Boris Orlov (Борис Орлов, born 1941, Moscow) is one of the foremost sculptors of Sots Art, the Soviet counterpart to Pop Art. A 1966 graduate of the Stroganov Institute, he belonged to Moscow’s unofficial circle alongside Ilya Kabakov, Dmitry Prigov and Leonid Sokov.
Empire in effigy
For more than forty years Orlov has built satirical busts and torsos dressed in the full regalia of Soviet power — medals, epaulets, ribbons — in wood, porcelain and bronze, deflating imperial imagery through ornament. His works include Icarus (1970), Official Parsuna (1982), Totem (1986) and Parade of Astral Bodies (1994). The Moscow Museum of Modern Art gave him the retrospective “Earthly and Heavenly Warriors” in 2008.
Collections
His work is held by the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Guggenheim, Tate and the Museum of Modern Art.