Reimagining the Tretyakov

The State Tretyakov Gallery is home to the finest collection of Russian art in the world. From Vrubel’s hypnotising portraits to Kandinsky’s bold abstracted shapes, the collection contains more than 180,000 works that span one thousand years of remarkable artistry. Walking through the galleries is like walking through a visual record of Russia’s tumultuous history, through revolutions to the avant-garde movement, social realism to soviet-era celebrations of the proletariat. We were honoured to develop the masterplan for this world-renowned museum.

The gallery is vast in its physical scale. It spans seven sites dotted around Moscow. There are two museums at its core: one is a complex of historic buildings that house traditional art galleries on the south bank of the Moscow River, the other is a 20th-century monolithic gallery next to Gorky Park. Five Artists’ Houses, each celebrated for their idiosyncratic character, complete the portfolio. Each site had its own particular physical, logistical and interpretive challenge, while the institution as a whole needed a strategic renovation and structural reorganisation.

The gallery team’s ambitions were bold and powerfully transformative – they aimed to raise the bar and elevate the museum’s status. Firstly, they wanted the quality of the gallery’s public offers, programmes and operations to match the outstanding quality of its collections. Secondly, they wanted the significance of the gallery and its collections to be understood, respected and revered across Moscow, Russia and the wider world.

We created a blueprint to achieve this ambition. We considered what the museum could be symbolically – what it would mean in people’s hearts and minds. We developed its vision, mission and mandate and benchmarked its regional, national and international competitors. Then we turned to the practical considerations – spatial planning, interpretative approach, collections organisation, visitor flow and the development of a study centre dedicated to the research and conservation of the collections. We also analysed the gallery as a business – how it could run more efficiently and meet its operational targets.

The masterplan is a roadmap to transforming the public spaces surrounding the museum sites. It reduces barriers to access and maximises seasonal opportunities by creating outdoor social and cultural programmes. A new Fine Art Trail links the gallery’s two main sites, celebrating the collections and creating a tangible link to Moscow’s fast-growing Arts Quarter.