Director of the Pushkin Museum: we do not stop collaborating with museums in Holland. Leading museums in the Netherlands are preparing joint exhibitions

In the 15th century most of the Dutch lands were part of the Duchy of Burgundy. Its ruler, Charles the Bold, tried to create a major European power, competing with France, but died in 1477, and as a result of the marriage of his only heir, Mary of Burgundy, with Maximilian of Habsburg, Holland soon became part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Under Maximilian's grandson, Charles V, Holland became one of the separate components his gigantic possessions were expanded by adding six more regions to them from the north. After the abdication of Charles V, the country, consisting of 17 provinces, was inherited in 1556 by Charles's son, King Philip II of Spain. The population of Holland was then almost 3 million people. Its density was very high; there were about 300 cities and 6,500 villages in the country.

The number of residents of the country's main port of Antwerp exceeded 100 thousand in 1550. In terms of the level of development of cities and their culture, Holland was second only to Italy in Europe.

The spread of the Reformation, including the Calvinist one, caused particularly severe persecution in Holland under Philip II, a militant Catholic, which aggravated the situation in the country. In 1566, speeches by the noble opposition and iconoclastic movements in different cities An uprising began in Holland, which grew into a decades-long war of liberation against Spanish oppression.

In 1579, the southern provinces, abandoning further struggle, entered into an agreement with Philip II and remained under his rule, while a group of northern provinces created their own republic and deposed Philip II. After armed struggle, Spain was forced to conclude a truce with the recalcitrant in 1609, and in 1648, after the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the Republic of the United Provinces received international legal sanction for its independence.

Growing economic power contributed to a great flourishing of culture. The whole world knows, for example, the famous Dutch painters of the seventeenth century: Rembrant, Vermeer, Hals.

In terms of cultural development, Holland is a very rich country. Painting occupied a leading position among other arts here. It was she who opened the world to the Dutch and the Dutch world. Already in the first decades of the 15th century. are the geniuses of the van Eyck brothers, van der Weyden, van der Goes, Mamlinck, Hieronymus Bosch. I think the names listed are enough to understand the scale of the Dutch school of painting.

Music. Dutch polyphonic school XV - XVI centuries. had a huge impact on all European music of the Renaissance. It was the Dutchmen Dupre, Okegem, Obrecht, Willaert, Lasso who became the founders of polyphony schools in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic; It was the Dutch who created classical examples of the most important musical genres: mass, motet, madrigal, chanson, and thereby laid the foundations of instrumental music of the New Age. It is clear that the school of polyphony is for music what perspective is for painting.

The period from the end of the first third of the 15th century. and until the last third of the 16th century. (the work of P. Bruegel) - these are the temporary boundaries of the Renaissance in Holland.

A distinctive phenomenon in the history of literature of this country was active work rhetorical circles, the so-called reidekers (chambers of rhetoricians). It was the rhetoricians who perfected the technique of versification and rhyming to virtuosity, and introduced new forms: ode, sonnet, epigram. They laid the foundation national theater. Many humanists came from their midst, for learning was valued there.

At the beginning of the next century, real poetry appeared in the work of Anna Baines (1493 - 1575). The poetess's themes: a woman's unhappy love, a Catholic woman's passionate hatred of dissidents and Protestants.

The Flemish cleric Matthijs de Castellin became famous for his songs (he composed both poetry and music), he was also the author of the great poem “The Art of Rhetoric.” Castelein was the first in Holland to turn to metrical verse.

Antwerpian van Thistle translated Terence, Sophocles, Ovid, Virgil and Horace.

Many of them were also rhetoricians. folk poets the era of the Dutch bourgeois revolution and the Anti-Spanish War, those who called themselves Gueuze. Charles de Coster's novel Till Eulenspiegel skillfully, colorfully and entertainingly tells about life in the country.

Not all gyozas today are nameless. The names of Adrian Valerius, Philip Marnix, Jan Utenkiwe, and Petrus Daten have been preserved.

As for the main creators of the Renaissance - the humanists, in Holland they gathered in special unions, or communes - “brotherhoods” life together" The first such brotherhood was founded in 1374 (just in the year of Petrarch’s death) by the son of the Deventer patrician Gert Grote (1340 - 1384).

In general, these are, of course, monasteries in which the idea of ​​personal appeal to God and faith according to inner conviction was affirmed; such brotherhoods soon spread throughout the country, Latin schools were organized under them, and from the end of the 15th century. Deventer's printers began publishing Hesiod, Plutarch, Aesop, Virgil, Petrarch, Lorenzo Valla and others.

Thus, humanism and the Reformation (they fought with the Spaniards, not least for freedom of faith, and monastic communes that embodied the freedom of individual faith - also a heresy from the point of view of the Vatican) had common origins. During the 15th and early 16th centuries. they are differentiated, and the famous controversy of the 20s. XVI century between Erasmus and Luther on free will draws the final boundary between humanists and reformers.

Grote's successors, students of the Latin school in Groningen, Wessel Gansfort and Rudolf Husman, nicknamed Agricola, travel to Italy, where they become familiar with Renaissance culture.

Agricola (1443 - 1495) - poet, painter and musician - spent ten years in Italy (1469 - 1479), studying and translating ancient authors. The “Speech in Praise of Philosophy and the Other Arts,” written by him in Ferrara for university students, became a manifesto of humanistic philosophy. He was the first Dutch homo universalis. He was also the first critic of the scholastics. His work “On the Art of Argument” had a tremendous influence on many humanists. Erasmus considered Agricola "the father of German humanism."

By the end of the 15th century. Leuven, and from the beginning of the 16th century. and Antwerp are gaining a European reputation as cultural centers.

Erasmus of Rotterdam brought worldwide fame to Dutch humanism. This is the pseudonym of Gert Geertsen (1466 - 1536), who wrote in Latin and was one of the best masters Latin prose of the Renaissance.

Erasmus was a citizen of the world (cosmopolitan), he lived and studied in different countries Europe: in France and England, Switzerland and Germany; he was one of the leaders of pan-European humanism, and for German humanism he was of exceptional importance.

The largest representative of Dutch realism of the mid-17th century. is the great Rembrandt (1606 - 1669). His multi-genre painting (paintings on mythological stories, portraits, landscapes) is imbued with a subtle understanding of human psychology (“ The night Watch», « Holy family", "Danae", "Return of the Prodigal Son", etc.).

Traditions of the "Golden Age" Dutch painting continued in subsequent eras. It is enough to recall the name of Van Gogh (1853 - 1890), a representative of post-impressionism (“Night Cafe”, “Landscape in Auvers after the Rain”, etc.). The name of the enlightener Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466 - 1536) is known far beyond the country's borders.

His work “A Word of Praise for Stupidity” contains sharp criticism of the church and feudal orders.

XVII century was an era of unprecedented prosperity visual arts and in other European countries. The most vibrant schools were born in the former Netherlands. This country split into two parts: Holland (seven northern provinces), which separated from Spain and became an independent Protestant republic, and Flanders (modern Belgium), which remained under the protectorate of Spain, maintaining its adherence to Catholicism.

Peter Paul Rubens () became the symbol of Flemish painting for all times. Rubens had an excellent diplomatic career, had the largest workshop in Europe and an army of devoted students, was rich and lived in Antwerp in his own palace. But his appearance as an elegant, completely secular man was deceptive.

Above all other blessings, the artist valued the quiet delights of the family hearth. He was married twice, and both times successfully. The first wife, Isabella Brandt, was from a very wealthy burgher family. An atmosphere of happiness family life the artist conveyed in the work “Self-Portrait with Isabella Brandt” (1609), where he depicted himself and his wife under the branches of blooming honeysuckle. After the death of Isabella, in the 54th year, he married a young distant relative of his first wife, Elena Fourman. This woman became his muse (“Elena Fourman with children”, 1636, “Fur coat”, 1639).

The most remarkable thing is that Rubens was unusually successful in his work. He received orders from the most influential and wealthy people in Europe. He was not persecuted by the Inquisition, despite the artist's penchant for nudity. Moreover, the Jesuit Order was among the master’s regular customers.

The recognized legislator of the Baroque, the master, apparently, was neither a philosopher nor a psychologist. The religious spirit also completely disappeared from his painting, giving way to the triumph of healthy, although not always beautiful, flesh. The strength, passion, and unbridledness of Rubens’s images were combined with a completely common people’s view of nature, the beauty of which meant, first of all, a healthy and well-fed body.

Rubens, the singer of struggles, victories and bacchanalia, had a favorite student, the outstanding Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck (). Van Dyck's fate was completely different. Having received a good education and not wanting to compete with Rubens, he leaves Antwerp and enters the service of the English king Charles I. Anthony van Dyck English king Charles I

Jordanes readily drew similar-in-spirit scenes, repeating them in different options a story about how a satyr came to visit the peasants, or about how the “bean king” gets drunk. Another student and closest assistant of Rubens, Jacob Jordan () was a true Flemish, and his paintings are the embodiment of plebeian spontaneity, cheerfulness and some traditional folk frivolity.

In the 17th century Flemish art enriched with still life an independent genre painting. A major master of monumental still life, composed of the gifts of nature and hunting, was Rubens' friend Frans Snyders (). Exaggerated in scale juicy fruits, killed poultry, vegetables, sea and river fish, piled on the table, represent a fabulous abundance given to people for a happy and rich life.

In Holland, a bourgeois republic that abandoned the Catholic faith in favor of Protestantism, artists had different opportunities and traditions. The painters worked in market conditions and did not depend on orders from the king or the church. Their paintings were bought (or not bought) by wealthy citizens who loved to decorate the walls of their houses with paintings. Consequently, the taste of ordinary citizens, highest value for whom there was the well-being and peace of the family, determined the content of the paintings.

What did the Dutch want to see in the paintings? What they were used to and what was not too burdensome for their intellect: cozy city courtyards, clean rooms in houses, neat, inconspicuous-looking housewives in white caps, skinny girls engaged in sewing, reading or playing the harpsichord. Life in these paintings is presented truthfully down to the smallest detail, and simple everyday scenes depicted by the artists could be observed around them every day. It is said that from the subjects depicted in Dutch paintings, historians can study the economy and trade relations of the 17th century.

The largest portrait painter among them was Frans Hals (c.). These paintings look at us energetically enterprising people masters of their own destiny. Let us note: the artist willingly reproduced laughing faces, being able to capture that state of mind that today we call the “moment of truth.” Frans Hals

“The Great Little Dutchman” is often called Jan Vermeer, who went down in the history of painting as Wermeer of Delft (). He painted the same simple-minded everyday scenes and landscapes as his fellow professionals. The greatness of the artist lies in his coloristic discoveries, in his ability to skillfully embody air, color and light. "The Girl Reading a Letter" "The Officer and the Laughing Girl"

Vermeer, like no one else, felt the light-air environment and became the first among painters to paint landscapes from nature, in the open air (fresh air), anticipating the style of the impressionists of the 19th century. Vermeer's canvases play with bright, fresh colors, giving pleasure to the eye and a mood of peace and quiet to the soul. “Street”, 1658 “View of Delft”, 1660

The pinnacle of Dutch art XVII V. the work of the brilliant artist Harmens van Rijn Rembrandt (). Surprisingly, without leaving his small burgher country and without receiving a broad education, Rembrandt created works with a universal, universal sound. Contemporaries did not understand this very well and treated the artist condescendingly, not hushing up his “weaknesses.”

The realization that it was Rembrandt who managed to remove from the Dutch artistic culture the reproach for being grounded came much later. Rembrandt was given the power to combine simple everyday truths with the high spiritual experience of mankind, going through the path of quest from baroque compositions to high realism.

The artist was born in Leiden into the family of a miller; After Latin school, he attended Leiden University for some time, but left his studies to pursue painting. In 1632 he moved to Amsterdam. Fame came to the young master with the creation of the painting “Anatomy Lesson,” which depicts Dr. Tulp, expertly explaining to his students the structure of human muscles in a dissected corpse.

In 1634, Rembrandt married his beloved girl Saskia van Uylenborch. Saskia was from a noble family, and the marriage opened the way to the patrician circles of the capital. The bride's dowry provided material freedom, and Rembrandt began to receive many lucrative orders.

The period of life with Saskia was the happiest for the artist. He worked a lot, and from under his brush came images marked by the joy of being. By the way, he turned his young wife, far from a beauty, into the charming goddess of spring Flora, decorated with flowers and necklaces, dressed in brocade (this canvas is in the Hermitage collection).

In 1642, the artist’s life changed dramatically. Saskia died, the muse that inspired the master disappeared. From now on it comes new period his creativity, which began with famous painting"The night Watch". The work was commissioned as a group portrait of a rifle company. The military wanted to see their own faces on the canvas first of all.

The customers' indignation knew no bounds; they demanded a refund. The master was offended. From that moment on, Rembrandt broke with the circle of aristocrats, and the curve of his well-being went down sharply. Rembrandt sharply changed traditions and created a picture with a different plot: a company, overwhelmed by a patriotic impulse, goes on a campaign. Only a few figures were illuminated in the composition foreground, the rest of the characters went into the shadows and mixed with strangers.

With age, the artist himself changed, and his approaches to creativity also became different. Mature Rembrandt is distinguished by amazing simplicity, the absence of external effects and unnecessary details. He loved to paint poor people, blind people, beggars, old women and old men, emphasizing in their images their wise knowledge of everyday problems.

Rembrandt most often drew his subjects from the Bible (with the exception of portraits), increasingly bringing evangelical religious ideas closer to the spiritual needs of modern man. He learned to discover sublime beauty in an ugly nature, thereby affirming the Christian truth about the corruption of the earthly and the eternity of the heavenly.

Last decade the most tragic page of Rembrandt's life. The second wife and son died. Those around him considered him a loser, a failed artist. He lost his friends and huddled in a poor apartment on the outskirts of Amsterdam, but did not lose his creative gift.

The composition of the picture is extremely simple. The wanderer son in dirty rags, who fell on his knees in front of his father, personifies tragedy and repentance. The old father, who had forgiven everything, was happy, with an expression of infinite kindness on his half-blind face, laid his hands on the sufferer. The picture contains the utmost intensity of feelings and illumination of thought. And also a question disturbing the pain of the heart: shouldn’t we, lost souls, fall in repentance at the feet of our heavenly Father?

After the death of Rembrandt, the decline of Dutch painting begins, and then comes the end great era take off national artistic creativity. Perhaps this is why the Dutch still love and cherish their brilliant past so much today. Rembrandt Museum in Amsterdam

Tourists usually associate the Netherlands with tulip fields, wooden shoes (klomps), windmills and, of course, unusual laws. And if you ask local resident about the culture of Holland, he will most likely name painting, architecture and design as the main cultural values ​​of the country.

So, what is the culture of Holland known for and how to capture all the riches of this beautiful country in a short time.

Klomps

The most effective element of Dutch national costume- these are wooden shoes or clogs. Traditionally, cleats were used as safe and cheap footwear for work in factories and fields.

Today, this popular and unusual souvenir can be bought at every step, and if you want, it won’t be difficult to find a store where they make really comfortable shoes that are suitable for everyday wear, if, of course, you like the design.

Tulips

Tulips in Holland have long become a symbol of the country and, undoubtedly, its decoration.

Tulip mania is a period in Dutch history (1634-1637) when the demand for tulip bulbs was so high that they reached incredible prices. For three onions you could buy a house, and one was given as a worthy dowry at a wedding. It is not difficult to guess that the bulbs were main theme conversation in all levels of society.

Mills

Windmills in Holland - a real museum under open air and favorite models of photographers from all over the world.

At one time, mills were used to drain lakes, produce cereals and flour, paint, oil, mustard and much more. It is not surprising that on the plains of the Netherlands the number of mills grew rapidly until they were replaced by more modern technology.

The Kinderdijk area, 15 km east of Rotterdam, where the windmill complex is located, is listed world heritage UNESCO.

Painting

The Netherlands boasts the largest number of museums in the world. And the collection of paintings is one of the most brilliant and diverse.

The most famous museums in Holland:

• Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
• Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
• Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam
• Mauritshuis, The Hague
• Loo Palace (Het Loo), Apeldoorn

Among the most famous Dutch painters are: prominent figures, like Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Bosch, Bruegel and many others.

Famous contemporary artists: Ger van Elk, Jan Dibbets, Peter Struycken, Rob Scholte.

Architecture and design

The architecture of the Netherlands is one of the main assets of the country; the buildings on the canals of Amsterdam, as well as the modern buildings of the centers of Rotterdam, are famous.

In design, the Dutch adhere to simplicity and clarity of form. A strict design style can be seen in the organization of city streets, as well as in the layout of modern buildings.

Events and holidays in the Netherlands

Nine major holidays in the Netherlands (are holidays).

• January 1 - New Year
• March-April - Good Friday
• March-April - Easter
• April 27 - King's Day
• May 4 - Memorial Day
• May 5 - Liberation Day
• 40 days after Easter - Ascension of the Lord
• 7 weeks after Easter - Trinity Day
• December 25, December 26 - Christmas

The Netherlands hosts colorful carnivals and festivals:

• February 10 - Traditional carnival
• April 14 - Museum Day
• April 20 - Flower Competition
• April 30 - Queen's Day
• May 11 - Cyclist Day
• June 1 - Herring Festival
• September 7 - Flower Parade in Aalsmeer
• November 11 - St. Martin's Day
• December 6 - Catholic St. Nicholas Day
• December 21 - St. Thomas Day in the Netherlands
• December 26 - St. Stephen's Day
• December 31 - St. Sylvester's Day

Museum as a play space: interview
with curator Jean-Hubert Martin

All articles by the author

- Director of the culture department of Posta-Magazine

Jean-Hubert Martin, one of the most famous and authoritative international curators, spoke about the 21st century museum, transcultural exhibitions and the difficulties of preserving contemporary art in an interview with Posta-Magazine.

In 2021, a few months before the closure of the main building of the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin for reconstruction, the exhibition “The Ancients Stole All Our Ideas” curated by Jean-Hubert Martin will open in the empty halls of the museum.

The basis of the exhibition, consisting of thirty thematic chapters, will be the collection Pushkin Museum, which will be supplemented by numerous works from other Russian and foreign collections. Jean-Hubert Martin is famous high-profile projects, expanding the boundaries of art in which it combines different cultures, mixes eras, recognized masterpieces and works that traditional art history looks down on. This is what the upcoming exhibition in Moscow will be like: a complex, multi-layered narrative, each chapter of which will be opened by a work that is significant for the Pushkin Museum, presented in an unexpected context from a number of works by Russian and foreign artists, as well as anonymous masters of ancient civilizations. In a word, this will be a time of discovery, so beloved by Martin himself.

Former director of the Paris Pompidou Center, Kunsthalle Bern and others major museums, Jean-Hubert Martin showed the art of Ilya Kabakov to the European public for the first time, curated the first Parisian exhibition of Kazimir Malevich, discovered the names of Christian Boltanski, Annette Messager, Daniel Buren and others who had already become lifetime classics. He has a long-standing friendship with Russia: he co-curated the legendary cross-exhibitions “Paris - Moscow” (1979) and “Moscow - Paris” (1981), as well as III Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2009.

We met with Jean-Hubert Martin at the Pushkin Museum at the annual international conference “Vipper Readings”, dedicated to the development of museums in modern world and the program “Pushkinsky XXI”, which is designed to introduce the viewer to contemporary art our days and at the same time integrate it into the classical heritage.

: In your lecture at the Vipper Readings, you talked about the need to adapt museums to modern realities, in particular to digital culture. Which model of communication with the viewer, in your opinion, is the most promising?

: I'm not saying that all museums should change, but in some cases it is necessary to move away from the chronological principle of presenting information. If the viewer is not a professional art critic and does not have highly specialized knowledge on the topic, he cannot relate what he sees at the exhibition to the historical context.

For me, it is important what they say and how the works of art themselves look, and this can be read without additional hints in the form of explanations, even by an unprepared viewer. I'm interested in finding parallels in art different eras and cultures. I believe that a work of art only benefits if we present it not in dry academic language, but in game form, depriving him, in a sense, of the halo of sacredness, which often interferes with unbiased, direct perception.

You also said that you want viewers to perceive exhibitions as entertainment, a pleasant pastime, like, for example, a music concert, but at the same time, of course, intellectual. In your opinion, does the general public still perceive museums today as institutions of “high” culture, and therefore difficult to perceive?

I think yes. Which, in general, is not so wrong. But we need a balance: on the one hand, we must explain the value of a great work of art, but, on the other hand, nothing prevents us from presenting less “valuable” works or objects popular culture. This destroys the existing hierarchy of “high” and “low”, allows you to look at art with a fresh look, and discover unexpected analogies.

In the UK and a number of other countries, museums are now seen as more than just custodians cultural heritage, but also agents of positive social change. What potential do museums have in this capacity, in your opinion?

The social aspect is extremely important. People from different social strata meet in the museum. Even if they do not communicate with each other at the exhibition, they are united by the very fact that they are in the same space, where they were brought by a common need: to understand the world through art. Going back to what I said earlier about entertainment: I think that by appealing to the viewers' emotions, allowing them to enjoy the art, the curator awakens their curiosity, motivates them to learn more about the artist, the era, etc.

How are museums integrated into the art market?

Museums are connected to the art market in the sense that from time to time they buy works of art for their collections, and may also collaborate with commercial galleries that provide works for one or another exhibition project. Otherwise, the museum and commercial spheres in France are strictly separated. Thus, according to professional ethics, a curator cannot work in a museum and at the same time be involved in the art market.

What are the peculiarities of the management of a museum of classical and modern art?

These are completely different things. The Museum of Modern Art deals not only with works, but often with the artists themselves, with whom it is necessary to build a dialogue. And, say, in a museum of antiquities you work exclusively with works of the past that you interpret. I often have the feeling that if Rembrandt or Hogarth came into the curator's office, he would throw them out because his views on the art of Rembrandt and Hogarth would not coincide with what he would hear from the authors themselves. (Laughs.)

And the museumification of contemporary art itself is fraught with certain difficulties...

One of the problems of contemporary art museums is that many works - installations - take up a lot of space and, moreover, are often fragile and quickly destroyed. If paintings and sculptures are not so difficult to move from storage to museum halls and back, then contemporary art this is not the case: it often requires specific technical skills for installation and dismantling - the ability to handle cameras, video projectors, lighting equipment, etc.

Technologies are developing so quickly - how, for example, to deal with the obsolescence of video formats?

There are two opposing points of view on this matter. Some believe that, say, in the installation of Nam June Paik (American-Korean artist, pioneer of video art. - Note ed.) 1950s today you need to use the same TV model as the original. Others, often artists themselves, take this much more easily and allow such technical substitutions if it does not violate the artistic intent. Thus, it is very expensive for museums to store VHS tapes, which require not only certain conditions, but also film restoration. There are even special companies that restore VHS and convert them to digital format.

The general principle of your curatorial practice can be defined as overcoming temporal and spatial boundaries and generally accepted concepts. How widespread is this approach today?

One of the most pronounced trends today is the concept of transhistorical and transcultural exhibitions. In French we call it décloisonnement, which means “removing boundaries, barriers.” It has its supporters and opponents and is now the subject of discussion and debate. In the late 1960s, when I was a student, we were taught that objects from different historical and geographical contexts could not be presented in the same exhibition unless they had some point of intersection. But this academic approach is gradually losing ground with the development of globalization. Today we are much freer. Both artists and viewers perceive the world differently and are able to compare and draw analogies. Therefore, objects from completely unrelated contexts may appear in one exhibition space, but at the same time they are united by some other characteristic: shape, color, material. This stimulates imagination and new ideas. I am convinced that when interpreting art we should not limit ourselves to the historical aspect. Which, in fact, only emphasizes its poetic, timeless essence.

I think this is similar to what is happening in modern theater, where the viewer often becomes a co-author or direct participant in the performance.

Yes, this trend is observed in other forms of art. IN music concert, for example, Mozart can coexist simultaneously with The Beatles and Cage, and this is interesting because it allows you to get rid of labels and formed ideas. Moreover, this approach attracts a young audience to museums, which is formed by modern eclectic culture.

When you first started practicing your approach, did you encounter resistance? How did you overcome it?

It wasn't easy. (Laughs.) In 1978, when I curated the first Malevich exhibition in Paris, I noticed a curious thing: critics and journalists came up to me and asked questions as if I were the living voice of Malevich. It seemed so strange to me. And I thought: I don’t want to remain a Malevich specialist for the rest of my life. I'm very curious. For me, art is a fantastic field, an inexhaustible source of discovery. Despite the fact that I highly value professionals in one or another narrow field, I myself am much more interested in the history of art in all its diversity and complexity. But at the same time, it gives me pleasure to analyze specific works, discovering new meanings and hidden meanings in them. Hence my synthetic approach.

What is the current stage of preparation for the exhibition at the Pushkin Museum?

In the rather advanced one, we have done a lot, because it was originally planned for 2019, but due to the project for the reconstruction of the main building, it was postponed to 2021. I have been working on this exhibition for almost two years, I already have a general structure and a list of exhibits. Of course, some details will change during the process, but the basic concept is ready.

Tell us about your recent art historical discoveries - perhaps in the process of working on an exhibition at the Pushkin Museum.

A couple of weeks ago I received the catalog for the exhibition “The Art of Laughter” at the Frans Hals Museum, which I read from cover to cover with great pleasure. The exhibition is dedicated to comic painting XVII century, golden age Dutch art, and is the result long-term research. Paintings with humorous scenes are a rather interesting cultural fact for the Protestant society of that time. For a long time it was believed that this painting, often of frivolous content, served as an anti-example, showing how not to behave. But, you see, it’s hard to imagine the father of a family hanging a scene with women lung behavior that tells their children that they should never repeat it in life. Of course, there were people who strictly adhered to religious norms, but there were others who took morality less seriously and also had enough money to commission artists this kind paintings.

How is art education changing today?

It all depends on the country. I can tell you how things are in France. Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, with the advent of conceptual art, art schools developed very quickly. In some cases, even too fast. At the end of the 1970s, there was a moment when universities stopped teaching drawing and painting altogether, but now we are returning to this again. I hope that today a certain balance has been established. We have many art schools, and each specializes in one direction or another, so students can choose based on their interests and the skills they want to learn.