An exhibition of graphics by German Orlov opened at Kolomenskoye
This year, the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve, it seems, has decided to finally collect within its ancient walls all the most amazing things from the world of art that are directly related to these very walls. This is understandable – the famous royal residence is now a hundred years old, and it is necessary to celebrate in such a way that there is no shame in front of those great people who visited these places and who preserved them for posterity.
Just recently we remembered Anna Akhmatova, a big fan of Kolomensky – a grandiose exhibition opened in the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich “Poem about the heroine“, where, in addition to memorials, you can see almost all the main milestones of the Soviet period of the museum-reserve, as well as monuments of national art and culture that were presented in the museum’s exhibition in the 1950-60s, when Anna Andreevna visited Kolomenskoye.
And here is a new exhibition by another admirer of the museum-reserve, professor of the Moscow Architectural Institute German Orlov. And again, before us is not just the history of the artist’s work, but a deep and unique look at Kolomenskoye. About a hundred watercolor works by the master are dedicated to this particular place on the banks of Moscow. There are also several dozen items from the “White Stone” collection – a collection of architectural details, fragments of white stone decor from lost monuments of the capital.
The collection appeared thanks to the founder and first director of the museum, architect and restorer Pyotr Baranovsky. That is, as in the case of Akhmatova’s exhibition, Orlov’s world is comprehended against the backdrop of ancient monuments – the earliest of them is 600 years old.
“German Orlov’s graphic series is an architectural study that helps to appreciate the landscape and architecture of Kolomenskoye, and objects from the collection of the museum-reserve help to understand the architects’ intentions,” say the staff of the museum-reserve.
What is known about the master himself? German Orlov worked as the chief architect of the Soyuzmashproekt State Enterprise of the Ministry of Defense and Industry. As an author, co-author and leader of a creative team, he took part in the design and construction of large industrial enterprises, administrative, residential and public buildings both in Russia and abroad. In 2005, his first personal exhibition of paintings and graphics took place at the Central House of Architects. Then there were dozens of exhibitions dedicated to the nature and architecture of different parts of Russia and other countries of the world, but German Yuryevich considers Kolomenskoye to be a unique place in which, over five and a half centuries, a harmonious balance has developed: architecture merged with nature, and nature entered architecture.
The German Orlov exhibition will be open to the public from November 1 to February 4.
Direct speech
German Orlov: “I am not a historian, not an archaeologist or an art critic. Here I am only a grateful consumer of architecture and nature unspoiled by it. Therefore, I never cease to be amazed how the spirit of the place still holds back the urban civilization that is advancing on Kolomenskoye from all sides and does not allow him to turn into another Atlantis. In my drawings, which are not landscapes or paintings, I took liberties, deviating from literal verisimilitude, erasing “random features,” rearranging trees, removing them when they prevented me from seeing any structure. five-hundred-year-old oak trees, regular rows of apple orchards, an apothecary garden and thickets of lilacs, architecture appears here as a single phenomenon. Humanized man and humanized nature live here in unified harmony. Without architecture, neither trees nor flowers mean anything, although they are earthly support for it. Such the flowering of life.”
Source: Rambler
