Renovated for construction: why the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts again changed its director

"Olga Galaktionova, the new Director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, described her mission in a conversation with Izvestia. Today she was presented to the staff of the Pushkin Museum, and Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova wished her success in this position. The resignation of the previous head - Elizaveta Likhacheva - is associated, first of all, with her public self-presentation. What the high-profile reshuffle means for the State Museum of Fine Arts and for ROSIZO, formerly headed by Olga Galaktionova - in the material "Izvestia".

Less than two years

Elizaveta Likhacheva's resignation was both unexpected and expected. Unexpected because only a year and 10 months have passed since her appointment, and it is clear that in a museum with a planning horizon of several years it is very difficult to achieve a concrete result for such a period of time, and therefore to evaluate the work of the director. For comparison: Irina Antonova has been director for 52 years, Marina Loshak - for 10 years. Likhacheva herself told Izvestia immediately after her appointment that one of the first issues she would deal with would be the construction of the museum campus, a project that had been started under Antonova and had stalled at some point. Actually, it was with this mission then associated the choice in favor of Elizabeth Stanislavna, former head of the Museum of Architecture. They said who else but a specialist in architecture to supervise such a process.

And indeed, the assertiveness and activity with which Likhacheva immediately took up the cause, encouraging. But whether she managed to justify these hopes at least partially - it is unclear. At a press conference on the results of 2024, she admitted that the timing of the complex does not really depend on the GMII. The builders are talking about 2030, but there is no certainty that they will really manage to do it in five years.

Of course, no one expected that in less than two years Likhacheva will be able to solve the problems that have been accumulating for a decade. And it seems all the more surprising that she was not given time to demonstrate at least some intermediate result of her work in this direction.

Image as a challenge

On the other hand, perhaps, if it were not for the responsible construction and the expectations associated with it, the resignation could have happened even earlier. In this respect, it was just as predictable. Likhacheva differed too strikingly from the standard of a museum director set by the Ministry of Culture in recent years. It is enough to compare her with the virtually non-public Elena Pronicheva, who heads the Tretyakov Gallery, or with Alla Manilova at the Russian Museum, who came there just from the Ministry of Culture and understood the "rules of the game" very well.

Likhacheva, on the other hand, could wear a provocative T-shirt, speak out sharply on a high-profile issue not at all related to her museum, come to a social event, the appearance at which was not part of her duties (note that other museum directors have reduced such outings to almost zero).... Her very image - informal, completely non-academic - seemed a challenge.

At the same time, no one disputed Likhacheva's merits as a scholar, curator, and organizer. She was respected in the museum, and in other art institutions, too.

"She is a competent and, importantly, responsive person, connected not only with architecture, but also with design and fine arts," Semyon Mikhailovsky, rector of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, told Izvestia.

When she was appointed, the decision was received with enthusiasm at the State Museum of Fine Arts: rumors had long been circulating that Marina Loshak would have to leave her post, and many feared that a less creative person from outside the museum environment would be chosen to take her place. However, the Ministry settled on Likhacheva, and the staff breathed a sigh of relief. Plus, many were impressed with her strategy, which was characterized by the witty phrase of Alexander I: "Everything with me will be like with my grandmother". Indeed, Likhacheva began to return the permanent exposition, remodeled by Loshak, to the look that it had had during the time of Irina Antonova's directorship; and the distinct focus on contemporary art was replaced by an emphasis on the classics - the largest exhibitions opened under Likhacheva were "Three Times of Rome" (which was curated by the director herself) and expositions-research of Italian and Dutch still life paintings from the Baroque era.

Apparently, the above, coupled with Likhacheva's steps in the construction business, did not outweigh the costs of her public self-presentation in the eyes of the ministerial leadership.

- This issue has been hanging for six months. She's sharp. Careless in her statements, inadequately assessing the situation," a source from the museum environment shared with Izvestia.

Connecting the arts

In this respect, Olga Galaktionova is the complete opposite of Likhacheva. Correct, cautious, rational. Which, however, should not be understood as if a creative personality has been replaced by a boring manager-functionalist. It is enough to look at the list of exhibitions prepared by ROSIZO for the three and a half years that Galaktionova headed the institution: "Kukryniksy. 100 Years", "Filonov. The Artist of World Prosperity", and finally, the grandiose "DK USSR", which deservedly became the winner of the first national award in the field of museum work named after D.S.Likhachev. Could a person indifferent to art make such bright projects? Hardly. Moreover, all of the above projects were held at third-party venues - in Manezh and Zaryadye, which, of course, increases the complexity of their organization for the director.

But ROSIZO's own premises in Petroverigsky Lane, a small old mansion, was not empty either. There, one after another, the exhibitions opened, albeit more chamber-like, but in their own bright way, many of which were interdisciplinary in nature: for example, "Form-Art. Light", "The Practice of Sensation. Light", "The Practice of Sensation. Sound", "From Music to Light. Dedication to Scriabin." Plus the video art competition "Tarkovsky's Worlds" launched by Galaktionova, film screenings in the summer cinema... Here, perhaps, her education had an impact: Olga Nikolayevna graduated from the Faculty of Art History of the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture I.S. Glazunov, then from the Directing Department of GITIS (Mark Zakharov's workshop). Before joining ROSIZO, her work was primarily connected with cinema. As an author and producer, she created about 50 documentaries, worked on television, and headed the Galaktika film company.

She will certainly need all these competencies at the State Museum of Fine Arts, where, in addition to masterpieces of world painting and sculpture, she has her own collection of video art, a network of interdisciplinary centers of contemporary art in the regions (the legacy, by the way, of ROSIZO), a sound-art festival in Kamchatka, and much more.

The task remains the same

Speaking about her future work at the State Museum of Fine Arts, Olga Galaktionova herself is refraining from specifics.

- It's a bit early to talk about plans. We will work. My main task is to preserve and increase the importance of one of the main museums of the world, - emphasized the head of the Pushkin Museum in a conversation with "Izvestia", commenting on her appointment. At the same time, she plans to expand cooperation between the State Museum of Fine Arts and ROSIZO, where her deputy director Georgy Moskvichyov is currently acting as director. Olga Galaktionova is calm about her legacy at ROSIZO.

- ROSIZO is now quite firmly on its feet and will not turn off its "rails". And there is a very good team that will perfectly cope with all the planned projects and tasks, - the Director of the State Museum of Fine Arts is sure.

As for the course of the Pushkin Museum, both the staff and outside experts interviewed by Izvestia find it difficult to predict whether and how it will change.

One way or another, the main challenge and the most difficult task for any director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts will still be the construction of the museum campus, Marina Loshak, who once took over the baton from Irina Antonova and passed it on to Elizaveta Likhacheva, told Izvestia.

Now it's up to Olga Galaktionova.