Those who know Elena Orlova only slightly speak of her as a somewhat tough, reserved person, a kind of “businesswoman” devoid of sentiment. Those who have been lucky enough to know her better confess their love for this remarkable woman, who has devoted her life to reviving one of the main centers of culture in our region — the Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts.
Elena Orlova spoke to our newspaper about what the museum is living with today. The conversation also became a good occasion to introduce Elena Vladimirovna herself. There is nothing bohemian in her appearance — neither in her clothing, nor in her makeup, nor in her manner of behavior. But behind this modest, restrained, businesslike “facade” lives the soul of an artist who is in love with beauty and able to find it everywhere. In the paradoxical combination of these qualities — outward restraint and inner passion — lies the secret of her life success. She herself says that she was not striving for success, but for the realization of her vocation.
— For many years now, the word “director” has stood in the “position” line of your employment record. Did you begin as a manager at the Children’s Art Gallery?
— I created it myself. That is, first I imagined it. It all began when, as a young artist and a graduate of the Lviv Polygraphic Institute, I was offered by the Union of Artists to work with Volgograd amateur artists. In order to obtain a space for adult classes, it was necessary to create a children’s studio, because the premises were allocated for that purpose.
Gradually, work with children became the main work of my life. The children’s works were so wonderful that I wanted to create a permanent exhibition so that people could come and see this miracle — children’s drawings. We worked with enormous enthusiasm together with my husband, the artist Evgeny Fedorov, who left us so early.
In the little basement on Gagarina Street, we spent days and nights. Once we came home and found a note on the table from our seven-year-old son: “Mom, Dad, I have gone to the parents’ meeting.” Work with children really demanded a great deal of time: it was necessary to help the children express themselves, without interfering with them, without imposing one’s own vision, to frame the works, make frames, and conduct tours in our improvised children’s gallery. Our young artists began to win international competitions, receiving Grand Prix awards in Moscow, Finland, the Czech Republic, Poland and Japan, where special attention is paid to children’s visual creativity. Our studio also had an exhibition in the United States, on Broadway, and received a UNESCO diploma. We received letters from President Bush and from the Queen of England.
During our vacations we worked in Moscow without pay, on juries of international competitions, receiving our “salary” in drawings from different countries; these later formed the basis of the Children’s Gallery collection. We did not receive the premises on Sovetskaya Street and the status of a state museum immediately. We had to go from office to office in Volgograd and Moscow, persuading people. It was the turbulent time of perestroika, but the leaders of that period understood the significance and prospects of this undertaking. I will always remain grateful to Alexander Mikhailovich Anipkin, Alexander Ivanovich Velichkin, Lev Alekseevich Vedenin and Gennady Vasilyevich Slyshkin — they helped a great deal. More than one generation of artists has grown up in our gallery. Even today it remains a kind of “incubator” for young talents.
— Did work with children make you a teacher as well?
— That experience was very useful when I began teaching at the Volgograd State Institute of Arts and Culture and at the Volgograd Social and Pedagogical University. That was work with a young generation of artists.
— And why did you have to leave it?
— The museum leaves no time for anything else. Since I became director of the Museum of Fine Arts, as it used to be called, the words “rest” and “leisure” have disappeared from my vocabulary. This work takes 24 hours a day. And it has been like that for four years already.
— Let us take things in order. First of all, it was with your arrival that the museum received a name — it became the Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov Museum of Fine Arts. Was that your idea?
— Not only mine. At one time we spoke a great deal about this with the remarkable Volgograd art historian Inna Nikolaevna Nepokupnaya, a former director of our museum. She did an invaluable amount to gather the collection of Mashkov’s paintings, and, of course, giving the museum the name of our fellow countryman, an artist famous throughout the world, was absolutely logical. When I came to the museum, I proposed it to the staff, who supported me, and to our Minister of Culture Viktor Petrovich Gepfner, where I also met understanding and support.
— I will ask an everyday question: why was it necessary? After all, the museum did not gain either money or premises from it.
— It is not about material benefits. I believe that patriotism should be cultivated not only through military and historical examples. Ilya Mashkov is our fellow countryman, a man who brought glory to Russian art throughout the world, and not to know this, to forget it, means not to love one’s homeland. That is how I see it. We took Mashkov’s paintings out of storage and in just one year carried out three major exhibition projects connected with his name: “The Power of Life” together with the Kazan Museum, “Mashkov — Zagrekov. Teacher and Student” together with colleagues from the Zagrekov House-Museum in Berlin, and “The Century of the Jack”, dedicated to the Jack of Diamonds artistic association, of which Ilya Ivanovich was one of the founders. For the Delphic Games in Volgograd, we will open an interactive Mashkov hall at the museum; the museum’s creative team is now working on it with great enthusiasm.
— So we have come to what the museum is living with today. What tasks stand before you in the Year of Culture?
— We have a maximum task and a minimum task. The first is that our museum, the only one in Russia without its own building, should finally acquire one. The museum has a catastrophic shortage of space, both for exhibitions and for storing collections. Every year I attend the directors’ council at the Russian Museum and meet colleagues from other regions. Honestly, I envy them! Every year they grow — with new premises and new paintings. After all, a museum is a huge resource for the development of a region, for its tourist, cultural and human potential. In my opinion, our museum is underestimated and insufficiently loved by the authorities. Even artists and art historians do not fully know what treasures we possess!
Our collection includes Aivazovsky, Shishkin, Repin, Savrasov... No oil well is worth as much as our cultural riches! The museum needs its own building. But that is a long-term prospect.
Right now we are renovating the premises at 37 Chuikov Street. There will be a hall of contemporary art, a space for master classes and lectures. A reconstruction project for the premises on Lenin Avenue is ready. This is a cultural heritage site, so the project required state expert review. Now all that is behind us, and after moving to Chuikov Street, we will begin reconstructing the main hall, where our classics will be displayed — provided that space is allocated for storing the collections and money is allocated for reconstruction.
— And what about the museum’s current daily work?
— It has not stopped for a minute. We regularly hold not only exhibitions, but also musical Thursdays, children’s Sunday programs, lectures, creative meetings with artists, actors and journalists, which we called “Life as Art”, by analogy with the television program “Line of Life”.
Recently we have held an international graphics festival, a festival of young artists of the countries and peoples of the Caucasus, the international conference “Current Problems in the Study of the Work of I. I. Mashkov and the Artists of the Jack of Diamonds”, and the all-Russian conferences “The Peacekeeping Potential of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Second World War and the Battle of Stalingrad” and “The Battle of Stalingrad: Historical Memory and Artistic Heritage. On the 70th Anniversary of the Defeat of the Nazi Troops at Stalingrad”.
All this is in great demand. Our researchers write and publish books and monographs. So for us, the appearance of the state association “Publisher” among cultural institutions became simply manna from heaven. Books by the art historians Olga Malkova on Mashkov, Elena Ogarkova on frontline artists, and Irina Kostrykina on Ninel Pirogova have already seen the light of day there. We are opening 37 virtual museum sites in districts of the region — the first will begin work in the Gorodishche district. We constantly take part in Russian and international exhibitions. Right now, for example, paintings by Viktor Popkov from our museum collection are part of a major exhibition in Venice, and from there they will travel to London.
— But all this must require a great deal of money.
— We recently calculated it and were surprised ourselves: in one year, through grants, federal programs and sponsorship services, we attracted an additional 18 million rubles for the interactive Mashkov workshop, festivals, restoration of paintings, classes for children with disabilities, virtual branches and so on.
— Not a bad addition to the budget! Earlier the museum was a “quiet backwater”, where one or two enthusiasts wandered through empty halls. Now life here is boiling.
— That is the demand of the times. Today we are actively involved in the public life of the city and the region.
— In your opinion, should the head of such a specific institution today be more of a manager than an art historian?
— A manager, an art historian, an artist and a household administrator all at once. Besides, one has to learn a great deal every day. In the past year alone, two certificates of retraining for museum workers, certificates of training in Federal Law No. 44 and in electrical facilities have been added to my associate-professor diploma.
— And where do you dream of spending your vacation?
— By the sea. And drawing, drawing...
Natalia SLOMOVA
Grani Kultury newspaper, No. 7, 2014
