Briton Brightens Orphanage Walls

Along a corridor of Moscow orphanage No. 1660, a handsome prince whisks away a beautiful princess on a horse. The stars and moon shine above their heads as they escape into an orange and green jungle.


The mural is an escape of sorts for the orphans who live there, says its creator, Boris Moscoff, a British artist who has been living at the orphanage and painting scenes on its walls for almost two years.


"The trouble is these corridors are long, echoing and not cozy. And I am trying to cheer them up," said Moscoff, 44.


Moscoff, who has a private studio in London, first came to Moscow three years ago to lecture on painting techniques to Russian schoolteachers. He met the director of orphanage No. 1660, who offered him a room for a studio at her establishment on Ulitsa Zhigulenkova and suggested that he could brighten up the gloomy interior of the building.


Moscoff obviously delights in his work: "Children love the world of imagination, and so do I as an artist."


"It was so empty and dull before," said Lyuba Safonova,10. "Now these pictures bring joy, and kindness, and love."


The first mural, which glows with a rising sun and a basket of juicy apples, appeared in the orphanage's dining room entrance last April.


"I was working then on the technique," said Moscoff, whom children at the orphanage call simply "khudozhnik,"or "the artist." "The original coating is so oily that I have to put three layers of emulsion over it to sand it, and only then start painting with water colors," he said.


Now scenes from Russian fairy tales, folk designs and depictions of icons adorn the halls and corridors on the first floor of the orphanage. Funny foxes, bears and bunnies scamper along the stairwells and brighten the playgrounds of the second floor.


Among the children's favorites are pictures from such fairy tales as Zhar-Ptitsa (Firebird), Gusy-Lebedy (Geese and Swans) and a story of a beautiful princess.


"I didn't have a particular princess in mind," Moscoff said. "I created an archetype, which is common for many Russian tales. But the bright, strong color jungles on the mural are obviously African."


The story of a beautiful princess carried off by her prince to the exotic jungles resonates in the life story of Moscoff's grandparents. The artist recounted that at the beginning of the century, his grandmother, a Russian noblewoman, married a Bulgarian peasant. With her parents in pursuit, the couple eloped to Vienna and then Genoa, where they took the first ship out -- to Kenya.


"My grandfather was a goldminer and a hunter in Kenya," said Moscoff. "But he treated his wife like a princess, doing all the cleaning and cooking himself."


The combination of Slavic roots and the exotic African environment makes Moscoff's enigmatic, touching paintings, wood carvings and sculptures distinctive. Moscoff said he is influenced by African rock painters and Slavic icons, as well as Celtic art.


"I feel comfortable here, as I would anywhere where my studio is and where I can create calmly," said Moscoff. "The only thing I don't want people to think of me is that I am a do-gooder," Moscoff said. "I am not here because of pity for the orphans. I share with them the same world of imagination."





An exhibit of large mixed-media abstract paintings by Boris Moscoff is on display at the Phoenix Cultural Center until Dec. 22. The gallery is at 3 Kutuzovsky Prospect, open daily from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., closed Sundays. Tel. 243-4958. Nearest metro: Kievskaya.