Lebedeva, Irina Vladimirovna

Irina Vladimirovna Lebedeva ^[4] was born in the city of Rostov, Yaroslavl Region in 1956 ^{[5] [6]} . In 1980, she graduated from the Department of Art History of the History Department of the A. A. Zhdanov Leningrad State University ( Leningrad State University ) ^{[5] [6]} . Even while studying at Lebedev University, she began working at the State Russian Museum in Leningrad ^[5] .

In 1985, Lebedeva began working as a researcher at the State Tretyakov Gallery (State Tretyakov Gallery), took part in moving the collection of Soviet art from the building on Lavrushinsky Lane to the museum complex on Krymsky Val and creating a new exhibition of 20th-century art ^{[4] [5]} . In 1987, Lebedeva became a senior research fellow. After 11 years, in 1998, she took the post of deputy head of the painting department of the first half of the 20th century. In 2001, Lebedeva headed this department, and in 2005 the gallery’s director general, Valentin Rodionov, appointed her his deputy for scientific work ^[5] .

Lebedev was called one of the leading experts in the Russian avant-garde ^[7] , she took an active part in organizing art exhibitions of the 20th century in Russia and abroad, and was the organizer of the Andy Warhol art exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery ^{[5] [6] [8]} . In 2007, she joined the organizing committee of the annual All-Russian competition for the award of the Innovation Prize in the field of contemporary visual art ^[9] .

In 2007, the Minister of Culture of Russia, Alexander Sokolov, called some exhibits of the Sots Art exhibition in Paris “a dishonoring country with pornography.” In response, the gallery management removed 17 exhibits from it. Subsequently, Lebedev welcomed the dismissal of the curator of the exhibition and the head of the State Tretyakov Gallery’s latest trends, Andrei Yerofeyev , saying that “he is a destroyer by nature,” although the press reported that she personally confirmed the lists of exhibits ^{[5] [10] [11] [12]} .

In April 2008, Lebedeva was one of the authors of a collective letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev , in which she asked that the company Inteko, owned by Elena Baturina, be prohibited from building the Orange multifunctional complex on the site of the gallery on Krymsky Val according to the project of British architect Norman Foster ^{[13] [14 ] [14 ] ]} .

In May 2009, it became known about the personnel changes in the leadership of the Tretyakov Gallery. It was reported that Rodionov was leaving for a “compelled” pension. A month later, Rodionov officially introduced Lebedev to the museum and appointed her acting general director of the Tretyakov Gallery. On July 17, Rodionov was fired and in his place on July 19, by order of the Minister of Culture of Russia Alexander Avdeev , Lebedev was appointed ^{[4] [5] [6] [15] [16] [17] [18]} . She became the first woman to occupy this position ^{[4] [6]} .

After her appointment, Lebedeva said she was disappointed by the lack of public interest in the contemporary art exhibition on Krymsky Val and stated that she wanted to attract the audience to this cultural layer ^{[5] [6]} . She also promised to change the gallery’s strategy to make it a “museum of the 21st century” ^{[4] [6]} , and to establish contact with the Russian Orthodox Church on issues of contemporary art ^[5] . As “ Gazeta.Ru ” wrote, Lebedeva was able to lay claim to the role of not only a supply manager, but also a museum ideologist ^[19] . Already in the fall of 2009, the director of the museum appeared in press releases on the implementation of the international innovative program “Art. A New Look". As part of this project, the Tretyakov Gallery, together with the communication group JMCommunication and the company Visual Innovations, presented volumetric reproductions of the works of Russian avant-garde of the 20th century - in three-dimensional images they could be seen on the plasma screens of the exhibition space of Moscow Domodedovo International Airport - Domodedovo Art Gallery. “The museum goes to people outside its space. It is very important for us that we are trying to show our national art to a wider circle of viewers, ”commented the director of the Tretyakov Gallery a new exhibition ^{[20] [21] [22]} .

In March 2011, an anonymous letter “about the corruption component in actions” was published on blogs by Lebedeva: the gallery directors were accused of misappropriation of office apartments, illegal accrual of bonuses and the sale of museum funds to private collections. The Minister of Culture Avdeev, to whom this letter was addressed, rejected all charges against Lebedeva. The staff of the Tretyakov Gallery supported her in an open letter. Lebedeva herself called the accusations an envious reaction to the success of recent exhibitions ^{[23] [24] [25]} .

In February 2012, Lebedev was included in the list of proxies of Vladimir Putin , who acted as a candidate for the presidential election scheduled for March ^{[26] [27]} .

Lebedeva is an Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation ^{[4] [5] [14]} . The biography of Lebedeva on the gallery’s official website, as well as in the news of RIA Novosti and ITAR-TASS, indicated that she was a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts (PAX) ^{[4] [5] [6]} . Full member of the Russian Academy of Arts ^[2]

The desire of I.V. Lebedeva to maintain a position “above the battle” for the Tretyakov Gallery cost her dearly. During the annexation of Crimea, she did not sign the appeal of cultural figures in support of him, inspired by the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation V.R. Medinsky, and was immediately dismissed from the post of director of the State Tretyakov Gallery without explanation. In addition, she completely "disappeared" from all the media.

• Alexander Drevin in museum collections / Ed. ed. I. Lebedeva; author of the exhibition project and author-comp. publications of T. Zelyukin . - M .: State Tretyakov Gallery , RA, 2003. - 168 p. - 1,500 copies - ISBN 5-85164-080-4 .

• When writing this article, we used material ( text in Wikisource ) from Lentapedia , available under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 Unported license .