Pushkarev V.A. (1915-2002), art historian, museum worker

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
PUSHKAREV Vasily Alexeevich (1915-2002), art historian, museum worker, honoured worker of arts of the Russian Federation (1994), honorary member of the Academy of Arts (2002). In 1938-41, studied at the Faculty of Theory and History of Art of the All-Russian Academy of Arts. In 1941, volunteered for the army, fought on the Volkhov Front and the Leningrad Front. In 1945, returned to Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (the former All-Russian Academy of Arts), graduated in 1947. In 1947-50, took a postgraduate course at the Academy of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1949-51, held the post of an adviser to the Presidium of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. In 1951-77, worked as a director of the Russian Museum, and reorganised its exposition system; during his tenure he helped the museum acquire some 120,000 exhibits (including Paris archives of artist A.N. Benois, over 1,500 works of artists of the Silver Age, etc.). Pushkarev took part in publishing of the following albums: Water-colours. Drawings. Russian Museum. (1964), Treasures of the Russian Museum (1975), Paintings of the State Russian Museum (1976), etc. Pushkarev also helped organise several exhibitions, such as Russian and Soviet Still Life (1969), Ancient Novgorod Paintings (1972), The Portrait in Russian Painting (1974) and others. Since 1978, he lived in Moscow. In 1978-79, Pushkarev served as administrative secretary of the USSR Union of Artists. In 1979, he became the first director of the Central House of Artists and remained in that capacity until 1985; in 1987-91, Pushkarev worked as executive secretary of the Moscow Department of the Union of Artists of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in 1991-93 as director of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. In St. Petersburg, Pushkarev lived at 8 Tulsky Lane.

Works: How it all was... // Nashe nasledie (Our Heritage). 1993. № 28. С. 133-138; My Business Trips to Paris // ibidem. 1995. № 34. С. 70-89.

Reference: Козырева Н. М. Прощание с Директором // Новый мир искусства. 2002. № 3. С. 9.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Benois Alexander Nikolaevich
Pushkarev Vasily Alexeevich
Tulskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 8
Козырева Н. М. Прощание с Директором // Новый Мир Искусства, 2002
Как это было... // Наше наследие, 1993
Мои командировки в Париж // Наше наследие, 1995 Academy of Arts
Volkhov Front
Leningrad Front
Repin Academic Institute Of Painting, Sculpture And Architecture, St. Petersburg State
Russian Museum, State