From dramatic to tragic

The exposition commemorates the renowned ceramic artist (namely, Bohynskyi’s 70th birth anniversary and the 10th anniversary of his demise) and includes the author’s 35 three-dimensional works from the collection of the National Museum of Ukrainian Traditional Decorative Art (NMUTDA). Another 100 works from the family archive have been handed over by the artist’s son Fedir Bohynskyi. They include not only ceramic pieces, but also paintings and drawings. Of particular interest is a collection of works of his late mother, a self-taught artist Yevhenia Zaremba-Bohynska (1909-2001): ceramic sculpture in the style of urban naive art, represented in a separate small-scale exposition (curator: Iryna Beketova, ceramics collection manager with the NMUTDA).

One of the true leaders of Kyiv’s professional ceramic artists in the 1980s – early 2000s, Bohynskyi was probably the first to introduce philosophic categories of “dramatic” and “tragic” into Ukrainian decorative art. The artist, who received academic training at the department of ceramic art of the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Art (now the Lviv National Academy of Arts), based his art mostly on conventional forms of traditional ceramics. This can be accounted for. In 1974 Bohynskyi, enthralled with traditional art, got a job at the Ceramic Art Factory in Opishne, a village near Poltava. Thanks to apprenticeship under top-notch pottery masters of Opishne (formerly styled as “Ukrainian Athens”), Bohynskyi perfectly mastered the fundamentals of traditional art and became a skilled potter. That is why all sorts of pots, jugs, and bowls became universal forms for this professional ceramist, enabling him to express the most recent artistic ideas. “The Institute developed in me a plastic vision of a professional artist, while Opishne revealed a wealth of secret techniques owned by traditional pottery masters,” told Bohynskyi to Beketova, his permanent curator and the mind behind his four exhibits, two of which were posthumous.

WINTER. CHAMOTTE, 1990S

Bohynskyi’s rather peculiar imagery and plasticity interprets the conventional forms of traditional ceramics. His 1980s monumental makitra pots, with cracked chamotte surface and deliberately slanting forms, emphasized seams and smoked texture (including variations of bottomless, suddenly open pots) seem to embody the image of scorched Ukrainian soil, symbolize the mother’s womb and Ukraine’s heart – or transform into the Ark of Salvation, which has preserved the power of its spirit and its culture (in compositions The Roads of Sedniv, The Milky Way, Ancient Manuscripts, the baroque vessel etc.). Indeed, never before Bohynskyi’s time did Ukrainian decorative art (which before the 1980s was predominantly applied and was perceived exclusively in terms of positive emotions) have that distinct ring of dramatic poetry.

Bohynskyi’s porcelain pieces in the exposition are also perceived as a sophisticated dialog in black and white. A cylinder resembling an Orthodox Christian church (The Cathedrals), a tea-pot or a jug with a particularly tall neck were always a pretext to tell a special story, born by the artist’s unrestrained imagination (Biblical Themes, On the Problem of Judea).

BAROQUE VESSEL. CHAMOTTE, 1980S

Bohynskyi’s unconventional thinking in terms of images and plasticity, his original authorial style, as well as his purely individual perception of ceramic materials with their unique textures in three-dimensional pieces, devoid of pretentious beauty, were considered quite unusual and bordering on unacceptable by the mainstream artistic circles of the 1980s – early 1990s. Still they were executed in the context of European artistic process and repeatedly impressed such sophisticated centers of art as Vallauris, Padova, Vienna, or Berlin, where they appeared at the international exhibits and competitions of ceramists and at joint events organized by Ukrainian artists.

Today Bohynskyi’s heritage seems almost prophetic. Even today his black-and-white clay pieces, ceramic vessels, and slabs with their utterly, conventional figurative ornamentation, are revealing the tragedy of human relations and telling the story of suffering and agony, love and betrayal (Worshipping, Full Moon, Winter, Interior, Mise-En-Scene, Repentance, Redemption, Theater, Hieroglyph), touch the deepest depths of the viewer’s soul.

“Bohynskyi had a gift of conceiving an image and executing in a plastic form not just an idea but an entire philosophical concept. He really created ‘thoughtforms’ which even today carry the artist’s energy. Mental images shaped by the master are non-verbal, they are physically perceptible and visible. Such powerful thoughts (‘thoughtforms’) are transmitted from one person to another, from generation to generation, they are very long-lasting and, with a bit of luck, they might become eternal,” believes Iryna BEKETOVA, curator of the exhibit.

EVENING (FRAGMENT). CLAY, SALTS, 1985

Bohynskyi was kind, sincere, and friendly towards his colleagues whom he respected for their professionalism. He generously gave his unique works to museums and individuals whose friendship he valued. But he was relentless towards his opponents, in disputes he fought as a lion to defend his professional opinion, and he fought against injustice. He had interesting philosophical views on art, which he loved unconditionally. He was a master of rhetoric and had a gift of convincing. When he spoke, Bohynskyi (a man of medium height) turned into a handsome giant in the eyes of interlocutors.

In May 2007, a month before his death Bohynskyi, already terminally sick, visited his favorite Museum of Ukrainian Traditional Decorative Art for the last time, as if he had known that he would not turn 60 (his birthday was due in three months). Suddenly he asked if it would be possible to hold his anniversary exhibit. And justice must be done to the staff of the NMUTDA and its director Liudmyla Strokova: 10 years later, in the run-up to the 70th birth anniversary of one of their most revered authors, they carried out that last request or will of Bohynskyi, whose heritage has preserved its artistic value and urgency.

The exhibit will be open through September 5.