The Russian Ministry of Culture has removed the general director of Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery after a complaint that accused the display of showing ‘signs of destructive ideology’.
A visitor said that he felt deep ‘pessimism, emptiness, and hopelessness’ from the displayed artworks that depict funerals and ‘drunken alcoholism’.
In January, a letter issued by the ministry demanded that the museum change its exhibits to align with the state’s ‘spiritual and moral values’.
Art historian Zelfira Tregulova, who has overseen the museum since 2015, learned of the sudden end to her employment from press reports. The ministry said that the departure was due to the expiration of Tregulova’s contract.
Tregulova is to be replaced by Yelena Pronicheva, the head of Russia’s Polytechnic Museum and former executive director of Moscow’s Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. According to Forbes Russia, Pronicheva’s father, Vladimir Pronichev, previously served as the deputy head of the Federal Security Service.
Before the Tretyakov Gallery, Tregulova worked at Moscow’s Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the Moscow Kremlin Museums. Her extensive international collaborations include her co-curation of Amazons of the Avant-Garde in New York’s Guggenheim Museum and her appointment of celebrated Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to design the New Tretyakov building.
