The exhibition in Moscow was beautifully done, even without Western things, but the halls were empty. The halls stood empty at Tatlin’s exhibition, empty at other very serious from a conceptual point of view projects of the 1990s, which revealed new names. Now the situation has changed, and we can only rejoice at this.

That is why, while paying tribute to what has been done at the Tretyakov Gallery to date, including these exhibitions, I cannot say that “now I’ll come and radically change everything.” Moreover, the exhibition plan of the Tretyakov Gallery, as you understand, has been drawn up for two years in advance, and it is very worthy, there are serious projects there. The Tretyakov Gallery is such an incredible, iconic place, and the position of its director is so responsible that I will try to be extremely careful and accurate. Which does not mean that I will not do my favorite thing - making exhibitions. This is what gives me an incredible feeling of euphoria and delight - when an exhibition is done the way it was intended. If you look at what has been done at ROSIZO over the past year and a half, I cannot say that I acted primarily as a manager. I acted primarily as an “exhibitor” and as a person who, with the help of colleagues, tried to introduce some kind of system into this organization. People started writing scientific articles. This organization from a pure operator (despite the fact that it has more than 40 thousand storage units) began to turn into a content creator. And this was my task. I saw that my predecessors focused on management and operator work, losing sight of the fact that if you don't create content, you will always remain a service person. When you create exhibitions, this is a completely different situation, and they begin to treat the organization completely differently. Therefore, of course, I will continue to do this, although I am afraid that first of all I will still have to be a manager.

And here there is one direction in exhibition work in which it is possible to penetrate, to do something in the foreseeable future - these are international contacts: exhibitions in which the Tretyakov Gallery participates abroad and which it sends abroad, and it seems to me that the Tretyakov Gallery is interested in to bring exhibitions from abroad.

E.A.: Exhibitions of foreign art? But the Tretyakov Gallery is a museum of Russian art.

Z.T.: I am of the opinion that if there is an opportunity to make an interesting exhibition project, then you should not limit yourself to the specifics of the collection. I guess I learned this from the Guggenheim Museum, which was criticized for having exhibitions of everything and everywhere - from Africa to Russia. But it was these exhibitions that created the Guggenheim's reputation as a museum with amazing, incredible and very bold exhibition programs.

E.A.: And still about the notorious “comfort zone”. Since your appointment turned out to be a bolt from the blue and everyone eagerly rushed to discuss it and look for the reasons why Irina Lebedeva found herself in disgrace, a parallel arose naturally with the relatively recent appointment to the position of director of the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin by Marina Loshak. After all, the idea is based on the same “comfortable environment”, where, as Marina Devovna says, you can walk and hang out almost around the clock, where there will be shops, cafes, and cinemas. And one of the arguments of the Ministry of Culture when dismissing Lebedeva was precisely that she could not become that “effective manager” who probably should have turned the Tretyakov Gallery into an amusement park. The Ministry of Culture is close to the idea that visitors need to be attracted to the museum in precisely these ways. Do you agree with this?

Z.T.: Of course, I don’t agree with the “amusement park”. If you put this at the forefront, then there is not much difference - it is a museum or an entertainment center. I think that when Marina Loshak was appointed director of the Pushkin Museum, the logic was somewhat different, and I doubt that cafes and shops played a decisive role here. If we talk about the Pushkin Museum, then, indeed, the entrance area has changed, the wardrobe has been reconstructed, and the cafe has changed. It has become much more pleasant to go there, and the process of buying a ticket and receiving information now takes 2-3 minutes. And, to the credit of Marina Devovna, it must be said that she did not only do this. Very interesting exhibition projects have been made - for example, I really liked the exhibition of Wim Delvoye, which correctly integrated the works of this contemporary artist into the museum’s exhibition, in particular, in the hall of casts. What could be more archaic than casts? Marina creates a dialogue between twentieth-century art and classical art, but at the same time she perfectly understands that a museum, like a theater, begins with a hanger. In the old building of the Moscow Art Theater, everything is aesthetically designed - from the door handle to the hanger. I am sure that this is how it should be in a modern museum. And if you attract a viewer to a museum where he came for aesthetic impressions, then aesthetics should begin from the moment he crosses the threshold. Plus a cafe, plus the ability to quickly connect to the Internet and plan your actions or exchange impressions with virtual friends - all this will give the visitor a reason to linger in the museum building. I'm like that with mine eldest daughter I go to Pushkinsky when there are several exhibitions there, and we spend 4-5 hours there. You watch one or two exhibitions and you need to distract yourself, switch gears, and have a snack. And then move on with a purified consciousness. Of course, you shouldn’t make this a priority, but you shouldn’t underestimate it either.

E.A.: However, when I asked you how you were going to attract the viewer to the museum, you enthusiastically began talking about exhibitions, and not about a cafe with free Internet.

Z.T.: It is necessary to attract both, in combination.

E.A.: As a director, you will have to deal with construction, restoration, weak currents, security systems, rusty pipes, caretaker uniforms...

Z.T.:...and with the way they behave, yes. There was a very unpleasant incident with a teacher at the Tretyakov Gallery - then, it seems to me, both sides did the wrong thing. (In October 2014, art teacher Pavel Shevelev was taken out of the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery by police officers called by the caretaker, accusing him of conducting an “illegal excursion” with his students. - Artguide) These are serious and painful topics for which there can be no clear solution . The question of what is the function of the caretaker, how he should look, how he should behave and how he should be dressed is also an important question.

E.A.: Can you handle all this? Aren't you afraid?

Z.T.: I would be wrong if I said that I am not afraid. The more experienced you become, the better you understand the complexity of any task that faces you.

E.A.: The position of director of the State Tretyakov Gallery before Irina Lebedeva was held by Valentin Rodionov, and I know that he was often reproached for not understanding anything about art - he was simply a “strong business executive” who, however, understood construction and water pipes. But under him, Lidia Ivanovna Iovleva was his deputy for science...

Z.T.: Let me note, with all due respect to Rodionov, that the director of a museum should be a person who understands what a museum is. It is impossible to separate functions: here I am a business executive, and my deputy is an art critic. I believe that it is possible to combine the most effective management with the deepest knowledge in the history of art.

E.A.: Do you see yourself in this capacity? Or can you give examples of specific directors?

Z.T.: I now have a real example before my eyes - this is the director of the Städel Institute in Frankfurt am Main, Max Hollein, the son of the great architect Hans Hollein. He is also the director of several other museums that are part of the institute's system, and the director of the Schirn Kunsthalle, an absolutely incredible exhibition hall. He received an excellent education, specialized in Western European medieval art, then worked for five years right hand Thomas Krens at the Guggenheim Museum, and then became director of the Schirn Kunsthalle, which he received in a state of complete ruin and with a monstrous financial debt. Hollein immediately set about reorganizing everything and creating the most interesting exhibitions. In 2001, he invited Boris Groys and me to become curators of the exhibition “Communism - Dream Factory”, which was then a rather bold decision, especially for a specialist in medieval art. When he came to Moscow in connection with this exhibition, he lived in a hotel room for 70 dollars, and was disturbed from sleep all night long by intrusive calls. And he endured it, because the organization had a terrible budget deficit, and he saved on everything, including himself. Now he is one of the most brilliant directors in Europe - and in the world, I think. He heads the “Bizot group”, a community of directors of the world's largest museums and participants in the international exhibition process. They meet every year or every two years. From Russia it included Mikhail Piotrovsky and Irina Antonova, now it is Piotrovsky, Marina Loshak and Elena Gagarina. Hollein is a stunning example to look up to. I collaborated with him a lot when he was still working at the Guggenheim Museum. He is very successful, including with fundraising.

E.A.: How do you feel about fundraising?

Z.T.: I have an extremely positive attitude towards seeking sponsorship funds. When I worked at the Kremlin Museums, around 2004 it became clear that if you have interesting exhibition projects, then it is much more effective not to spend budget money, but to offer to support these projects to a reputable company. Form a circle of friends and get very serious money. Now, faced with what it means to receive budget funding, I understand perfectly well that intuitively (and perhaps not intuitively) we then chose the right path: from 2006 to the present, the Kremlin Museums have not spent a penny of budget money on exhibitions, which were made in the museum itself, including the most expensive ones. I know from experience that if you propose a very interesting project that will certainly be successful (there are such projects, they can be identified), then it is easier to get serious funds for it than a smaller amount, but for a more modest project. It comes down to the content, what you do. It's not about the stamps - the Tretyakov Gallery, the Kremlin Museums, the Hermitage, the Russian Museum - it's about what you offer.

E.A.: On the other hand, in any museum, any curator will tell you that he has wonderful treasures in his collections, with which one could make an interesting exhibition, publish the results of valuable research in its catalog, and so on. And this is indeed most often the case. Only this exhibition is of interest to only ten specialists, it has purely scientific value, it is non-commercial and people will not go to it. What to do with such exhibitions?

Z.T.: Conduct.

E.A.: Where can I get the money?

Z.T.: It's a difficult question. It’s really much more difficult to get them for a project like this. However, there is also such a tool as tools mass media. I don’t say “advertising”, because advertising such exhibitions is pointless - that’s the first thing. Secondly, now, in a situation of serious restrictions Money, much less money will be allocated for advertising in budgets. I think that there is a serious reserve here - working specifically with the media, very detailed, very thorough, individual. I have always been for this kind of work, and this is how we worked with the media in the Kremlin Museums. And the result was always wonderful. Advertising expenses, compared to the budget of the exhibition itself, were always very small, but a lot of people came and the reviews were excellent. Here you just need not to be lazy and work hard at it. By the way, the Tretyakov Gallery holds similar exhibitions, they have a whole program of such exhibitions and publications

E.A.: “The Tretyakov Gallery opens its storerooms”?

Z.T.: Yes Yes. There are really serious employees who create interesting exhibitions from storerooms.

E.A.: What do you love about the Tretyakov Gallery collection and would you like to show to Russia and the world first of all? And in what context?

Z.T.: The question is complex. You will laugh: I love everything! Yesterday I walked through several halls in Lavrushinsky, where the 18th century - Nikitin, Antropov, Levitsky and so on... It’s wonderful.

E.A.: What is beautiful about Nikitin? Please explain to the world community.

Z.T.: I’m not talking about the show of the artist Nikitin to the world community, although “Portrait of Chancellor Golovkin” was shown at the Russia! exhibition, and I must say, he looked great there! I think that I will be ready to answer the question about new exhibition plans in some time, not long at all. I know about many projects that are currently being organized in Europe, in which the Tretyakov Gallery will participate and in which it cannot but participate, since these are exhibitions in iconic places, dedicated to very important moments in the history of Russian art and national history. This is, for example, an exhibition dedicated to the exhibition “0.10”, which will be held at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel and where for the first time all the things that were at that exhibition are collected.

E.A.: (sighing) “Black Square” again...

Z.T.: Well, he was the main exhibit at the “0.10” exhibition, so there’s no way without him! But in Basel there will be the “Black Square” of 1929... I know about this exhibition because ROSIZO is collecting about 20 works from 14 Russian regional museums for it. The same works that participated in the exhibition “0.10”. And it seems to me that this is the most important project. And I would like to note that this exhibition is being organized in Basel, and not in Moscow, although, probably, it should have been held in Russia. Or in 2017 in London, at the Royal Academy, there should be an exhibition related to the very important year 1917 for everyone. It will present art from 1917 to 1932, and it actually has quite an interesting concept - and it does not repeat such exhibitions as “The Great Utopia”. It seems to me that this is also a project in which it is necessary to participate. However, this decision was made by Irina Vladimirovna Lebedeva. I can only facilitate the implementation of both.

E.A.: There were rumors that after your departure ROSIZO would be disbanded.

Z.T.: Oh my God, what nonsense! Nobody is going to disband it! There are many international projects planned there, in which the Tretyakov Gallery is participating, and I am going to work quite closely with ROSIZO. Moreover, now ROSIZO has new functions - it is not only an operator of exhibition projects, but also an operator of large projects related to the presentation of Russian art on the Internet. One of them is a virtual reconstruction of the State Museum of New Western Art. And the second - 37 virtual museums to be posted on the culture.rf portal. We are talking about Russian regional museums, many of which do not even have a proper website, although they have wonderful collections. This is truly a very large-scale project, and incredible work has been done there. An incredible amount of filming was done, including in 3D, aerial photography and aerial filming were used. In London this September, a huge exhibition “Cosmonauts” opens at the Science Museum. The Birth of the Space Age”, which was prepared by ROSIZO, and I managed to sign all the contracts before the end of January and am going to continue communicating with colleagues from ROSIZO who are working on this project outside of work. And then we will see. The number of exhibition projects planned for this year is less than last year, for all obvious reasons: difficulties with financing and very great difficulties in finding sponsorship money.

E.A.: It was the Ministry of Culture that reproached Lebedeva for “planning a 15% reduction in attendance.” But, in my opinion, this reduction is inevitable precisely due to the fact that there is less money, and accordingly there are fewer people in museums.

Z.T.: You know that it has now been introduced in federal museums. I don’t know the statistics yet, but I can assume that this will increase attendance, but will obviously reduce the extra-budgetary income of the Tretyakov Gallery, as well as any other museum where this has been introduced. And we need to work on this too.

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 The Fine Arts Museum of 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 the know-how that we have developed over the years last years, when exhibition projects turn into real events that attract enormous attention from spectators and have a very serious educational potential, we managed to move them 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 over the past 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 a senior researcher at the State Hermitage, then I have been working with him 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 was born on July 13, 1955 in Riga, Latvia. Her mother worked as a sound engineer, and her father was a cinematographer; during the war he was a front-line cameraman, filming the Potsdam Conference.

Since her student years, Tregulova’s life has been closely connected with artistic creativity. In 1977, Zelfira graduated from the art history department Faculty of History Moscow state university named after M.V. Lomonosov, and in 1981 - graduate school at Moscow State University.

In 1984, Zelfira Ismailovna’s professional activity began. For about 13 years, Tregulova devoted herself to work in the All-Union Art and Production Association of E. V. Vuchetich. She was a coordinator and curator of international exhibitions of Russian art abroad, and in recent years - assistant to the general director.

In 1993-1994, she completed an internship at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. From 1998 to 2000, she headed the department of foreign relations and exhibitions at the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin. Then she was a visiting exhibition curator, including at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

From 2002 to 2013, Tregulova Zelfira was the general director for exhibition work and international relations of the Moscow Kremlin museums. For the next couple of years, from August 14, 2013, she was the head of the State Museum and Exhibition Association “ROSIZO”.

Zelfira Ismailovna On February 10, 2015, Tregulova headed one of the three leading museums in the Russian capital - the Federal State Budgetary Institution "All-Russian Museum Association - State Tretyakov Gallery". This became a new stage in the career of a museologist.

In addition to her main activity, Zelfira Tregulova teaches at the Faculty of Art Management and Gallery Business at the RMA Business School in Moscow. Fluent English language, speaks French, German and Italian. Member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture Russian Federation.

Curator of major international exhibitions in leading museums in Russia and the world, including “Amazons of the Avant-Garde”, “Artists of the Jack of Diamonds”, “Russia!”, “Red Army Studio”, “Surprise Me!”, “Socialist Realisms”, exhibitions “Cazimir” Malevich and the Russian avant-garde" and others. Among latest projects, carried out under the leadership of Tregulova - “Viktor Popkov. 1932-1974" and "Palladio in Russia. From Baroque to Modernism."

Zelfira Ismailovna was awarded Certificates of Honor from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Order of the Star of Italy of the Knight's degree for her services in holding the Year of Italian Culture and the Italian Language in Russia, and a cross with a crown of the Order of Merit pro Merito Melitensi. Winner of the “Honor and Dignity of the Profession” award at the VII All-Russian festival “Intermuseum”.

Tregulova Zelfira has extensive experience in organizing exhibition activities. I did this in the Pushkin Museum and the Kremlin Museum and before that, in Soviet times, in other institutions. Candidate of Art History, a reputable international specialist. There are only a few people of this level in the country. A person with such experience can really “offer the Tretyakov Gallery” a lot.

There has been a change in leadership at the State Tretyakov Gallery. Irina Lebedeva was dismissed from the post of director with the wording “at the initiative of the employer.” Zelfira Tregulova, who previously held the position of head of the ROSIZO museum and exhibition association, was appointed instead.

“For me, who truly and ardently loves painting, there can be no better desire than to lay the foundation for a public, accessible repository of fine arts for all, bringing benefit to many and pleasure to all.”

(From the will of Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov)

The year of foundation of the Tretyakov Gallery is considered to be 1856, when Pavel Tretyakov acquired two paintings by Russian artists: “Temptation” by N. G. Schilder and “Skirmish with Finnish Smugglers” by V. G. Khudyakov. And already in 1867, the Moscow City Gallery of Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov was opened to the general public in Zamoskvorechye. Her collection consisted of 1276 paintings, 471 drawings and 10 sculptures by Russian artists, as well as 84 paintings by foreign masters. Years passed. And today the State Tretyakov Gallery has one of the world's largest collections of Russian visual arts having survived wars, revolutions, changes political regimes, and also, naturally, a change in leadership.

Being the director of one of the three leading museums in the Russian capital is a responsible matter. People who had the honor of heading the Tretyakov Gallery usually stayed here for a long time. For example, the former chairman of the Committee for Arts under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Polikarp Ivanovich Lebedev, was the director of the state gallery for 25 years: from 1954 to 1979. Then Polikarp Ivanovich became a “personal pensioner of union importance,” and he was replaced by People’s Artist of the USSR Yuri Konstantinovich Korolev, who headed the Tretyakov Gallery until his death (1980-1992).

In December 1993, by government order, Valentin Alekseevich Rodionov was appointed general director of the All-Russian museum association “State Tretyakov Gallery” for a period of two years. But in the end, he stayed as director for as much as fifteen years. Until 2009. His first priority was to complete the repair and restoration work on Lavrushinsky Lane. After all, he got the museum in a terrible state; the first years of his leadership included power outages and a security strike, chronic lack of money and other delights transition period. But having survived the “difficult 90s” and problems with financing together with the gallery, Rodionov resolved economic issues, and the Tretyakov acquired new premises and began organizing large projects, including international exhibitions and the celebration of its own magnificent 150th anniversary.

But in addition to saving the Tretyakov Gallery from destruction, the name of Rodionov is also associated with several high-profile scandals. Thus, in 2005, the gallery’s management was dissatisfied with the special project “Accomplices,” which was supervised by the famous art critic Andrei Erofeev. Rodionov considered the exhibition containing images of naked body parts inappropriate for the status of the Tretyakov Gallery and intended to close it.

In October of the same year, in response to a collective letter from parishioners of the Moscow Church of St. Nicholas in Zayatsky, in which Orthodox believers described the work of the artist Alexander Kosolapov “Icon-caviar” as inciting social and religious hatred and enmity, Rodionov ordered the removal of “Russian Pop” from the exhibition. art" this photo collage.

Also in 2007, Russian Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov sharply criticized the exhibition “Sots-Art” prepared by the Tretyakov Gallery for sending to Paris. Political art in Russia". In the works presented there, the official saw features of pornography that disgraced the country. The management of the Tretyakov Gallery censored the list of exhibits and removed 17 works from it. Then Rodionov filed a lawsuit against Sokolov for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation. The reason for this was excerpts from the minister’s speech at a press conference dedicated to the situation around the Paris exhibition, published in the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, in which the museum itself was in a veiled form called an organization mired in corruption. It all ended with a settlement agreement.

And a year later, a strange two-stage dismissal of Valentin Alekseevich followed. The new director of the gallery was his deputy, Irina Vladimirovna Lebedeva, who in her interview focused on the fact that “Much will be determined precisely by the fact that I am an art critic by training, and Valentin Alekseevich is not an art critic. He and I look at well-known things differently.”

Before heading the museum, she was deputy for science to the former director Valentin Rodionov for four years, was considered a major specialist in the field of avant-garde, worked at the Tretyakov Gallery from the mid-1980s, starting her career as a simple research fellow. During Lebedeva’s work as director, in particular, a board of trustees was created, the lecture hall was reformed, and several dozen exhibitions were organized in Russia and abroad. The largest among them are “Holy Rus'”, which after Moscow was shown at the Louvre, “Vision of Dance. To the centenary of Diaghilev’s seasons”, Alexander Deineka. Work, build and don’t whine!” and many others.

But despite the fact that back in 2011, the first female director of the Tretyakov Gallery was supported by the Minister of Culture Avdeev himself and the gallery staff, rejecting all accusations against Lebedeva of appropriating official apartments, illegally accruing bonuses and selling the museum’s funds to private collections, in the winter In 2015, Irina Lebedeva was dismissed from the post of director with the wording “at the initiative of the employer.”

“The Tretyakov Gallery has not yet created a comfortable environment for visitors - there are no cafes, shops, no Wi-Fi. The gallery management plans to reduce attendance by 15%. The main art museum of the country, of Russian art, never became a methodological center,” this is how the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation explained the reasons for Lebedeva’s dismissal.

Irina Lebedeva’s subordinates also spoke about the lack of an effective manager in the gallery. They even wrote open letter. According to rumors, Lebedeva illegally occupied a service apartment at 10 Lavrushinsky Lane, apartment 9, owned by the Gallery with the right of operational management. In this case, payment for utilities is carried out at the expense of the Gallery.

Meanwhile, instead of Irina Vladimirovna, who worked at the Tretyakov Gallery for 30 years and headed it for the last 5 years, Zelfira Tregulova was appointed to the post of director, who moved to this position from the post of head of the ROSIZO museum and exhibition association.

According to her, she did not immediately agree to the offer to head the Tretyakov Gallery: “...I took a couple of days to think about it. I have already said that I needed to understand for myself whether I had anything to offer the Tretyakov Gallery and whether I could raise this level of responsibility. And then, I had to think about whether my colleagues at ROSIZO would be able to develop those projects that had already been invented and launched.”

“We need to figure out what else can be done,” she says. — So that, as happens in the best European museums in the world, the Tretyakov Gallery becomes the most important focus of cultural values. And these are not only traditional exhibitions, but also the most different shapes attracting visitors, including those based on modern technologies.”

Zelfira Ismailovna graduated from the art history department of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, completed an internship at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, was the head of the department of foreign relations and exhibitions at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, for 11 years worked as deputy general director for exhibition work and international relations in the Moscow Kremlin Museums.

Since August 14, 2013, Zelfira Tregulova has been the General Director of the State Museum and Exhibition Center “ROSIZO”.

The next stage in the career of a museum expert with enormous experience was the post of General Director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "All-Russian Museum Association - State Tretyakov Gallery".

I would like to believe that a person with such experience will really be able to “offer the Tretyakov Gallery” a lot. After all, Zelfira Ismailovna faces many tasks: construction of a new building, renovation and redevelopment of existing premises and exhibitions, exhibitions, exhibitions. Our site will certainly tell you about the most interesting of them.