User:OSVNEW/Орлов, Александр Владимирович (театральный художник)

Alexander ORLOV  (Russian: Александр Владимирович ОРЛОВ,  Alexander Vladimirovich Orlov) is a Soviet and Russian production/scenic designer, theatre artist, set designer.

Born on June 1, 1952.

Honored Painter of the Russian Federation (2006), Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1999), Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts (2007).

He lives in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Born on June 1, 1952 in Leningrad, USSR. Father Vladimir Orlov (1928-2014), graphic artist; Mother Ariadna Smolikova (1928-2018).

Wife Irina Cherednikova (born 1950), theatre artist, costume designer; Son Dimitry Orlov (1973–2020), theatre artist;

In 1974 Alexander Orlov graduated from the Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography (LGITMiK), Theater and production faculty. He studied at the course of Eduard Kochergin, the chief production/scenic designer of the famous soviet Theater “BDT”. This theater was led at that time by the great Soviet theater director Georgy Tovstonogov

“Kochergin brought us up in very simple criteria. The artist must think in his own categories: rhythm, proportions, color, light, composition, which has its own laws. These are all simple things, but today they are perceived by many even ironically. And more and more often there are options when directors, heads of posts, illuminators suddenly act as artists ... who else is there?”

Alexander ORLOV

In 1992, as a set designer, he worked on the light and scenography of the concert program of Yuri Shevchuk and the Russian rock group "DDT", dedicated to the presentation of the album "Black Dog Petersburg" (the premiere took place in the St. Petersburg “SCC”-arene on November 14-16, 1992). Inexpensive, but expressive Orlov’s decoration decisions symbolically depicted the city walls with black eye sockets of windows. In addition, during the performance of some songs, a big ball on a rope was lowered from above sometimes turning for Shevchuk into a huge “Foucault pendulum” from St. Isaac's Cathedral, then into a kettlebell for the destruction of old buildings.

“DDT had three such large concert programs. The first is "Black Dog Petersburg", which may have been too serious for its time. It had its own plot, script, scenery. The main theme was "man and city" - it was the city of the 90’s: dying, without electricity, without heating, with a hard life, with realities on the streets and in the heads”.

Yuri SHEVCHUK

In different years as a set designer Alexander Orlov worked together with famous theater directors: Lev Dodin, Roman Viktyuk, Vladimir Malyshchitsky, Efim Padve, Roman Kozak, Alexander Galibin, Sergei Artsibashev, Hans Henriksen, Evgeny Ratiner, Felix Deitch, Adolf Shapiro, Vladimir Tumanov, Semyon Spivak, Tatiana Kazakova, Valery Sarkisov, Grigory Kozlov, Yuri Butusov, Lev Stukalov, Alla Sigalova, Veniamin Filshtinsky, Vladislav Pazi, Anato Praudin, Viktor Kramer, Alexander Morfov, Igor Selin, Alexander Kuzin.

“There should be a team in the theater, the task of the set designer is to participate in the game on an equal footing, without pulling blankets on himself. I honestly don't like it when a play is written about without appetite, but "oh, what scenery!"

Alexander ORLOV

Alexander Orlov works on many theatrical productions in tandem with his wife Irina Cherednikova, a famous St. Petersburg costume designer. Together, the artists designed, in particular, most of the productions of Rodion Shchedrin's operas at the Mariinsky Theatre (St.Petersburg). Both in 2021 became part of the jury of the DIGITAL OPERA festival, organized by "Petersburg Seasons Company”.

In 2000-2005, Alexander Orlov taught at the Department of Scenography and Stage Costume of the Faculty of Scenography and Theatrical Technology at the St. Petersburg State Academy of Theatrical Arts (SPbGATI).

The works of Alexander Orlov are in the collections of the A. A. Bakhrushin State Theatre and Music Museum (Moscow) and the St. Petersburg Museum of Theatrical and Musical Art.

His personal exhibitions were held in the St. Petersburg Gallery "Borey" (1999), in the Exhibition Hall of the editorial office of the magazine "Our Heritage" (Moscow, 1999), in the St. Petersburg Museum of Theatrical and Musical Art (2019). Alexander Orlov participated in the main  Art exhibitions in Moscow and Kazan, in the Baltic Triennale in Tallinn and Vilnius, in the exhibitions of scenography in the Novi Sad (Serbia) and the Prague Quadriennale ("PQ") (1983), in the exposition of works by members of the Department of Theatrical and Film and Decorative Arts of the Russian Academy of Arts in the Zurab Tsereteli Gallery of Arts in Moscow (2014);

Since 1980 he has been a member of the Leningrad organization of the Union of Artists of the Russia (St. Petersburg Union of Artists);

Member of the Union of Theatrical Figures of the Russian Federation since 1983, in the St. Petersburg branch of which he heads the Council for Theatrical and Decorative Arts;

Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts since 2007, Department of Theatrical and Film Decoration Art;

In 1999 he became the Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of theatrical art for the performances of the Russian State Academic Drama Theater named after A. S. Pushkin (Alexandrinskiy) "P.S. Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler, its author and their beloved Julia" (cadences on the themes of works by W. A. Mozart and E. T. A. Hoffmann) and for the performances of the Theatre on Liteiny  "Forest", play by Alexander Ostrovskiy.

In 2006, for merits in the field of culture and art and many years of fruitful activity by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was awarded the title of Honored Painter of the Russian Federation.

Diploma winner of the Prague Quadriennale (1983); Laureate of the international festival "Baltic House" (1993, 1998); Laureate of the St. Petersburg Golden Sofit Theatre Award (1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019); Laureate of the National Award "Musical Heart of the Theater" (2007), Nomination for the Golden Mask Award for the artist's work in the play (1999, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2017); In 2021, sketches of Alexander Orlov's sets for Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden staged by the Mariinsky Theatre (2020) were nominated for the Golden Trezzini Award.


 * Берёзкин В. И. Искусство сценографии мирового театра. — М. : URSS, 2015. — Т. 11: Сценографы России. Станислав Бенедиктов. Александр Орлов. Александр Боровский. — 640 с. — ISBN 978-5-396-00600-3.