One can be proud of a life that he is pleased with himself and which others speak with admiration ... Irina Antonova, a former director of the A.S. Pushkin Museum, has every right to respect from other people for her work in this difficult post.
Short biography of Irina Antonova
Irina Alexandrovna was born on March 20, 1922 in Moscow, in a family of great art lovers. Although her father, Alexander Alexandrovich, a former revolutionary, was only an electrician, his love for the theater was passionate and was passed on to his daughter. From the mother of Ida Mikhailovna, a piano musician, she inherited a love of music. My father was attracted not only to the theater (he even took part in amateur productions), but also to glass production, which became his real vocation.
Thanks to the new profession of father Irina Antonov with his parents from 1929 to 1933. she lived in Germany, where she studied German enough to read German classics in the original. After the Nazis came to power, the Antonov family returned to the Soviet Union.
After leaving school, Irina entered the Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature in Moscow, which closed when the war began. Irina Alexandrovna graduated from nursing courses and worked in the hospital throughout the war.
After the war, Irina Antonova graduated from this institute as part of the Moscow State University, into which he was transferred, and began to work and study at the A.S. Pushkin Museum at the same time with which there was a graduate school. Antonova's specialization is Italian Renaissance art.
In 1961, as a senior researcher at the museum, she received an appointment to the post of its director, which held over 40 years.
Spouse - Yevsey Iosifovich Rotenberg (1920-2011), art critic, who worked for a long time at the Institute of the History of Art Studies, doctor of sciences. The son of Irina Antonova - Boris - was born in 1954. When he was 7 years old, he fell ill, after which he never recovered. Now moves exclusively in a wheelchair. This is a heavy burden for every mother, not an exception - and Irina Antonova. Son Boris has been sick for over 40 years.
Work in the museum in the 1960s
Irina Alexandrovna devoted almost all of her time to the museum, which was not easy at a time of stagnation, when art had a direction exclusively to glorify the ideas of the party. To manage, and even more so organize exhibitions in the Museum of Western Art, it took some courage when the law of censorship was in force in the country.
Her work in the 60s can be called bold and innovative, since Western art, especially modern, was not honored by the Soviet government. During these years, contrary to the views of the Minister of Culture Furtseva and party politics, she held such bold exhibitions as showing works by Tyshler and Matisse. With her light hand, musical evenings began to be held in the museum, at which Stravinsky, Schnittke, Rachmaninoff sounded, but the Soviet leadership did not favor them.
Back in this period, she introduced Wipper readings dedicated to her teacher and former museum supervisor Wipper B. R.
Pushkin Museum in the 1970s
Irina Antonova became the person under whose guidance a complete reorganization of the halls and expositions was carried out.
Thanks to her, unprecedented exhibitions were held at that time - the works of foreign and domestic portrait painters were placed in one hall. Visitors could see and compare works, for example, Serov and Renoir at the same time.
In 1974, Irina Antonova insisted that the paintings of West European artists from the former collections of philanthropists Schukin and Ivan Morozov be removed from the museum’s storerooms and put on display. They lay in the storeroom for decades and thanks to Irina Aleksandrovna they were allocated the restored halls on the second floor of the Pushkin Museum building.
In the late 70s began a closer cooperation with museums and exhibitions of Western countries. Thanks to the work carried out by Irina Antonova, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and other countries were able to present the works of great artists to Soviet viewers.
Museum during the perestroika period
In the 80s and 90s, the Irina Antonova Pushkin Museum brought to a new level. Exhibitions of paintings began to take on a global scale. So, the exhibition “Moscow-Paris” was declared an event of the 20th century, since it was the first to exhibit works by Kazimir Malevich, Kandinsky and other artists who were banned in the USSR.
Together with the exhibits, Irina Alexandrovna managed to visit many countries, meet prominent people, she was lucky to accompany others to the halls of her beloved Pushkin Museum: Mitterrand, Rockefeller, Chirac, Juan Carlos, Oppenheimer, king and queen of the Netherlands.
To attract the public to the museum, she had to generate new ideas all the time. So, the idea to combine music with fine art grew into a joint creative work of Antonova with Richter “December Evenings”.
Great musicians played in the halls of the institution, which brought him to a completely different level both in the eyes of the world community and in the Soviet public's assessment of the role of the museum in the cultural life of the country.
"Schliemann's Gold"
One of the most scandalous exhibitions of the Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin was the 1996 exhibition "Gold of Troy." Many Western and domestic artists believed that her biography was tarnished by this exhibition. Irina was charged with concealing the truth about the Troy gold exported from Germany in 1945, which the Soviet Union had previously stated that it had nothing to do with it.
There was more than enough silence in Soviet history, but usually historical values returned to their homeland. So it was with works from the Dresden Gallery for example.
The fact that gold was withdrawn from the storerooms for all to see was an indicator of the openness of the new Russian government.
Museum Anniversary
In 1998, the centenary of the foundation of the A.S. Pushkin Museum was celebrated on a grand scale. In 1898, Nicholas II was present at the laying of the first stone. The celebration took place at the Bolshoi Theater and was marked by a grand concert of the best musicians, singers and dancers.
Thanks to its director, the Pushkin Museum stood on a par with such significant “centers” of culture as the Louvre, the Hermitage, the Metropolitan, Prado, the British Museum and others.
Pushkin Museum in the new millennium
With the beginning of the new century, the museum began to undergo multiple changes. So, it has grown significantly thanks to Irina Alexandrovna. New museums appeared on the territory - impressionists, private collections, the Children's Center. But, according to the director, this is not enough. Given that the collection of the Pushkin Museum includes more than 600,000 works of art, of which only 1.5% are exhibited in the viewing rooms, the construction of a real museum town is required for full-fledged work.
Funds were allocated for the expansion of the museum, so that over time it will be able to become a real city of art and culture.
Family of Irina Antonova
A small family, however, was of great importance to her, especially Boris Antonov, the son of Irina Antonova. A talented boy, he pleased his parents with his successes, knew many verses by heart, and developed rapidly. In those days when the first child was born to parents who are over 30, he was considered late.
The son of Irina Antonova fell ill at the age of seven. After that, as she herself admits, any problems and troubles began to seem small and insignificant to her.
Treatment with the best doctors did not help, and today Boris is a wheelchair hostage. Irina Aleksandrovna hopes that there will be a man who will take care of her son when she is gone. Today Antonova is 93 years old, but this active, creative and purposeful woman is still working.
Now she is the president of the A.S. Pushkin Museum and continues to take an active part in his life. She is also a member of the advisers to the president of the Russian Federation.
Merits
Today Irina Alexandrovna has over 100 publications, work in the museum, a huge contribution to the cultural development of the country. For her services, she was awarded the Order of the October Revolution, the Red Banner of Labor, "For Services to the Fatherland" 1st and 2nd degrees, she is a full member of the Russian and Madrid Academies, has the French Order of the Commander of Art and Literature and the Italian Order of Merit.
She was not only the director of the great museum, but also taught at the Institute of Oriental Languages in Paris, at the Department of Art Studies at Moscow State University, at the Institute of Cinematography.
For 12 years, Antonova was vice president of the Museum Council at UNESCO, and now she is its honorary member. Together with outstanding cultural figures of the country, he is a permanent member of the jury of the independent Triumph Competition.
In her years, Irina Alexandrovna constantly goes to theatrical productions, concerts, to the circus. Her parents instilled the habit of going to cultural performances twice a week in her childhood. She loves ballet, music, theater, she drives a car with pleasure. It was the car Irina Antonova called her fortress.