Magical Realist

The Fund To Promote the Development of the Arts in Ukraine presents a one-man show by Kyiv painter and graphic artist Yury Lutskevych (1934- 2001).

The artist got professional training from first-rate Ukrainian masters of the so-called old school: V. Puzyrkov was his teacher at the Kyiv State Arts Institute, and S. Hryhoriev at the Creative Studios at the USSR Academy of Sciences. Even if we can call Lutskevych a realist, his realism was of some unusual, baroque kind (which literally means chimerical), or even magical one. Incidentally, the Ukrainian Cossack baroque for the painter was not only a passion, but a constant source of his inspiration, or a mystery that cannot be solved but is worth devoting one’s life to. Maybe what attracted him most with the baroque style were its miracles, their unique naturalness, the extraordinary nature of the events, adding solemnity to every day and every character and turning them into a Wonder.

Sometimes wonders appeared in Yury Lutskevych’s paintings almost as a tribute to tradition: what he saw were just guardians of space settled here forever, however not by the artist himself (Bulgakov’s House). Sometimes wonders are unconscious (The Event), but more often just stand aside (Landscape with Elias the Prophet). Sometimes the miracle is almost self- sufficient, meaning either an episode from hagiography (St. George the Dragon Slayer) or an episode from arts history as a dedication to the famous artists of the past (Still Life with Attributes of Art). But his most fascinating works are those dedicated to Kyiv. They are so vivid that it makes his other paintings look almost like sketches.