The Graphic Heritage of the Russian Avant-Garde as an Object of Acquisition in the Tretyakov Gallery in the 1920s–1930s
Authors: Петрова Д.А. 
Published: October 2021

Статья посвящена выявлению особенностей комплектования фондов Третьяковской галереи произведениями графики русского авангарда в 20–30-е гг. ХХ в. в контексте изменения тенденций государственной культурной политики того времени. Исследование выполнено на основе данных Книг поступлений Третьяковской галереи и документов, хранящихся в Отделе рукописей музея. Проанализирована политика приобретения художественных произведений в музейные коллекции, изучена деятельность Музея живописной культуры, произведен анализ поступлений в Третьяковскую галерею. Прослежено изменение вектора культурной политики в первые годы советской власти, взявшей на вооружение реализм в качестве основного идеологического инструмента. Установлено, что графические произведения русских художников-авангардистов стали достоянием фондов Третьяковской галереи в результате двух больших поступлений – после расформирования Государственного музейного фонда (1927 г.) и вследствие ликвидации Музея живописной культуры (1929 г.).

The study aims to (1) answer the question about the time and circumstances in which works of Russian avant-garde graphics appeared in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, and (2) determine how the efforts of the national museum aimed at acquiring its funds correlated with trends in the state’s museum policy. The study was carried out based on data from the Tretyakov Gallery’s inventory books and documents stored in the museum’s Department of Manuscripts. In the process of work, the author turned to the books of the Tretyakov Gallery acquisitions kept during the period under study, documents stored in the Department of Manuscripts of the museum, materials of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, as well as results of research by specialists in art and museum studies who examined the legacy of the Russian avant-garde and its reflection in Russian museum collections. The author mainly used methodological tools inherent in historical research: a historical-systems approach and methods of historical-comparative studies. The author analyzes changes in the state museum policy in managing the acquisition of art museum collection funds after the revolutionary events of 1917. She also investigates the work of the Museum of Pictorial Culture, whose collection included works of avant-garde artists. The author determines the moment of change in the orientations of the young Soviet state’s cultural policy; the predominant use of realism in art was the main ideological instrument of this policy. She analyzes the works of art the Tretyakov Gallery received, reveals the avant-garde works the museum obtained in the late 1930s, identifies the trends that influenced the acquisition of the gallery funds in the subsequent period. The author has established that the works of avant-garde graphics became the property of the Tretyakov Gallery funds after two large-scale acquisitions – after the dissolution of the State Museum Fund (1927) and after the liquidation of the Museum of Pictorial Culture (1929). In the 1930s, there was a deformation of all museum activities, including the acquisition of funds. In relation to the collection of modern graphics at the Tretyakov Gallery, this deformation, in particular, manifested itself in the narrowing of the subject matter and directions of acquisition, and the withdrawal from the collection of works that contradicted ideological attitudes and political dogmas.