Olga Orlova, who is considered the artist of the gold generation of the 20th century, is celebrated at the National Museum of Arts of Moldova. Experts in visual arts consider Olga Orlova is an important part of the history of arts of the 1960s-1970s, forming part of an influential gold generation that included Mihai Grecu, Ada Zevin, Ana Baranovici, Eleonora Romanescu, IPN reports.
The exhibition covers the whole artistic life of Olga Orlova. National Museum of Arts director Tudor Zbârnea said the talented painter’s path has been constant, which a predilection for rural life. The exhibits include works that can be compared with studies of the St. Petersburg Academy and present a lot of color, the light of the 1960s-1970s.
Dumitru Bolboceanu, president of the Union of Plastic Artists of Moldova, said the artist promoted and contributed a lot to the development of plastic arts in the Republic of Moldova. The gold generation of the 1960s was extraordinary and so prominent that can amount to a School.
Art critic Dmitry Shibayev started for IPN that Olga Orlova travels a lot, primarily in rural areas for studies (drawings made quickly by direct dialogue with nature or the model). “She attended the “Studio” together with her mates. The “Studio” was the collective meetings of artists where they were drawing and painting models. Life was very dynamic and intense. Her works primarily transmit images of the working class, of peasants. The artist presents them as multilateral personalities with the own destiny,” said Dmitry Shibayev.
Together with other artists, Olga Orlova travelled through Moldova’s villages and met beautiful people. She remembered that her models were often overwhelmed by the attention devoted by her to the features of their daily life. “When I was about five years old, I travelled by train with my mother and my brothers and I used to examine the people travelling together with us in the train. They were peasants dressed in nice clothing of special colors. After I finished the arts school, my predilection for rural life was evident. I met hardworking, kind people who allowed me to paint them,” the artist told IPN.
For his part, doctor of art studies Ludmila Toma said that Olga Orlova is considered a remarkable portraitist in whose works the human faces are depicted with esthetic beauty and with traits of character.
Olga Orlova was born in Bender on August 19, 1932. In 1951, she graduated from the School of Painting “I. Repin” of Chisinau. She mounted her first personal exhibition in Chisinau in 1953. Since 1960, she has been a member of the Union of Plastic Artists of Moldova. She took part in over 100 collective exhibitions staged by the Ministry of Culture and the Union of Plastic Artists in Moldova and abroad and mounted also many personal exhibitions in Chisinau, Tiraspol, Cahul.
The exhibition can be visited until May 15.
