Director of the Museum of Russian Impressionism: "The collection includes things that suit us stylistically and thematically." Another attempt by Zelensky to please the people

On January 31, the Museum of Russian Impressionism hosted the official opening of the exhibition "Wives", which included almost 50 portraits of beloved great Russian artists. Among them are the works of Ilya Repin, Mikhail Vrubel, Valentin Serov, Boris Kustodiev, Igor Grabar, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Boris Grigoriev, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Alexander Deineka, Robert Falk and many others.

This exhibition shows how Russian art since late XIX until the middle of the 20th century through the prism of portraits of the wives of the great Russian masters, from classical feminine images to resolute revolutionaries.

The organizers of the exhibition tried to involve the audience in the atmosphere of the works, supplementing the exposition with directional sound domes, where excerpts from the artists' letters to their lovers are heard, fragrances illustrating the content of the paintings, and real objects repeating the images of the paintings. Visitors to the exhibition could listen to the smell of the sea, a thunderstorm, a garden after rain or wild flowers - all that is depicted in the paintings. In addition, the guests of the evening were invited to listen to excursions and use a free audio guide, voiced by a friend of the Museum - Sergey Chonishvili. In him famous actor tells why Ilya Repin's wife fed hay cutlets, how Margarita Konenkova, a Soviet spy, influenced the creation of the atomic bomb, and who was the prototype of the replicated "workers" and "sportswomen" from Soviet posters.

Special Representative of the President Russian Federation for International Cultural Cooperation, Ambassador for special assignments Mikhail Shvydkoi noted : “This exhibition is a very bold project. Pre-revolutionary life was replaced by post-revolutionary life, and what seemed refined and romantically sublime during the Silver Age became worldly rude. This is one of the most difficult tests for the artist and his muse. The exhibition is interesting in that it reflects the movement from one world to another. I have no doubt that it will arouse great interest.”

Deputy Head of the Department of Culture of the City of Moscow Vladimir Filippov:“It is very important that the Museum of Russian Impressionism has one of the highest audience loyalty indexes - 95% of the Museum visitors note that they are ready to return here, come back and recommend the project to their friends. Measuring the loyalty index in museum management is an important and integral part of any success. Such high figures indicate that the Museum is becoming an increasingly important point in the cultural landscape of Moscow.”

Founder of the Museum of Russian Impressionism, entrepreneur and collector Boris Mintz noted: “The museum team has learned to bring the most daring ideas to life, finding unique works for which I am very grateful to them. In our exhibition activities, we are not strictly attached to impressionism, we try to show the diversity of painting. This year promises to be rich in exhibitions. The museum will present many bright, interesting projects!”

Director of the Museum of Russian Impressionism Julia Petrova: “The exhibition covers the period of the most revolutionary, sharp turns in the history of Russian art. Among the presented heroines were both those who remained in history only thanks to the portrait of their husband, and those who entered their name in history on their own. Such as the singer Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel, the choreographer and Stalin Prize laureate Nadezhda Nadezhdina (wife of the painter and graphic artist Vladimir Lebedev) or the Soviet spy Margarita Konenkova. To all of them, famous or forgotten, our exhibition is dedicated.”

Vladimir Vdovichenkov and Elena Lyadova, Alena Doletskaya, Alexei Uchitel, Ekaterina Mtsituridze, Olga Sviblova, Evgenia Linovich, Elena Ischeeva, Alexei Ananiev, Marianna Maksimovskaya, Mikhail Grushevsky, Andrey Nazimov, Regina von Flemming, Olga and Charles Thompson were the first to get acquainted with the fate of famous lovers and many others.

An illustrated catalog was published for the exhibition, which for the first time combined several dozen portraits and personal stories of the wives of Russian artists under one cover.

Museum of Russian Impressionism

The Museum of Russian Impressionism was opened to visitors in May 2016. It is located in a historical complex of industrial buildings of the late 19th century. A unique project of restoration and creation of a modern museum space was implemented by the British architectural bureau John McAslan + Partners.

The main exposition consists of paintings from the collection of the founder of the museum, Boris Mints: works by prominent Russian artists Konstantin Korovin and Valentin Serov, Stanislav Zhukovsky and Igor Grabar, Konstantin Yuon and Boris Kustodiev, Pyotr Konchalovsky and Alexander Gerasimov.

The museum considers its mission to popularize Russian art in general and its impressionistic component in particular, both in Russia and abroad. The museum has earned the respect of the international museum community and is a member of the International Council of Museums ICOM.

More than a thousand square meters of exhibition space, a multimedia room, an educational interactive zone, a training studio, a cafe, a book and souvenir shop - new museum is a cultural space that combines exhibition work with scientific, publishing and educational activities.

In Moscow, on the territory of the former Bolshevik confectionery factory, the Museum of Russian Impressionism opens. Its founder is businessman, collector and philanthropist Boris Mints. The museum will become one of the largest and most technologically advanced private museums in the capital. In addition to exhibition areas, the project will include a cinema, a multimedia zone, a cafe, a shop with souvenirs and books, and much more. Elena Rubinova met with the director of the museum, Yulia Petrova, on the eve of the opening.

“Russian impressionism” – is it a new art history phenomenon or a stylistic landmark? How did this combination of words appear in the name of the museum? After all, the term "impressionism" for Russian and Soviet art, moreover, it sounds unusual, and many believe that it is not quite correct.

We were initially aware that from the point of view of art history the name for the museum was controversial, and that, probably, there would be a lot of questions and criticism addressed to us, but we went for it. We decided that if we had to explain our position, we would. The phenomenon of Russian impressionism arose in the 80s of the 19th century, but, of course, speaking of Russian art, one cannot say that one of our artists is an impressionist to the marrow of his bones, this is not so. But in the work of most painters of the turn of the century there were impressionistic periods - sometimes very short, as, for example, among the avant-garde artists - say, Larionov, Malevich, or among the members of the "Jack of Diamonds", say, Konchalovsky. For some, the impressionistic stage took two or three years, someone lived in this direction much longer, some stepped over it, finding themselves in a different way, while others, on the contrary, came to these samples later.

That is, you just confirm that this is nothing more than a stylistic landmark? Russian impressionism is, first of all, whose work?

Yes, “stylistic reference” is also a good wording. That is why our exposition combines Korovin with Nabaldyan, Pimenov with Serov, Zhukovsky with Turzhansky so bizarrely – we are not talking about a style or trend with a clearly defined platform, but about the phenomenon of the existence of impressionistic style in Russian art.

What title works representing this style will be presented in your museum?

For example, a stunning painting by Bogdanov-Belsky. This artist did not always work in an impressionistic manner, but the work that we hang in the center of our exhibition is absolutely impressionistic. The five works that we have chosen for the “Musical Walk”, written by Dmitry Kurlyandsky, seem to us the most attractive, and they can also become title ones. In addition to them, it is possible that such a work will be a portrait of “Girl in a sailor suit” by Mikhail Shemyakin. Speaking from a practical point of view, we put the work of Nikolai Klodt on the cover of our catalog and, probably, it will become recognizable earlier than others. Most likely, rapid popularity awaits the works that we often show at exhibitions - the things of Yuri Pimenov, the work of Boris Kustodiev "Venice". And so in general life will show what the audience will choose.

It is stated that the basis of the permanent collection will be approximately 70 works from the collection of the founder of the museum, Boris Mints? How was the selection for the permanent exhibition of the museum?

The collection of Boris Mints is much wider than the collection and themes of the museum: it contains, for example, the graphics of the World of Art, which, for all the value and my own love to her, thematically does not fit the museum. There are also modern Art, for example Kabakov, he also remains outside the museum. The museum collection includes those things that suit us stylistically and thematically. The selection continues to some extent, since the formation of neither the museum nor the collection does not stop, and I hope that this process of adding to the museum collection will continue for a long time. I have been familiar with the Boris Mints collection for a long time, so its structure and content were well known and understandable to me, and it was not difficult to choose things for the museum.

The museum is declared to be very modern in many respects - architecture, equipment, concept. Who was involved in the development of the concept of the museum and was a certain museum taken as a model or is it some kind of synthesis?

When we started working on the museum project - it was a new area for me and for Boris Iosifovich - and we, of course, turned to specialists, consultants - the Lordculture team. Their specialists came to Moscow many times, looked at the space, studied the collection, we discussed for a long time what we would like to get as a result. We did not look up to any particular museum, although yes, we traveled a lot and saw what, where and how it works. Initially, we set ourselves the goal of creating a museum in which there would be an opportunity to make interesting temporary projects. If we talk about some samples, then the Paris Pinakothek and its team made a great impression on us: precisely by what impeccable exhibition projects they collect, how unexpected they build expositions. By the way, in France there is also some competition between private and government organizations, and some state museums even refused to work with them. But the Pinakothek came out of this trap with honor. Watching them do it and thinking that maybe we too will be able to collect something similar one day was very nice.

The theme of Russian impressionism immediately sounds like a very bright "export product", but won't the theme of Russian impressionism limit your exhibition activities? What foreign exhibitions do you have in your plans? As far as I know, the museum started its exhibition activity last year?

The name "Russian Impressionism" describes the museum's permanent exhibition. Temporary exhibitions can be devoted to both contemporary and classical art, both Russian and Western, the main thing is that the level is high. If we talk about the presentation of Russian art abroad, then this is very important for us. It's no secret that the brand of Russian art is an icon and avant-garde. Together with colleagues from other museums, we really want to change this situation: to draw the attention of the foreign public to other bright periods in our painting. Russian painting second half of XIX century is sometimes called secondary, but it is very interesting and able to surprise the Western audience. In 2015, we held an exhibition of part of our collection in Venice, then we were invited to take part in the celebration of the Days of Russian Culture in Germany. And the Augustinian Museum in Freiburg, where the exhibition was held, signed a contract with us for three weeks, but after a while they offered to extend the exhibition for the whole summer - there was great public interest in it.

In a sense, the Museum of Russian Realistic Art sets itself a similar task with the period of socialist realism, including with the Russian “severe style”, in order to dilute what is well known to the little known. Will your museum compete with MRRI in this sense?

Yes, in some ways our tasks intersect, although our niches are different. It is difficult to draw a clear line here, in some names intersections are inevitable, sometimes we even compete for the acquisition of certain works. In the IRRI collection there are canvases that could decorate our exhibitions. We haven't had joint projects yet, but our relations are friendly. By the way, since the IRRI museum is older than us, we have already turned to them several times for practical advice, and director Nadezhda Stepanova always responds.

What surprises await visitors to the museum, both in terms of art and technological solutions? In addition to the modern architectural design of the building itself, the latest museum technologies are probably also involved?

We tried to equip the building in such a way that it would be comfortable for the paintings, the audience, and the working specialists. In particular, one of our finds, which we often have to talk about, is a huge lifting table that allows a machine with paintings to descend directly into the building on the -1st floor, where, already in the climatic zone, the paintings are unloaded and placed in storage. But this equipment is hidden from the eyes of the audience. But the first thing our guests will see in the lobby of the museum is a special video installation "Breathing Canvases" by the American video artist Jean-Christophe Coué, created on the basis of our paintings.

What is this video installation?

Our guests will see a complex structure of many screens located at different angles - they are projected in a special way filmed content. Jean-Christophe has an international American-European team that took almost two years to complete.

In addition, we have planned a multimedia zone for our visitors, which will take on both entertainment and, more importantly, educational function. How does an artist work? What does he use? What is a palette knife? What are the principles for combining colors? What are the rules for glare? All these questions can be answered - visually, these will be 4 spatial objects with which you can interact.

As a musical business card The museum announced the cycle “A Musical Walk” by Dmitry Kurlyandsky, specially written for the opening of the museum, and this immediately evokes reminiscences with Mussorgsky, but in the 21st century. Is this musical component also part of the main concept of the museum?

Five pieces of music that Dmitry Kurlyandsky wrote for our museum are dedicated to five different pictures from different times - from Valentin Serov to Pyotr Konchalovsky. Kurlyandsky made, I would say, an acoustic projection of these paintings. Musical works, created by him, if you decompose them, consist not only of the music itself, but also of the sound range that could surround the artist at the time of the creation of the picture. Dmitry Kurlyansky is an avant-garde composer and it was his idea to complement the music with sounds. We supported this, because it complemented the perception of the paintings. After the opening, the music will remain in the museum, and, of course, will be presented in the audio guide, and will accompany our exhibitions.

What research and educational activities does the museum plan to conduct? What future plans have already been completed?

We open in May with Arnold Lakhovsky's exhibition "The Enchanted Wanderer" and focus on his travels and work in Palestine, Europe, America and Russia. After that, in the fall, we release the entire museum under the project of Valery Koshlyakov. As far as I know, it is this program that the artist plans to show later at the Venice Architecture Biennale. And then in the winter of 2017 we open an exhibition of the artist Silver Age Elena Kiseleva is a painter of the level of Brodsky and Golovin. As for foreign projects, just as long as we have Koshlyakov going on, our permanent exhibition will go to Sofia. We have plans for 2017, but let's open for now.

An exhibition of the Boris Mints collection has opened in Venice, and the Museum of Russian Impressionism in Moscow is due to appear by the end of the year. Mysterious Russian impressionism will attract the public, the collector is sure

Boris Mints
Entrepreneur, collector
1958 was born in the family of a military engineer

1980 Graduated from the Faculty of Physics of Ivanovsky state university. PhD

1980s work at the Department of Higher Mathematics of the Ivanovo Textile Academy and in one of the NTTM centers

1990s Vice Mayor of Ivanovo, Head of the Main Department of the State Property Committee, Head of the Presidential Department for Local Self-Government

2000s creates the Union of Right Forces party, heads the Otkritie financial corporation and the REN TV media holding

Now Chairman of the Board of Directors of the investment holding O1 Group. Acting State Councilor I class. Engaged in charitable and social activities

When they first started talking about your museum, I came across the following explanation: there is a museum collection, and there is your own collection, that is, the collection of the Museum of Russian Impressionism is one thing, and your personal one is another. There was another explanation: that the museum's collection is part of your personal collection. So what is the principle?

I collect not only Russian impressionism. For example, I really like Alexander Benois . I buy any good Benoit; I probably have 40 works. I love it very much Boris Kustodiev. Yes, I love many! Valentina Serova, for example (but it is very hard to buy), Igor Grabar. From today's Valeria Koshlyakova, I consider it outstanding artist modernity. And I even show some of his works in connection with impressionism. Of course, this is not impressionism, but they were written under its influence.

And what about contemporary art besides Koshlyakov?

There are many things: and Ilya Kabakov, and what not. But it does not mean that everything should be given to the museum. In addition, not all works are museum-level. Therefore, from the works that I had, art critics selected five or six dozen of those that, in their opinion, meet such criteria. And when it was decided that there should be a museum, I began to invest in its creation. Therefore, now I mostly buy Russian impressionism. I used to buy everything I liked in general - now I do it less often. Just because the resources are not unlimited, and, I must say, the work becomes more expensive every day.

How many things will be in the permanent museum exhibition?

I think the permanent exhibition should be small, about 50-70 paintings. This may not apply to professionals, but in general modern man You can't stay in the museum longer than two hours. And Western exhibitions are arranged in such a way that a person spends in enclosed space maximum two hours. Just because people don't like it anymore, you know? Once in my youth, when I had a lot of free time, when I arrived in Leningrad, I spent whole days walking around the Russian Museum and the Hermitage. But this is not typical behavior for ordinary person- spend the whole day, especially the weekend, in the museum. On weekends, people mostly want to sleep longer.

Julia Petrova
Director of the Museum of Russian Impressionism

The building, which was allocated to the Museum of Russian Impressionism on the territory of the Bolshevik Cultural and Business Complex, in former factory times was a storehouse of flour and powdered milk. This particular building has no historical value, it is late, so we had the opportunity to completely re-equip it. We set ourselves the task of museum building as convenient as possible for organizing expositions and other events: it is thought out not only to maintain temperature and humidity conditions, but also competent safe storage, an entrance group, a loading and unloading area for cars that will bring exhibits to exhibitions, special elevators. The reconstruction project was prepared by the London Bureau John McAslan + partners. In addition, on the advice of the architect, we engaged well-known museum consultants Lord Cultural Resources: they supported us on initial stage, helped to draw up an action plan, brought up to date, warned about a number of nuances. Reconstruction work began in 2012 and we expect to complete it this autumn.

Factory "Bolshevik" is not to say that a prayerful place. Not very famous.

It is still unknown. Let's do it and it will be known. "Garage" was also once unknown. Fame is such a thing... And Bolshevik is a very comfortable place. Close to the center, but not in the very center. Accordingly, we have solved all the problems of parking, moreover, the museum is not far from the metro, so that in this sense all categories of our visitors will be satisfied. If we do a good product then the place will become popular. In Saratov, when we showed a picture of Kustodiev Venice, 6 thousand people came in ten days, it was so interesting and unusual. Imagine a provincial library with 600 visitors every day! The day before the closing of the exhibition, even the governor stopped by to see it - because everyone is talking about it.

Our serious advantage is that from the very beginning we make absolutely modern museum. It can be said that there is no such space that meets all the requirements of the museum business in the country. This is the problem with Russian museums. For example, the Hermitage has a wonderful collection, fantastically professional people, but the premises themselves? To make a normal modern museum, palaces need to be rebuilt, and it is forbidden to rebuild architectural monuments. And the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin, and other museums, whose buildings were built in the last century before last, it is very difficult to modernize. In Europe it's different. For example, the building of the main museum of impressionism, Orsay in Paris, was rebuilt especially for him from the former railway station. We, thanks to our consultants and architects, managed to make an optimal project. I know collectors (I don't want to name names) who almost never give their work to exhibitions for one simple reason: the space is wrong. They feel sorry for the work, which will be incomprehensible in what temperature regime.

Following. We are doing a serious multimedia project, which, I think, will be of interest to young people. It is already close to completion, technically everything is ready. It seems to me that this is important in itself, because no one has ever presented a work of art in this form in Russia before. A picture is taken, photographed in a special way, and thanks to this, the viewer observes how it was painted, how it turned into what it became. All this can be seen on the Internet, and through social networks to be aware of all our news.

The first permanent exhibition will be built chronologically and will include both textbook names ( Konstantin Korovin, Valentin Serov, Igor Grabar), as well as authors well known to specialists and much less to the general public ( Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky, Sergey Vinogradov, Nikolai Dubovskoy). We will start from Vasily Polenov and his closest students, consider representatives of the circle of the Union of Russian Artists and the early impressionistic experiences of the avant-garde artists ( Mikhail Larionov, Vladimir Baranov-Rossine), let's move on to the post-revolutionary period: here we can talk about "quiet", non-exhibition impressionism ( Yuri Pimenov and such forgotten authors as Valentina Diffine-Christie), and even about the impressionistic works of the pillars of socialist realism. So, we'll show you the Parisian view Alexandra Gerasimova who arrived in France in 1934 and there remembered what Konstantin Korovin taught him.

I am talking about the first permanent exhibition, because, in our opinion, everything needs to be changed from time to time: to hang other things, of course, leaving the key works.

For temporary exhibitions we will have two halls, large and small. There are already a number of agreements with regional museums O joint projects. The low level of development of domestic tourism in our country leads to the fact that magnificent regional collections are practically unknown to Muscovites.

Explain the logic of events. Russian impressionism is just an excuse for such a public space as a museum, but would a museum have arisen anyway? Or public space Is this a consequence of the fact that you began to specialize in Russian impressionism?

When I started collecting, I did not even imagine that someday I would create a museum.

In general, what is more in this story - planned or random?

There are two different stories. The story of my collecting is like, poetically speaking, a secret desire. To collect, you first need to earn some money, as you know. And only when the desire coincided with the possibilities, real, meaningful collecting began. But in the process, of course, views always change. At some point, it became clear to me that there is little studied and little represented, not in the focus of art criticism, Russian impressionism - absolutely, from my point of view, underestimated. No one collected these things just like Russian impressionism. Like a direction in history domestic art it is practically unmarked.

What was the reason for the opening of the topic “Russian impressionism”? With some specific purchase? Or a pure idea?

No, I didn’t dream about it ready-made, like a table Mendeleev. It's just that I began to read more about Russian painting, and when I was in Paris, I went to museums. There are many museums there, not as famous as the Orsay, but with collections from about the same time, only smaller. They also have Claude Monet, and other great names; there are less well-known ones, although the quality of their painting, it seems to me, is not worse at all. (As PR people joke: what is the difference between a mouse and a hamster? PR, and nothing more.) And when I already had a dozen or two works on the topic and I went deeper into it, I thought that it would be right to raise it on this very level. And the course of events confirms that I was right. When we were preparing an exhibition for Venice, for the Palazzo Franchetti, a professor from the Milan Academy of Arts came and said that we had collected absolutely brilliant works. And this is the opinion of a representative of one of the most prominent in Europe educational institutions in the field of arts.

Valentin Serov. "Window". 1887

How did your collecting start?

Mostly from graphics - Benois, World of Art. I bought a lot of contemporary Moscow artists: I just wanted to revive the house, well, I didn’t have much money. I was an official in the 1990s, and it seemed to me that it was not very correct for an official to engage in collecting. Then, when I first went into management, then into business, it got better both with money and with time ... And I have been looking at pictures all my life. I have a huge library, I constantly go to museums, to collectors, to dealers who help in collecting.

Does it take a lot of time?

OK. Auctions for which we are preparing - big job: you need to look at everything, choose, go to see it live ... Not only in London, but also in Moscow. We have some very good auctions, and they have some very good teams that collect decent things. In Moscow, we bought a lot of things.

Do you buy mostly at auctions?

Yes. Approximately half are works that were taken out of the country many years ago, and sometimes they never even visited Russia. The same Venetian Kustodiev: there is no doubt that it was he, a well-known work, but fell out of sight. When the painting was brought to St. Petersburg, specialists from the Russian Museum came up and asked: “Listen, where did you get it? We thought she was gone."

About this and about the specifics of the work

in the private museum Posta-Magazine, its director Yulia Petrova told.

"This is my favorite job and, of course, my lucky ticket,- Julia admits, as soon as we start a conversation. - We have such a narrow labor market and so few opportunities for manifestation, the state graduates many more people of my specialty than required. Many of my peers do not even hope to work in their specialty. And even more so, one does not have to count on becoming the director of the museum. This is something that, in general, one does not have to dream about, and one does not have to build such plans either. In youth, no one says: “I’ll graduate from the institute and become the director of the museum.”.

Be that as it may, in the life of Yulia Petrova everything turned out exactly the way it happened. For several years she was a curator private collection businessman and philanthropist Boris Mints, and after the opening of the Museum of Russian Impressionism, she became its director. And this, of course, has its pros and cons, - Julia herself admits. Meetings with family, for example, become rare, because most of the time is spent within the walls of the museum.

Nika Koshar: Julia, you always talk so beautifully about your work. But you are still an artist. And, having become a director, you probably had to take on a lot of administrative affairs. How difficult was it for you?

: Well, of course, this is what I have to learn today. In general, in our society there is a stamp that art historians or "people of art" are very spiritual and exceptionally sighing people under the moon. Fortunately for me, I am a fairly rational person: just like art history, I have always loved mathematics, I feel comfortable in it. And what happens in the museum is more often subject to instinct and common sense. And if you have a flair and a little common sense, it works. Of course, you need to learn a lot: both administrative skills and management skills. A team has been assembled, and it must be led.

Did you put together a team yourself?

Yes, by myself. I personally selected everyone who works here, and I can firmly say that each of our employees (more often, of course, employees) is a rare find. And they are all passionate about their work.

How ambitious are the museum's plans?

You know, when Boris Mints invited me to participate in the creation of the museum and shared with me his desire to open it, it seemed to me that this was an extremely ambitious plan. But since it has come true, then, in principle, everything that we plan is no longer so scary. For example, exhibitions abroad. Actually, we are already holding them: we had exhibitions in Venice, in Freiburg, on October 6 a very beautiful exhibition will open in National Gallery Bulgaria. ​Of course, I would like to “cover” not only Europe, but also the East and the United States, but there are difficulties of a legal nature, international, not just museum ones. Of course, I would like to make unusual projects within these walls, and bring in first-line artists: Russian, Western, modern (like Koshlyakov), and classics. I myself gravitate towards the classics.

Well, Koshlyakov, it seems to me that this is such a symbiosis of classics and modernity. He's somewhere in between.

Yes. He is one of those artists who, as he himself formulates, is engaged in painting. Unlike the bulk of contemporary contemporary art artists who create concepts. It also differs in that each individual work is a work without a context, without a concept. Therefore, he is in such demand, he is loved, I know he sells well, and any appearance of Koshlyakov's paintings at auctions is always an event.

Tell me, were you ready for the fact that the name "Museum of Russian Impressionism" in the art world would be disputed for so long?

Absolutely. Even at the time when we were just planning to create a museum, Boris Iosifovich and I had long conversations about how to do it right. And we understood that the term "Russian impressionism" is extremely controversial and, at the same time, very capacious. It can be disputed from an art history point of view, although I must say that major experts do not enter into polemics on this score. But this is a term that instantly paints a certain picture. And the fact that art historians break mines and argue - well, yes, it is. Mikhail German, a very respected Petersburg art critic, wrote a whole book called "Impressionism and Russian Painting", the main idea of ​​which is that Russian impressionism never existed and does not exist. At the same time, there are brilliant specialists such as Vladimir Lenyashin or Ilya Doronchenkov. In general, we went for it consciously and realizing that yes, we will have to fight for the name, and that we will not be patted on the head for this. But, on the other hand, the caravan goes on...

Could you please tell us how the main collection was formed? How did the main sacrament take place?

You probably know that our permanent exhibition is based on the collection of Boris Mints. Any private collection is first collected according to the taste of the acquirer. Then, as a rule, the collector understands the logic of what he acquires, and suddenly, at some point, it becomes clear that what you collect has a certain outline. Then you begin to add to this canvas those works without which nothing will work. So, for example, already knowing what a museum should be, I thought about what paintings could be added to the collection so that the permanent exhibition would be representative, so that it would answer the questions that the audience had. It became obvious to me that this collection should include, for example, works by Yuri Pimenov. And we bought two of his works. So the collection becomes more and more complete, it grows, necessary fragments are added to it.

Is the word "upgrade" appropriate here?

Rather, "stringing". It's like putting together a puzzle: it grows from different sides, and you try to make it complete and add details from different sides.

Do you have a favorite place here?

Favorite places change, and this is due to the changes in the expositions that take place in our museum. For example, I used to love standing by the central painting at the Lakhovsky exhibition, on the 3rd floor. Now it is, perhaps, a sacred space on the minus first floor. ​The space of the museum allows you to ​change the geometry of the halls, and this is its absolute advantage. Here, for each exhibition, you can do something new. I think four times a year we will have something to change. It’s also good in my office (smiles).

What about your favorite museums and galleries? Of which would you like to bring something here and copy?

It’s probably impossible to say so, but, of course, there are people and teams that you learn from. At one time I was greatly impressed by the way the Pinakothek of Paris was organized, which closed last winter, to my great regret. It was a brilliant museum, which twice a year made expositions exclusively of the first names - they showed Munch, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, Liechtenstein.

There is a stereotype in society that the director of a museum is such an aged lady, wiser with experience. And here you are in front of me - young, beautiful, successful. Have you had to prove to people that you are capable of being a leader?

You know, probably not. Of course, as the hero of Pokrovsky Gates said, “when you go out on the stage, you need to strive for one thing: you need to immediately tell everyone who you are, why and why.” Fortunately for me, I am not the first, young museum directors successfully exist, so there is no need to look for drama. Thank God that there is both. I am very grateful to Boris Iosifovich for the fact that he trusts the young. We have a young team, but it's very cool. Probably, somewhere we lack experience, I am ready to admit it, although we, it seems to me, are learning quickly.

The architects from John McAslan + Partners have transformed the former 1960s grain elevator beyond recognition: it now contains halls for permanent and temporary exhibitions, lecture space and storage for private collections. Director of the Museum of Russian Impressionism Yulia Petrova told TASS about how a large museum grew from a private collection and what Russian impressionism really is.

Director of the Museum of Russian Impressionism Yulia Petrova

− As a separate, powerful current there was no impressionism in Russian art. How does the museum interpret the concept of Russian impressionism? What time period is given to him?

− We focus not on the names of the authors, but on the style of the works. I prefer to talk about the phenomenon of Russian Impressionism, and not about the direction or flow. We are well aware that this is not even a fully established term yet, and sometimes we hear claims against our museum. Someone says that Russian impressionism does not exist, others ask whom we mean.

- And who do you mean?

− Impressionism affected the work of almost every master turn XIX-XX centuries. It is interesting to show the impressionistic works of painters who are widely known, with works of completely different directions. For example, impressionist canvases are found in the work of Alexander Gerasimov. We have one of his works, written in 1934 in Paris. It surprises and shocks by how much it stands out from his own history and Soviet art of the 1930s.

− How many jobs in total museum collection?

− In the collection of Boris Mints now there are about 250 works, but not all of them were transferred to the museum. For the main exposition of the Museum of Russian Impressionism, we have selected those exhibits that stylistically correspond to the stated theme. It did not include any contemporary artists, nor an excellent selection of graphics from the "World of Art": Lansere and Dobuzhinsky have nothing to do with impressionism. Maybe someday we will show them at temporary exhibitions.

− What will the audience see in the permanent exhibition of the museum?

- The permanent exhibition of the museum, which will be located on the ground floor, will include about 80 works. Chronologically, they cover the period from the 1870s to about the 1970s.

In the main exhibition − famous names: Konstantin Korovin, Valentin Serov. We have a wonderful work by Kustodiev "Venice", which we showed at exhibitions before the opening of the museum and which changes the traditional idea of ​​the artist. We are interested in showing another Kustodiev. Of course, we included in the exposition Yuri Pimenov, who considered himself a realistic impressionist. There will also be a number of artists less known to the general public. For me personally, it was important to tell about each of them in such a way that our visitors would have an integral opinion about both the painter and the person.

− When the museum was announced, it was announced that other collectors would also take part in its programs and permanent exhibition. Is there already specific plans?

- Of course, there are agreements, but for now we would prefer not to disclose the names, because we want to keep the intrigue a little. Works from other private collections will appear in the permanent exhibition in December. Many artists rarely appear on the art market, some key works for the museum were bought before us, and the owners are not going to part with them. Therefore, we are negotiating cooperation.

- Our project is humanitarian, it is a philanthropic story. Boris Iosifovich is well aware that our museum, like any other, will never be able to recoup the investment. Our great advantage is that it is possible to acquire new exhibits, and we are Full time job on the search and acquisition of works of art at auctions, from private collectors, from heirs. And now, when we become more famous, people themselves come to us with proposals.

− Does the Museum of Russian Impressionism have consultants?

- I am in charge of determining whether things are suitable for the museum collection. The priority criterion is quality.

− What temporary exhibitions are already planned?

− Now we have formed an exhibition plan until the autumn of 2017. We will open up and continue a series of negotiations, because it is important for some potential partners to see what happens here in the end. For large projects, we are ready to free up the space of the entire museum. This year we will show three exhibitions. The first will open simultaneously with the permanent exhibition, this is the exhibition of Arnold Lakhovsky, who is well known to specialists, but not so well to the public. We have attracted to this exhibition very bright, beautiful work out of 10 state museums who cooperate with us.

In autumn we will have an exhibition of "Elysia" by Valery Koshlyakov. There are quite a lot of works by this artist in the Mintz collection, but specifically for this project, Koshlyakov is creating content right now: these will be absolutely new works that no one has yet seen. Together with curator Danilo Ecker, director of the Turin Museum of Art, they will do something absolutely fantastic here. They have plans to rebuild exhibition halls and I think we'll all be pleasantly surprised. After that, the same project will go to the Venice Biennale. At this moment, our permanent exhibition will go on tour abroad, to a very beautiful recently built modern museum in Sofia "Square 500". And upon our return, in December, we will show the permanent exhibition, already updated.

- That is, you are not going to close yourself in the space of the museum?

- Yes, we started this work in 2014, and the fact that we will continue it speaks of its importance and necessity. We showed 50 works in Venice (at the exhibition "With Wide Eyes" in the Palazzo Franchetti), then at the Augustinian Museum in Freiburg. We started our regional program with Ivanov. "Venice" was eventually seen in Saratov, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, the work of Yuri Pimenov - in Voronezh and Ulyanovsk.

- Did you choose an architectural bureau for a long time, which did the project of the museum?

− The choice was made immediately. We are familiar with this bureau through their work with the "Stanislavsky Factory", where, among other things, the Studio is located theatrical art Sergei Zhenovach. There, the architects proposed a very interesting solution to change the former factory area. There, just like on the Bolshevik, there is a business center, apartments, and a cultural facility.

Since the museum building has no historical value, we were able to reorganize the space and fully adapt it to the museum. This was the main challenge for the architects.

- Now almost every museum has educational projects, what can we expect from yours?

− We started educational work in the fall of 2014 with classes for children and adults, and not only on our topics. We have a separate room for activities with children. different ages. It transforms, allows you to set up tables and chairs so that you can draw, but you can remove them, put pouffes in this place and start a conversation about art. Everything is equipped for viewing illustrations. There is a lecture hall with the possibility of showing films, even in 3D format, where it is planned to show films about art and auteur films. In the summer there will already be an opportunity to buy a subscription or tickets for one-time classes.

Reference
Painting by Boris Kustodiev "Venice"

. Boris Kustodiev's painting "Venice" was painted in 1913. Kustodiev loved Venice very much, admired it. He wrote it a little, but willingly and with love. The painting shows a view of the Cathedral of Santa Maria della Salute and the church of San Giorgio Maggiore at the confluence Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal in the area of ​​the Schiavone promenade. Main Exhibition, in which this work participated, took place in 1968 after the death of the master. But this was the most fundamental exposition of Kustodiev in the museum of the Academy of Arts. The painting belonged to a private collector. It so happened that it was taken abroad, it was not in Russia until 2013 and was not exhibited," Yulia Petrova, general director of the Museum of Russian Impressionism in Moscow, said at the opening of the exhibition.
In 2013, Venice was bought by businessman Boris Mints at an auction in London. Representatives told TASS auction house MacDougall's in London, the painting was sold for 751.2 thousand pounds.
In February 2016, the painting was exhibited in Yekaterinburg in the Herzen Library as part of the project of the Museum of Russian Impressionism "Painting in the Library". Now the picture can be seen in Moscow.