Igor Mikhailovich Orlov
Born on November 10, 1935. Graduated from the secondary art school, then from the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov.
Works in collections
Works are held in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, museums and galleries in Tula, Sochi, Bryansk, Kherson, Tomsk, Perm, Arkhangelsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novokuznetsk, Orenburg, Oryol, as well as in galleries and private collections in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Sofia (Bulgaria), Cologne (Germany), Athens (Greece), Boston (USA), Vienna (Austria).
Exhibitions and auctions
1960-72 5th-9th Youth Art Exhibitions, Moscow;
1960 Autumn Exhibition, Moscow;
1971 Republican Still Life Exhibition, Leningrad;
1973 Exhibition of Moscow Artists, Los Angeles, USA;
1977 Exhibition of Moscow Artists, Berlin, GDR;
1984 Solo Exhibition, Moscow;
1985 Exhibition of Russian and Soviet Landscape, Finland;
1988 Republican Interior Exhibition, Leningrad;
1989 Republican Landscape Exhibition, Moscow;
1989 Exhibition of Soviet and Japanese Artists, Tokyo;
1989 Exhibition of Soviet Artists, Florence, Italy;
1990 Group Exhibition of Moscow and Leningrad Artists, Leningrad;
1990 Tradition, Moscow;
1991 Exhibition, Soho Gallery, Boston, USA;
1992 Solo Exhibition, Vienna, Austria.
Author about himself
I see creativity as a form of personal development, a way of existence. Organic and sincere creativity is important. It is impossible to simply decide by willpower what the language or form of a work should be. This must flow naturally, involuntarily from the artist's personality, from their worldview, from their upbringing. It should be as natural as breathing. I am wary of sudden changes in an artist's style, of the simultaneous coexistence of mutually exclusive modes of expression in a single artist. I embrace the idea of the unity of the world, the interconnection of every smallest part of nature with each other.
A second factor influencing the character of my work is an acute sense of impending catastrophe. The situation in which all humanity, and Russia in particular, finds itself is tragic. The sense of life's boundlessness has disappeared. The question is whether humanity will survive, whether it will degenerate as a species. And yet, the dream of harmony and the beauty of the world and nature is infinitely wonderful. This feeling is even heightened by the awareness of the world's doomed fate in which humanity exists. I hope this, too, is reflected in my art.
Bibliography
A.Zh. Yagodovskaya, "From Reality to Image," Sov. Khudozhnik, 1985, Moscow, pp. 85-87;
M.N. Sokolov, "Interior in the Mirror of Painting," Sov. Khudozhnik, 1986, Moscow, p.171;
V.S. Manin, "The Landscape of I. Orlov," Art Magazine, No. 10, 1986, pp. 16-20;
A.Zh. Yagodovskaya, "The Author and the Hero in Paintings of Soviet Artists," Sov. Khudozhnik, 1987, Moscow, pp. 232-236;
Vernissage in Moscow, Album, News Publishing Agency, 1989, p. 17.
Works 18
