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Report of the State Hermitage for 2001
In the autumn, in the courtyard of the Winter Palace, a huge spider settled,
the work of Louise Bourgeois, one of the most audacious of contemporary
artists. The tactical combination of long-established traditions and unobtrusive
change lies behind all the Hermitage's activities.
The Hermitage is renewing itself. A further stage in the renewal of the
water supply and waterproofing systems has been completed. With the help
of Danish friends new power stations have been installed. The Queen of
the Netherlands formally opened the halls of Dutch painting that have
been restored and equipped with new lighting. New lighting systems have
been installed in the majolica hall and the Italian Cabinets. The lighting
for the display of British art has also been completely revamped. The
Snyders and Rubens Halls have been refurbished. The halls of the Italian
Renaissance, the Malachite Room and the Augustus Hall have been restored.
Plans are being drawn up for the reconstruction of the Gallery of Peter
the Great and the Hanging Garden. Work on the creation of a new entrance
is underway. The eagles on the gates have been recreated, the courtyard
is being replanned and part of the vestibule adjoining the courtyard has
been fitted out. A further stage in the opening-up of the courtyard was
marked by a tremendous concert under the direction of Krzysztof Penderecki
and Saulius Sondeckis.
Alexander Sokurov's film The Russian Ark was shot in December,
recording a Hermitage filled with characters from its 300-year history.
The Hermitage is expanding. In the eastern wing of the General Staff building
the church and another suite of rooms have been restored and the entrance
area with a cafÙ fitted out. The Chariot of Glory has been restored atop
the renovated arch of the General Staff. Within the framework of collaboration
between the Hermitage, the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Kunsthistorisches
Museum in Vienna, the creation of a 20th-century section in this building
is underway. A series of joint exhibitions is being prepared — for the
museums and for the virtual space of the Internet. The Hermitage–Guggenheim
joint exhibition centre has opened in Las Vegas. The ''Catherine the Great''
exhibition closed at the Hermitage Rooms in Somerset House in London and
another took its place — ''French Drawings and Paintings from the Hermitage
Collection''. In the Netherlands work is underway on the project for the
first stage of the Hermitage on the Amstel exhibition centre. Negotiations
have begun on the creation of an exhibition centre in Kazan (capital of
the republic of Tatarstan within the Russian Federation). In St Petersburg
a new department of the Hermitage appeared with the transfer to the museum
of the collection of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory, which will remain
in the factory building.
The Hermitage is also expanding with the aid of the latest technology.
In addition to the Internet site and the computer gallery we now have
an Internet Centre with a cafÙ, new computer programs in the galleries
and a Hermitage e-shop in the Internet.
The Hermitage is splendidly represented in the real world by the societies
of its friends in the USA, the Netherlands and Canada.
The Hermitage is involved in the Great Ural programme, developing joint
projects. The exhibition of the collection of Prince Nikolai Yusupov ''Educated
Fancy'' was created in conjunction with the Arkhangelskoye museum-preserve
and the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Works of ancient art from Ufa
restored in the Hermitage were shown together with Scythian articles from
the Hermitage in the exhibition ''The Golden Deer of Eurasia'' in New York,
Milan and St Petersburg. The ''Art of Islam'' exhibition in Kazan is leading
towards a permanent presence in Tatarstan.
The Hermitage successfully held the exhibitions ''The Treasures of the
Golden Horde'', ''The Golden Deer of Eurasia'', an exhibition of modern Dutch
art, and ''500 carved gems from the Cabinet of the Duc d'OrlÙans''. President
Jacques Chirac of France travelled to the Hermitage to see the black paintings
of the French artist Soulage in the immense white hall in the light of
the St Petersburg summer.
The Hermitage exhibition ''Rubens and His Age'' was held in Toronto, ''Siberia''
in Trieste, ''Paintings by Venetian Artists from the Hermitage Collection''
in Bassano del Grappa and Barcelona. ''Masterpieces and their Collectors'',
a joint exhibition of the two museums, opened in the Hermitage–Guggenheim
Center.
The individual masterpieces Adoration of the Shepherds by El Greco,
Moulin de la Galette by Picasso, Two Sisters by Renoir and
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter by Vermeer were exhibited in the
Hermitage.
The Hermitage remains true to its tasks of research. The majority of the
exhibitions were the fruit of scholarly and restoration research. The
printing of the Hermitage's periodicals, scholarly anthologies and monographs
was placed on a sound footing. The reports of archaeological exhibitions
for the past season are published annually.
The year began with a tragedy — on the night of the New Year a signal
rocket set fire to the newly-restored figure of the goddess on the Chariot
of Glory. On the eve of 2002, the renovated chariot, a symbol of St Petersburg
and the Hermitage, returned to the public.
Some figures for 2001
The total number of visitors was 2,456,760, including 816,395 who entered
free of charge. There were 2,027,738 Russian citizens and 429,022 foreigners.
More than a million people saw Hermitage exhibitions in the museums of
Russia and abroad. The Hermitage site in the Internet was visited 1,940,217
times.
Twenty-eight temporary exhibitions were held in the Hermitage, some from
the museums stocks and organized jointly with other museums in Russia,
others introducing visitors to collections from abroad. 671 works from
the Hermitage were featured in 17 exhibitions at museums within Russia.
The Hermitage organized and participated in 65 exhibitions abroad — in
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Greece,
Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA, providing 1,358
exhibits.
From the material in the State Hermitage Report for 2001.
Foto report
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Foto
report
Louise Bourgeois's Spiders in the Large Courtyard
of the Winter Palace
Chariot of Glory on the General Staff Arch
Pierre Soulage
Russian premiere of
K. Penderecky's oratorio Seven Gates of Jerusalem
During the shooting of Aleksandr Sokurov's film Russian
Ark
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