In the art museums of Russia, women sit in the galleries and guard the collections. When you look at the paintings and sculptures, the presence of the women becomes an inherent part of viewing the artwork itself. I found the guards as intriguing to observe as the pieces they watch over. In conversation they told me how much they like being among Russia’s great art. A woman in Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery Museum said she often returns there on her day off to sit in front of a painting that reminds her of her childhood home. Another guard travels three hours each way to work, since at home she would just sit on her porch and complain about her illnesses, “as old women do.” She would rather be at the museum enjoying the people watching, surrounded by the history of her country.

It was an odd moment when I walked into that first gallery in Chelsea and saw a large white desk with a head poking up from the top edge of the computer screen. I took out my camera, carefully framing and exposing the scene, and the head never moved or took notice of my gaze. As I walked around that booming Chelsea neighborhood of art galleries, I began to notice a trend: at some of the biggest galleries there are giant entry desks, where the top of the head of the desk sitter is often the only other human presence. This leads me to wonder, in this digital world of email and instant messaging that supposedly makes us more connected, are we also setting up barriers to the simple eye to eye contact that affirms our humanity?

Photographer Andy Freeberg was born in New York City and studied at the University of Michigan. He began his career as a photojournalist and now alternates his assignment work with fine art projects. His work has appeared in publications such as Time, Fortune, Der Spiegel, and Rolling Stone. His travel jobs have taken him to Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa, including two treks up Mt. Kilimanjaro. His photographs are in many collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the George Eastman House Museum of Photography. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

 

  • image Guardians of Russian Art Museums

    Guardians
    Photographs by Andy Freeberg
    photolucida, 2010. 64 pp., 37 color illustrations

    signed copies available

    Publisher's Description
    The “Guardians” are former economists and dentists, engineers and singers, teachers and clerks – a corps of grandmothers perched on chairs throughout Russia’s finest museums, forming a kind of latter-day addition to artistic landscape. They are the guardians of the country’s masterpieces, but also of much more. This series of photographs reflects the singular role that these women play in both the Russian art world and society as a whole. These women occupy a significant place in Russia, purveyors of wisdom and keepers of cultural traditions. Grandmothers in some sense rule not only the museums, but also the streets. 

    One woman described how even on her day off, she comes to the museum to sit by a painting because it reminds her of the countryside during her childhood in Ukraine. “I’ve been working here for 10 years and it feels like one day, I love it so much,” she said. 

    The photographs that Freeberg took at four museums in Russia – the Hermitage and Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Tretyakov and Pushkin in Moscow – present a humanizing contrast. These guardians are not only visible, but exert a powerful hold over the viewer, in some sense helping to bring the art to life. 

    - Clifford J. Levy, New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief 

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