Ukraine through the Eyes of Laslo Shyp

May 16, a one-man show of renowned Transcarpathian master of wooden sculpture Laslo Shyp was opened in the exhibition hall of the National Union of Masters of Folk Arts. Laslo Laslovych displays his works in Kyiv on the occasion of the bicentennial of the birth of public, cultural figure, and educator Oleksandr Dukhnovych.

This is the first time the maestro has come to Kyiv with a one- man show, though his works have already graced exhibit halls in Hungary, Slovakia, and Germany. Laslo Shyp did not hide his happiness with the fact that he had finally arrived in the capital of Ukraine where the folktale and real characters, to whom he dedicates most of his effort, live.

Unlike most masters of the applied arts, who begin their creative quest at rather advanced age, so to say, by call of their souls with professional training, Laslo Shyp after graduating from high school was convinced that his life would be connected with wood sculpture. In 1966 he graduated from the Uzhhorod Applied Arts College. Later he worked as a schoolteacher, and from 1973 until his retirement was member of the Arts Fund of Ukraine’s Union of Artists, creating dozens of wonderful works, which became models for his colleagues. However, one lacks the heart to call Laslo Laslovych a retiree. In the first year of Ukraine’s independence he was one of the first to join the Ukrainian National Union of Folk Arts Masters, and he continues to work on his sculptures.

The range of themes in his nearly eighty works is strikingly diverse. There are Biblical motifs: Grief (Jesus Christ’s sad face framed with a crown of thorns), Christmas, The Archangel Michael, and scenes of Hutsul life in his Verkhovynka and Family. The master also did not ignore the tragic period in Ukraine’s history, the Holodomor Manmade Famine of 1932-1933. The sculpture dedicated to it occupies a special place in the Transcarpathian maestro’s exhibition. However, it would be a hard task to name all the themes of Laslo Shyp’s works. The main subject of his research is life itself in all its varieties. Ukrainian wooden sculptures are gems of many museums and private collections in Germany, Norway, Russia, and the US.