#40_1-8

8
No.40 JUNE 26, 2018
TIMEO U T
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
Traditionalists and innovators
By Hanna PAROVATKINA
Photos by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day
Graphics is a genre that reveals the
class of an artist better than any
other. For example, in the Soviet
era book illustrations enabled
artists to show creative fantasy
and evade the so-called “social commission.”
The Sixtiers liked graphics and monumental
art. The graphic “gems” of the noted master
Heorhii Yakutovych are well known far
outside this country.
As is known, the National League of
Ukrainian Artists launched the Triennale of
Graphics as far back as 1997. Besides, the
Yakutovych Exhibit-cum-Competition has
been held since 2002 (one in two years). This
year the two events coincided in time. So, it
was decided to display the best works submitted
for both competitions at the all-Ukrainian
exhibit “Graphics 2018.”
Good expositions, such as the recent one
at the House of the Artist, are not often put
on in Kyiv. There were no “run-of-the-mill”
works among several hundred items of “book
illustrations, prints, original graphics, and
watercolors” (these are the nominations at the
Yakutovych Exhibit-cum-Competition).
On the All-Ukrainian
Triennale “Graphics 2018”
This was not the first time the Exhibition
Directorate of the National League of Artists
boldly united traditionalists and innovators
in a joint project: works by the stars of
Ukrainian contemporary art (Anna Myronova,
Viktor Sydorenko, et al.) stood side
by side with those of the living classics of national
graphics. Taken together, these different
poles of visual art made quite a true
picture of modern-day Ukrainian graphics.
The exposition consisted of pictures by wellknown
authors – Yurii Honcharenko,
Volodymyr Ivanov-Akhmetov, Kateryna Korniichuk,
Mykola Kochubei, Andrii Levytsky,
Vitalii Mitchenko, Yurii Rubashov,
Oksana Stratiichuk, Viktor Sydorenko, Vasyl
Chebanyk, and Andrii Chebykin, as well
as of the works of young artists who show a
high professional and creative level.
The most interesting point in large-scale
“collective events” is a possibility to spot, behind
a large number of works from all over
Ukraine, the tendencies artists follow deliberately
or intuitively. It the art market,
not the “state’s commission,” that forms the
art fashion in Ukraine today. Also, judging
by “Graphics 2018,” book illustrations remain
the “queen of demand” on it. The exposition
also included a lot of good “interior
works,” such as traditional prints, engravings,
watercolor landscapes, etc. Their
price was reasonable even for the impoverished
Ukrainian “middle class.”
What seemed unusual is the intention of
some authors to create “art brut,” or “naive”
art. Who knows: maybe, a new Ukrainian
avant-garde is being born before our very eyes
out of the love for traditional amateur pictures,
as it happened at the turn of the 20th
century?
Another interesting trend is semblance between
a number of book illustrations by various
authors and street graffiti. The fad for
muralism has swept over the whole country in
the past few years after the Maidan. What became
an example to follow for young colleagues
is, among other things, street art murals
of the Interesting Fairytales duet. So, it
is no wonder that it has been easier to see new
works by “fairytale narrators” Volodymyr
Manzhos and Oleksii Bordusov abroad than in
Ukraine in the past few years.
Art knows no borders. It is possible today
to do art and to remain a patriot of Ukraine
at any point of the globe. Contemporary “depoliticized”
Ukrainian graphics is speaking
with the whole world in the same language.
By Tetiana ONYSHCHENKO
Illustrations courtesy of exhibit organizers
Kyiv is a city of contrasts. Volodymyrska
and Brovarskyi Prospekt are the
oldest (about 1,000 years) and the
longest (14 km) streets,
respectively. The theme of Kyiv is
endless. Poets and writers sang praises of this
city, it being painted and photographed. For
some, it is the city of childhood; for others,
it is the capital of Ukraine; and somebody else
takes interest in its ancient history.
Everybody has their own vision of Kyiv.
At the exhibit, you can see Kyiv the way
the following artists see and feel it: Olena
Yablonska, Oleksandr Pavlov, Hanna Fainerman,
Ernest Kotkov, Oleksandr Naiden,
Oleksii Oriabynskyi, Zoia Orlova, Viktor
Kozyk, Yakym Levych, Vladyslav Shereshevskyi,
Oleh Zhyvotkov, Yurii Solomko,
Liubov Rapoport…
“Art must improve the human being, carry
spiritual light, make attitude to life easier
and more transparent, and remove bleak
ideas and thoughts. If a picture cleared a way
for the serene, it has done a good thing for
people. A picture should radiate good,” the
famous artist Olena Yablonska used to say.
“Canvases by Oleksandr Pavlov, the guru
of Ukrainian abstractionism, personify absolute
freedom,” artist Oleksandr Liapin
says about the master’s work.
The exhibit displays interesting canvasses
by Oleksandr Naiden (artist, researcher,
and writer) and Oleksii Oriabynskyi
(representative of the so-called “unofficial
VLADYSLAV SHERESHEVSKYI, THE LAST SNAPSHOT
“Address: Kyiv”
An exhibit by this name is held at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Ukraine
art,” whose work did not fit the rigid framework
of socialist canons and was at odds with
the then ideological system).
Kyiv motifs run through many pictures
of Viktor Kozyk. His works are emotionally
expressive and full of spirituality.
Nor will art buffs miss the works of Yurii
Solomko who is well known for his pictures
OLENA YABLONSKA, TOBACCO ON THE WINDOWSILL
painted on geographical maps. Incidentally,
Solomko maintains that a geographical map
is one of the strongest symbols ever created
by human civilization. It is on these symbols
that Yurii expresses his vision and opinions.
If you closely examine these authors’
works, you will see all kinds of emotions –
concern, joy, sadness, tenderness, fascination
– and feel the rhythm the masters
worked in. This is the way pictures are
painted – with true feelings, living emotions,
and in a special rhythm, which makes them
valuable. This is a powerful energy space and
a pictorial chronicle of Kyiv.
■ The exhibit “Address: Kyiv” will remain
open until September 9.
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