“Bokotei’s Glass”

Development of the modern world movement in art glass – so-called studio glass movement is associated with the name of Andrii Bokotei, Rector of the Lviv Academy of Arts, Professor, Member of the Academy of Arts of Ukraine, and winner of Taras Shevchenko National Prize. For three decades the works of the prominent Lviv master of blown glass have been welcome guests in Paris, Nancy (France), Liege (Belgium), Utrecht (Netherlands), Stravanger (Norway), Saint Petersburg, Krakow, Budapest, etc. This is the evidence of that the phrase “Bokotei glass” became the definition of an artistic phenomenon of the highest quality and, of course, a kind of a trademark of Lviv School of Blown Glass. The greatest merit of Bokotei is organization of international symposia of blown glass, the first of which took place in 1989.

Andrii Bokotei was born on March 21, 1938 in the village of Brid in Transcarpathia. He graduated from Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts, Department of Art Ceramics. At the present moment he is a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, Honored Artist of Ukraine, Professor, Rector of the Lviv Academy of Arts, member of the Academy of Arts of Ukraine, winner of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine, and People’s Artist of Ukraine. In his career the artist participated in a great number of international exhibitions, many of which were solo exhibitions. Bokotei’s unquestionable merit is the initiation and organization of international symposia of blown glass, as well as the establishment of a single European Lviv Museum of Glass.

“My motto is – ‘be creative in everything you love,’” said the hero of the day. “I do not follow a single official style. I acknowledge author’s style in art. In studio glass I work with its natural and technological properties, which often prompt me to choose a certain creative approach.”

Roman YATSIV, Professor, art historian, vice rector of the Lviv National Academy of Arts:

“Hero of the day Andrii Bokotei is one of the most interesting creative personalities of our time, not only in the scale of national Ukrainian art, but even on a greater scale, since his conception of art is of wider character. This is due to the fact that the very formation of Bokotei took place in very specific circumstances – he had very good and caring parents and teachers. His father was a priest and paid great attention to his son’s spiritual and aesthetic education. Family was very educated. In his childhood Bokotei was fond of music and at some point even thought of choosing this path in life. These facts partly influenced the conception of his creative work, associative thinking, ability to shape modern images – not those of specified, narrow, local thematic character, but cosmic ones. While studying the phenomenon of Andrii Bokotei through his creative work, I realized the fact that the concept of school was essential for him – not school as a closed system of knowledge, but as open communication with the entire world. Freedom became the determining creative credo for Bokotei. His ability to respond to any innovation, his need to go understand deeper the motivations of the creativity, achieve uniqueness in creating a certain artistic image and reveal his emotional and philosophic identity, perhaps, not through articulating his national omen, but focusing on the existential moments that came from the inside. This is the path that Alexander Archipenko chose in the 20th century – he did not declare national form, but his entire culture spoke through the depth of meanings that author put in his work and the emotions experienced by him while creating some aesthetic product. That’s why the things that Bokotei created and the ones he is still working on are a part of a purposeful creative program elaborated in time and space that combined local signs of art, those aspects that we often call tradition in a good conservative sense, and, of course, what we call modern context. For Bokotei modernity is a crucial stimulus for creativity. He is short-spoken, he is not very productive in terms of quantity, but in term of quality his art works are memorable and every time they become an event for the general public not only in Ukraine, but also abroad. He is inexhaustible in his imagination, he is very sensitive about time, and can introduce many innovations in studio glass.”