Re-exposition in the main building of the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin Automatic translate

A museum that is not afraid of change: October 11 Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin will present a new concept of the permanent exhibition of old masters. The six halls on the first floor of the Main Building will open to the public not only a new design view of the museum space, but also a modern idea of ​​old painting in a classic museum of the 21st century.

Halls of Byzantine art, art of Germany and the Netherlands of the 15th – 16th centuries, as well as Flanders and Holland of the 17th century, paintings by Rembrandt and his school - all these spaces, long familiar to the “Pushkin” viewer, will appear completely transformed in autumn.

The solution to the ambitious task of presenting a classic museum in a modern look was entrusted to the French set designer, art historian Patrick Urcad. A student of André Chastel, Urcad defended his dissertation on Pierre Le Mue - the architect Maria de Medici. In the 1980s, Patrick served as art director for the French edition of Vogue, where he collaborated with Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin and other prominent photographers of the 20th century. He was invited by Karl Lagerfeld as the curator of his collections of decorative and applied art: first objects of the Rococo style, and then - neoclassical. Curator of exhibitions in the museum complex of the palaces of Versailles: "The 18th century - at the origins of design" (2014) and "Amusements and festivals of the royal court" (2016). It is not the first time that Urkad has collaborated with the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts:in 2019 he acted as a co-curator and author of the artistic concept of the East West Jazz exhibition.

Life is changing - so is the museum: the re-exposition of the halls of art by the old masters is an attempt to rethink both the space and the works presented in it. This work turned out to be a kind of intellectual exercise that allowed the curators themselves to take a fresh look at the works that they have been studying and preserving for many years, to think about the essence of the permanent exhibition and its drama. The curators who worked on the renovation of the museum space together with the invited set designer wanted to emphasize the importance of each individual work presented in the exhibition: the Pushkinsky collection is not only a harmonious ensemble, but self-valuable exhibits, each of which is a masterpiece.

Marina Loshak, Director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts AS Pushkin: “The new exposition is an important moment for us to remind once again that life does not stand still. It changes every minute, every second, and the main thing is not to miss any of its moments, to live each one. Do not forget, do not regret the past and look ahead - this is the main message of our changes. "

Work on the re-exposure began with a study of archival documents. The history of the evolution of the permanent exhibition of paintings by the Pushkin Museum has been studied since November 10, 1924, when the picture gallery of the Museum of Fine Arts was opened, and until the last changes made in 2006. The exposition, which will open on October 11, 2021, will provide references to the past and at the same time offer a new vision of the first floor of the Main Building of the Museum. Classical French painting, for example, will return to the halls where it was displayed from 1974 to 2006. But in hall 31, where temporary chamber exhibitions were usually held, for the first time a part of the permanent exhibition will be located: painting, sculpture and decorative and applied art of Germany and the Netherlands of the 15th – 16th centuries. The art of Byzantium and the early Italian Renaissance will remain in the same space,but viewers will see him in a completely different light. In general, this is an innovative exposition, but its goal is to return light and space to the halls as the founders of the museum initially saw them: Ivan Tsvetaev and Roman Klein.

In five halls, where today the exposition of Italian and French painting is located, as well as on the main exhibition axis and in several other spaces on the second floor, the exhibition "There are strange approaches", which is being prepared specially for the Pushkin Museum by the famous French curator Jean-Hubert Martin. Then these halls will be occupied by an exposition dedicated to the outstanding Russian collectors of French modernist painting and the creations of Russian artists - brothers Mikhail and Ivan Morozov. After the completion of these two exhibitions, most important for the museum, the same rooms will become an experimental platform where curators will offer their reflections on topics related to the permanent exhibition of the Pushkin Museum.

Renovation of the Main Building is one of the important steps towards its larger-scale transformation: at the moment, active work is underway to reconstruct Pushkinsky and create a "museum town", which Tsvetaev had dreamed of. In the coming years, depository-restoration and exhibition centers, the Gallery of Art of Old Masters, etc. will be opened. House of text. By 2027, the territory of the Pushkin Museum will more than double - up to 105,000 m2.

Starting from October 11, every visitor to the Pushkin Museum, freed from the previous experience of perception, will be able to open up to something new - to look at classical painting in a non-classical interpretation.