Alena Vasileŭna Aładava (
née Puk;
Belarusian: Алена Васілеўна Аладава; 22 May 1907 – 29 May 1986) was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
art historian and
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
, who was Director of the
Belarusian National Arts Museum
The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus ( be, Нацыянальны мастацкі музей Рэспублікі Беларусь) is the largest art museum in Belarus and is located in Minsk. The museum comprises more than thirty t ...
from 1944 to 1977. Aladava was responsible for the reconstruction of the museum's collection in the post-war period in Belarus, tracking down lost collections, acquiring new pieces and undertaking expeditions to the country's regions in search of existing works.
Biography
Alena Puk was born in 1907.
She studied at the
Belarusian State University
Belarusian State University (BSU) ( be, links=no, Белару́скі дзяржа́ўны ўніверсітэ́т, ; russian: links=no, Белору́сский госуда́рственный университе́т) is a university in Mins ...
.
In 1928 Aladava married
Mikalai Aladov (
be),
who was a composer and Director of the Belarusian Conservatoire.
They had three children, the musicologist
Radaslava Aladava (
be), the architect
Valmen Aladov,
and Gemir.
Prior to the Nazi invasion of Belarus in 1941, Aladava was working for the
Belarusian National Arts Museum
The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus ( be, Нацыянальны мастацкі музей Рэспублікі Беларусь) is the largest art museum in Belarus and is located in Minsk. The museum comprises more than thirty t ...
in Minsk, as Head of the Department of Russian and Belarusian Art.
During the invasion of 1941, all 2771 works from the collection were stolen; some were deliberately selected by
Hans Posse
Dr. Hans Posse (6 February 1879 – 7 December 1942) was a German art historian, museum curator, and, for over three years, from June 1939 until his death, the special representative of Adolf Hitler appointed to expand the collection of pain ...
and
Cajetan Müllmann, for German collections.
From Minsk Aladava was evacuated to
Saratov, where she worked for the
Radishchev Museum.
In January 1944 she moved to Moscow where she curated an exhibition of Belarusian art entitled "Belarus lives! Belarus struggles!"
As a result of this several rooms in the Minsk Trade Union Building were allocated for Aladava to run a national gallery from,
which eventually opened in 1947.
After the end of the Second World War, Aladava led the reconstruction of the national art collection.
She had been appointed Director in 1944 and one of her first tasks had been to organise the gallery's first inventory of works, which was based entirely on the memories of members of staff, since no previous list had been made.
The inventory enabled Aladava to track artworks that had been looted from the Belarusian collection, some of which by then were then in private Russian collections, and to organise their reacquisition.
Her work also involved purchasing art from artists such as
Boris Kustodiev
Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev (russian: Бори́с Миха́йлович Кусто́диев; – 28 May 1927) was a Russian and Soviet painter and stage designer.
Early life
Boris Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan into the family of a profe ...
,
Vasily Polenov
Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov (Russian: Васи́лий Дми́триевич Поле́нов; 1 June 1844 – 18 July 1927) was a Russian landscape painter associated with the Peredvizhniki movement of realist artists. His contemporaries would c ...
,
Karl Briullov
Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (russian: Карл Па́влович Брюлло́в; 12 December 1799 – 11 June 1852), original name Charles Bruleau, also transliterated Briullov and Briuloff, and referred to by his friends as "Karl the Great", was a ...
and
Isaak Levitan
Isaac Ilyich Levitan (russian: Исаа́к Ильи́ч Левита́н; – ) was a classical Russian landscape Painting, painter who advanced the genre of the "mood landscape".
Life and work
Youth
Isaac Levitan was born in a shtetl o ...
.
In 1957, due to Aladava's efforts a new building for the art museum, designed by
Mikhail Baklanov, was unveiled.
She led a number of research expeditions during her time as Director, notably discovering the icon of the
Virgin Hodegetria
A Hodegetria , ; russian: Одиги́трия, Odigítria ; Romanian: Hodighitria, or Virgin Hodegetria, is an iconographic depiction of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to him as the source of sa ...
of Smolensk from Dubyanets in 1958. On one occasion, whilst director of the museum, Aladava complained to the visiting artist
Nadia Léger
Nadia is a female name. Variations include Nadja (given name), Nadja, Nadya, Nadine (given name), Nadine, Nadiya, and Nadiia. Most variations of the name are derived from Arabic, Slavic languages, or both.
In Slavic, names similar to ''Nadia'' m ...
about a lack of funding. Léger removed a gold brooch from her coat and offered it to Aladava for the museum. Aladava did not accept it.
Aladava retired in 1977.
She was succeeded by
Yury Karachun, who had been Chairman of the Belarusian Division of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
She died in 1986.
Legacy
To commemorate the centenary of her birth, Aladava was featured on the 1 and 10
rubel coins. She was also featured on a commemorative stamp.
Awards
* Honoured Art Worker of the
BSSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор ...
.
References
External links
"My soul is torn by the thought of what will happen to these treasures…"(Memoirs of the first years of the Second World War)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aladava, Alena
1907 births
1986 deaths
Museum directors
Russian women curators
Russian women historians
Women art historians
Belarusian women historians
20th-century Belarusian historians