Irina Lebedeva

150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY

Irina Lebedeva
20th-century Art in the Tretyakov Gallery

№2 2006 (11)

The Tretyakov Gallery is one of the major museums of national art in Russia. Evolving from a private collection, today it boasts an art collection unique in its characteristics, diversity and scope. Its significance and its place in the contemporary art scene is defined by its special mission, one that combines two very important functions. One of them is traditional – to preserve, study and popularize the vast pool of works of Russian art of the 12th-20th centuries, assembled during the 150 years of the museum’s existence. Another function, a very important one today, is to address topical issues of the contemporary art scene.