When you ask our contemporaries the question of who art critics are and what they do, you get something like this: we have a dime a dozen art critics, and they work, of course, in museums. Meanwhile, in the last century, in order to get this profession, it was necessary to go through a serious selection, proving in practice the meaningfulness of your choice. And the whole subsequent life of a person who chose this field was a continuous test for loyalty to the profession. The biography of Lyudmila Vladimirovna Saigina, who devoted herself to the history of Russian architecture in the 19th and early 20th centuries, is an expressive example of such a ministry. This year, two significant dates coincided: the anniversary of Lyudmila Vladimirovna and the fortieth anniversary of her work in the State Scientific Research Museum of Architecture. A. V. Shchuseva.
In the art history environment, academic degrees and regalia are important. At the same time, it is no secret that there is a kind of "Hamburg score", so not every degree signals the high professionalism of its bearer, and, on the contrary, there are specialists who do not pursue external markers of recognition and have this recognition. They just say about such people: "master". And they line up for advice or professional advice.
For every master, teachers are important. Within the walls of Moscow State University, Lyudmila Vladimirovna was fortunate enough to study with recognized luminaries of art history - V. N. Lazarev, M. A. Ilyin, V. N. Graschenkov, D. V. Sarabyanov, V. V. Kirillov and others. Perhaps this predetermined the area of interest of the graduate of the history faculty, who in 1976 came to the State Research Institute of International Relations as a senior researcher in the Department of Russian Architecture.
In the department, under the leadership of the Honored Worker of Culture of the RSFSR Tamara Ivanovna Geidor, a friendly team was formed, which turned out to be on the shoulder and the creation of a fundamental permanent exhibition on the history of Russian architecture (in the Great Cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery), and numerous thematic exhibitions. Displaying architecture in a museum exhibition is not an easy task. To successfully solve it, you need a brilliant knowledge of the source material, a careful selection of museum items of the first row and additions to them. As a result, the entire fascinating process of the birth of an architectural masterpiece from the first concept to implementation, in the context of the era and the stylistic trends relevant to it, appeared before the viewer. L. V. Saigina's approach to the arrangement of the exhibition was based on the correct use of art history methodology. These exhibitions have contributed to the popularity of the museum with an interested public at home and abroad.
Currently, Lyudmila Vladimirovna works as the head of the sector for scientific storage of architectural and graphic funds of the 18th-19th centuries, devoting a lot of time to scientific advisory activities and the popularization of domestic architecture. With the direct participation of Lyudmila Vladimirovna, the project "Virtual Museum of Architecture" was carried out, her texts were included in a two-volume book about Russian wooden architecture published jointly by GNIMA and the publishing house "Kuchkovo Pole". The monographic works of Lyudmila Vladimirovna are also widely known, among which the monumental work “Architect Fyodor Shekhtel. Encyclopedia of Creativity "(2014) and the album" Savva Morozov. Fedor Shekhtel. The history of a masterpiece”(2012, co-authored with NS Datieva), dedicated to the famous neo-Gothic mansion on Spiridonovka. Shekhtel, the brightest creator of Moscow Art Nouveau, is the main hero of the historical and architectural research of Lyudmila Vladimirovna, but not the only one. In the same 2014, a book was published about Ivan Sergeevich Kuznetsov, who declared his work the pre-revolutionary and early Soviet periods in the history of Russian architecture. The soul of this project and the main author of the monograph was Lyudmila Vladimirovna.
Numerous students and colleagues sincerely congratulate Lyudmila Vladimirovna Saygina on the anniversary and fortieth anniversary of her service to the Museum of Architecture! We wish her health, creativity and new books!
