Elena Lvovna Orlowa-Afinogenova

Jelena Lvovna Orlowa-Afinogenowa ( Russian Елена Львовна Орлова-Афиногенова; born October 19, 1953 in Leningrad ) is a Russian painter who specializes in still life , portraits and genre painting .

Princess Fieke

Life

After graduating from school, Orlova-Afinogenova began studying at the First Pavlov State Medical University in Leningrad. After a year of study, she gave up studying medicine and applied to the Repin Art Academy . It was only when she took a job as a courier and cleaning lady there that she was allowed to visit the workshop of Yevsei Yevsejewitsch Moissejenko as a guest student . In the third year she got a place at the Faculty of Painting, which she successfully completed in 1982 under the direction of Moissejenko. In 1984 she left Leningrad and went to Moscow. In 1988 she became a member of the Russian Artists Association and returned to Leningrad; meanwhile she lives and works in Pushkin .

plant

The painter completed her training in the workshop of the most important and influential professor at the Repin Institute, Yevsei Evsejewitsch Moissejenko, from 1960 to 1980 . In her early work, she was able to avoid becoming an “artist of the Moissejenko school”, as happened with many of his students, even if a certain influence is noticeable.

In 1983 she took part for the first time in the exhibition of the USSR "Contemporaries" in the Central House of the Artist in Moscow.

For painting still lifes , Orlowa-Afinogenova thoroughly studied the oil painting of the famous Dutch masters.

In the mid-90s she developed a new painting technique. A relief-like layer of primer (a mixture of plaster of paris and glue) with preconfigured contours of the later picture composition is applied to a hard ground and the painting is then made on the dried primer. This technique enhances the spatiality of the image and gives the images a special decorative monumentality.

In 1993, the painter's first solo exhibition took place in the premises of the Leningrad Artists' Union, followed immediately by another in the halls of the palace in Pavlovsk .

Since 1996, in the course of a collaboration with the Museum of History and Literature in Pushkin (the former Tsarskoye Selo "Tsar's Village"), a cycle of monumental historical pictures in relief painting "Famous Personalities of Tsarskoye Selo" has been created. Each composition in this series depicts an episode associated with one or the other ruling owner of Tsarskoye Selo. The people in the pictures represent the founders of Tsarskoye Selo, Peter I and Ekaterina I , Emperor Alexander I and the city administrator Jakow Sacharshevski as well as the family of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II . They are in the exact vicinity of Tsarskoye Selo Depicted in accordance with famous real history events. These historical reconstructions are neither a dry chronicle of life in Tsarskoye Selo, nor pictures of the homeland in the ordinary sense. Orlova-Afinogenova sought, above all, to artistically reproduce the color scheme of the epoch and create convincing images of famous personalities, expressing their understanding of the characters that develop depending on historical events and personal characteristics of the heroes. This program art presupposes a long preparation time for the study of the material and for the deep knowledge of the attributes and details of the respective epoch.

At the same time, Orlova-Afinogenova did not cease to be interested in still lifes. This favorite genre of hers peaked in the 2000s. The artist's favorite motifs include, in addition to the elements that have always been portrayed in still lifes, such as flowers in vases, fruits, books and fabric draperies, also many unusual, exotic and imaginative objects. In the period of the 2010s, new philosophical tones came to the fore in her work. The combination of objects, which at first glance seems illogical, the violation of their real scale, the spatial displacements, the disregard for the laws of gravity give Orlova-Afinogenova's pictures a superficial resemblance to the works of surrealist painters , but in their spirit it is a different kind of painting. It lacks the element of absurdity that is characteristic of Surrealism, its focus on expressing the dark flip side of human consciousness.

Exhibitions

• 1983–1990 - Participation in exhibitions in Moscow and Leningrad, in regional and republic-wide, as well as exhibitions throughout the Soviet Union
• 1990–2010 - Participation in exhibitions in the St. Petersburg Department of the Association of Artists of Russia
• 1993 - First solo exhibition on the premises of the Leningrad Artists' Union
• 1993 - solo exhibition in the halls of the palace in Pavlovsk
• 1995–1996 - solo exhibitions at the Pushkin City Museum of History and Literature
• 1998 - Solo exhibition in the Villa Neidgart (Особняк Нейдгарта) in St. Petersburg
• 1999 - Solo exhibition in the "House of Journalists" on Nevsky Prospect
• 2000 - Solo exhibition in the old town gallery "UAW" in Düsseldorf
• 2002 - solo exhibition in Mantua
• 2003 - solo exhibition in Berlin
• 2006 - solo exhibition in Aalborg (Denmark)
• 2011 - Solo exhibition in Philadelphia (USA)
• 2014 - Solo exhibition in Zerbst Castle (Saxony / Anhalt)
• 2015 - Solo exhibition in the Russian House of Science and Culture in Berlin

literature

• Mundus Sensibilis - the sensually perceptible world. Historian A.-A. Griesbach MA, art historian A. Larionov. Exhibition catalog. St.-Petersburg / Zerbst, 2015.
• Connection of the epochs. 1932-1997. Painters - Members of the Russian Artists Association - Members of the Saint Petersburg Artists Association Russia. Exhibition catalog. Saint-Petersburg, ZAS «Manege», 1997.
• Philosophical calendar “Petersburg World”. Saint-Petersburg, 2013.

Web links

1. Homepage of the painter
2. Saint-Petersburg Encyclopedia
3. Library of Visual Art