The situation of the Tretyakov Gallery before nationalization was really catastrophic. The funding of the museum had been discontinued - there was no money to buy fuel and pay salaries to the Gallery's employees, let alone new acquisitions for the collection. After nationalization I. Grabar was appointed Director of the Gallery and a research board comprising curators in addition to the Director was established.
In 1918 Grabar was one of the active organizers of the National Museum Fund, which was later renamed the State Museum Fund. The Fund was needed to accommodate artworks coming from nationalized palaces and estates. This property was to be distributed among museums throughout Russia. In 1918-1927 the National Museum Fund was one of the primary sources replenishing the GalleryΓÇÖs collection.
Individual artworks, as well as a series of paintings would arrive at the Gallery from the Fund. These artworks came from the collections of Prince S.A. Shcherbatov, P. and V. Kharitonenko, K.F. Artsybushev, I.A. Morozov, M.P. Ryabushinsky. Summing up the Gallery's work in 1918-1922, the Research Board noted that the museum's collection had grown by nearly 50% and declared that "most of the new entries should be ranked first-class".
It took a lot of effort and dedication to save the museum treasures during the hard years of the Civil war and devastation. There was neither fuel, nor electricity. At night Moscow sank into impenetrable darkness. The street-lamp closest to the Gallery was located by the Drain Channel. As a result of cold and dampness paintings in the Gallery began to cover with mustiness and fungus. Experts of the Restoration Department did their utmost to fight these dangers. In 1919, the artist A.A. Rybnikov was appointed head of the Restoration Workshop of the Gallery.
With the museumΓÇÖs life gradually returning to normal in 1922, the GalleryΓÇÖs staff thought it necessary to display new entries.
By the year 1924 the Gallery had four affiliate museums.
1. The State Tsvetkov Gallery had a marvelous collection of drawings and paintings. In 1925 it was affiliated to the Tretyakov Gallery, with the bulk of the collection joining it in 1926-1927.
2. The I.S. Ostroukhov Museum of Icon Paining and Painting displayed objects of Old Russian art - icons, miniature plastic figures, embroidery, hand-written books and manuscripts and secular artworks. The greater part of the collection entered the Gallery in 1929.
3. The Proletarian Museum of the Rogozhsky - Simonovsky District was also used to accommodate the Gallery's stocks. Among artworks originating from this museum, the collection of I.S. Isadzhanov, which had previously arrived from the A.V. Lunacharsky Museum, deserves special mention.
4. The Museum of Pictorial Culture housing Avant-garde paintings was dismantled in 1928. A considerable part of its collection entered the Tretyakov Gallery in 1929, the rest was sent to provincial museums.
A landmark event in the formation of the Gallery was the arrival of works by Russian painters from the Moscow Public and Rumyantsevsky Museums in 1925. These artworks used to belong to famous collectors - M.M. Lvova, A.P. Bakhrushin, S.A. Shcherbatov and K.T. Soldatenkov. The only masterpiece that remained in the collection of the Moscow Public and Rumyantsevsky Museums was Ivanov's painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People (The Appearance of the Messiah)" (1837-1857), which together with studies and sketches was sent to the Gallery in 1932. Then a special hall was constructed to accommodate this canvas.
The Gallery obtained the remarkable collection of F.I. Pryanishnikov, which Pavel Tretyakov had aspired to have in his collection when he was a young man. This collection included first-class works by A.G. Venetsianov, D.G. Levitsky, F.M. Matveyev, V.A. Tropinin, K.A. Somov and P.A. Fedotov.
In the mid-1920s the Gallery stopped accepting canvases by foreign masters delivered from the Museum Fund. In 1925 paintings from the collection of Sergei M. Tretyakov were sent to the Museum of Fine Arts (now The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts). In 1927, the State Museum Fund was liquidated, and a number of artworks arrived at the Tretyakov Gallery. Russian paintings from the collection of I.A. Morozov, which entered the museum in 1927, still adorn the Gallery.
In the course of the 1920s and 1930s extensive contacts the Gallery had established with major museums in Russia enabled it to span gaps in its collection. Several remarkable works dating from the Peter the Great era arrived from the Armoury Chamber. Two portraits by I.N. Nikitin, "Portrait of P.A. Demidov" (1773) by D.G. Levitsky were presented by the Russian Museum. The Gallery received two award portraits - "Portrait of Peter III" (1762) by A.P. Antropov and "Portrait of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna" (1743) by I.Ya. Vishnyakov - from the former Senate collection.
The museumΓÇÖs work to collect artworks culminated in regular exhibitions organized on its premises. I. Grabar had conceived the idea of the first exhibition before the nationalization of the museum. It was realized in 1918 ΓÇô the exhibition was called "Artworks from MoscowΓÇÖs Private Collections Temporarily Exhibited at the Tretyakov Gallery". In those years there was a need for a monographic overview of the work of celebrated masters. In 1919 the Gallery organized an exhibition of K.A. Somov, in 1922 - an exhibition of D.G. Levitsky, in 1920-1921 - an exhibition of M.A. Vrubel, in 1923 - an exhibition of F.S. Rokotov, in 1924 - exhibitions of V.D. Polenov and I.E. Repin and in 1927 - V.I. Surikov. Special attention was given to the artists of the early 20th century - N.P. Krymov, P.P. Konchalovsky (both exhibitions were held in 1922), and R.R. Falk (1924). The Gallery also organized exhibitions of the work of the Blue Rose (1925) and "Jack of Diamonds" (1927) associations. In 1925 the Gallery held an exhibition called The Origins of the Russian Painting to mark the 200th Anniversary of the Academy of Sciences. That year also saw an exhibition dedicated to the work of I.S. Ostroukhov.
By the mid-1920s the Gallery had acquired the status of an enlightening institution. In 1926, the Enlightening Department was established with the aim of organizing excursions and lectures, which has since been an important area of the museumΓÇÖs work. The DepartmentΓÇÖs immediate objective was to issue a brief guide addressed to the general public and organize work with visitors. "A Study of the Museum Audience" may have been the only one of its kind among the DepartmentΓÇÖs first publications at that time.
With the GalleryΓÇÖs stock of artworks growing apace, many of the exhibition halls were turned into depositories of paintings (the halls and depots accommodated over 15 thousand artworks, many of which had not yet been formally assigned to the museum). By 1923 the exposition created by the dedicated efforts of I. Grabar had undergone considerable change.
The Academician of Architecture A.V. Shchusev, who became the GalleryΓÇÖs Director in 1926 and his successor M.P. Kristi did a lot to expand the Gallery's existing premises and add new annexes. In 1927 the Gallery became the owner of an adjacent building in Tolmachevsky Pereulok (formerly SokolikovΓÇÖs mansion). After reconstruction in 1928 it was used as offices housing the Gallery's administration, research units, a library, the department of manuscripts and works by graphic artists. A special annex connected the building with the Gallery.
In 1928 the heating and ventilation systems underwent a complete overhaul. In 1929 the Gallery received electricity supplies (before it had been open to the public only in the daytime).
A 1928 exposition was arranged in chronological order. It started, just like today, on the second floor with paintings of the 18th century. Both in terms of quantity and qualify the collection was on a par with the exposition of artworks dating from the late 19th century due to the fact that numerous collections had been added to the GalleryΓÇÖs collection. The ground floor (14 halls) was set aside for paintings dating from the turn of the 20th century and contemporary art. Paintings by K.A. Korovin, V.A. Serov and M.A. Vrubel were the highlight of the collection. The remaining three halls featured contemporary art.
The "Experimental Marxist Exposition" launched in 1930 reflected the art of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The aim was to harmonize the art of the past with the goals of the Revolution. The works displayed there were interpreted as "a class phenomenon of art". Apart from paintings, the exposition included objects of everyday life and photos supplied with detailed labeling. That fallacious approach vulgarized the demonstration of artworks.
In those years a sociological approach marked all forms of the museumΓÇÖs activities. Most of the exhibitions featured a particular theme: "Anti-Alcoholic" Exhibition (1929), "Red Army in Soviet Art" (1930), "Revolution and Soviet Themes" (1930), "Poster in Service of Five-Year Plan" (1932).
The Church of St Nicholas in Tolmachi closed in 1929 was appropriated by the Gallery in 1932 to become a depository of painting and sculpture. Later it was attached to the exhibition l halls by means of a newly reconstructed two-storeyed building the upper floor of which was set aside for Ivanov's fundamental canvas "The Appearance of Christ to the People (The Appearance of the Messiah)" (1837-1857). A passage constructed between halls on both sides of the main staircase ensured continuity of survey. As a result of these changes the exhibitional area increased significantly, which prompted Gallery experts to ponder a new arrangement of the artworks. Regrettably, the exhibition displayed no works of Old Russian art and only a small number of graphic works and sculptures.
A new exposition organized in 1934-1935 signaled a return to the historical chronological arrangement of the collection. The section of Old Russian Art was reopened. Just as before works of prominent masters were represented in monographic arrangement. When a collection of contemporary art was put together, this necessitated the creation of a special section dedicated to Soviet art (1931). The distinctive features of the new collection became apparent in 1933 when the Gallery received a series of paintings and sculptures from the Jubilee exhibitions "Russian Artists in 15 Years" and "15 Years of RKKA". Those works included paintings by P.D. Korin, A.A. Deineka and P.P. Konchalovsky.
The significant innovation, which turned the Gallery into a museum of multi-national Soviet art, was the decision to collect and display the most interesting paintings, drawings and sculptures created by artists in Soviet republics. By the mid-1930s the Soviet section was boasting a collection of over 500 paintings, some 100 sculptures and over 4,000 drawings. From the late 1930s Gallery exhibitions were accompanied by conferences of scholars invited from other cities and republics.
The construction of a two-storeyed building on the northern side of the Gallery was completed in 1936. Built in accordance with a blueprint drawn up by A.V. Shchusev to harmonize with the historical part of the Gallery and Vasnetsov's facade, "Shchusev's Building" became an integral part of the panorama of Lavrushinsky Pereulok. Its spacious halls (four on the upper floor and four downstairs) originally were used as an exhibition area, and in 1940 were included in the mainstream tour of the exposition.
The 1930s saw the jubilees of many artists. Within five years the Gallery organized seven national monographic exhibitions: in 1934 it featured V.G. Perov (an exhibition dedicated to the centenary of the artist's birth), in 1935 - V.A. Serov (an exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of the artist's birth), in 1936 - I.E. Repin, in 1937 - V.I. Surikov and I.N. Kramskoy (an exhibition dedicated to the centenary of the artists' birth), in 1938 - I.I. Levitan and in 1939 - O.A. Kiprensky. Two thematic exhibitions in 1939 can be added to this impressive list - the Jubilee exhibition dedicated to the centenary of the death of A.S. Pushkin and the exhibition of the Russian Historical Painting. In 1941 the exhibition "Best Works of Soviet Artists was held at the Gallery".
In the 1920s the stress was on contemporary art in all its manifestations but in the 1930s this method was condemned as expressing "ostensible objectivity". A crusade against formalism was launched. Artworks by "leftist" art groups of the 1910s - 1920s were banned from the collection for 25 years. The Gallery subsequently began demonstrating the complete range of works in the style of Socialist Realism, the predominant art style of the Soviet era.