The Museum of Russian Impressionism, together with the Peterhof State Museum‑Reserve, presents a project about the legendary figure Vadim Valentinovich Znamenov (1936−2020) — the chief curator, director, and honorary president of the museum‑reserve. Znamenov devoted 55 years of his life to Peterhof, increased its collection 18‑fold, opened the palace halls and pavilions of the imperial residence, which had been restored after the war and once again filled with historical artifacts, and founded a number of new museums.
The exhibition continues the discussion about the richest collections assembled in the USSR, which was initiated by the Museum of Russian Impressionism in 2021 with the «Art Hunters» project. This exhibition tells the story of how the «collecting virus» also affected museum staff, who enriched the state collections with historical and artistic treasures.
The name of Vadim Valentinovich Znamenov is among the celebrated museum figures of the 20th century. He was a rare type of director who saw his most important mission not only in preserving the collection, but also in its active development and expansion; his entire life was a systematic and continuous quest for cultural treasures, full of amazing discoveries.
The title of the exhibition project — «The Time of Museum Poets» — actually belongs to Vadim Valentinovich Znamenov himself: this is how he described the years of his research. Znamenov was a poet in the original sense of the word: a creator who transforms chaos into harmony. Instead of words, he worked with objects, space, and memory. Znamenov reassembled the ruined and devastated Peterhof and turned it into a unified ensemble. Today, the magnificent interiors of the palaces seem to guests like untouched history, although in reality they are the result of a personal vision and the titanic effort of a single person and his associates.
