The magic of strokes

The exhibit of selected graphic works from the collection of Ukraine’s National Museum of Arts lasted for a month. Den (No. 232, Dec. 22, 2009) already drew its readers’ attention to this interesting exposition. For those who have not had time to see Ukrainian graphic masterpieces of different periods, we offer to relish the pictures here, on our pages.

Graphics is everywhere. Your first children’s book, first pencil lines timidly drawn on a sheet of paper or wallpaper, favorite animations, sketches of paintings, A Young Hare by Albrecht Duerer, and Dove of Peace by Pablo Picasso, some attractive poster, a miniature bookplate in a book from one’s family library, a company logo on a package of one’s favorite kefir, and a bill with which you pay for goods — all of these is graphics. It can be executed in a refined aristocratic manner, require maximum abstraction, or it can be democratic, produced in copies, made exclusively for practical use, and go beyond art’s limits. Autobiographic and printed, executed on easel or in books, meant for practical use, whether it is a sign or an emblem, it is able to attain exclusive expressiveness and laconism, using only a limited number of means of artistic expression.

After all, it is not only the state of high arts that determines the spiritual level of any epoch, but also how arts are evinced in folkways, specifically, graphic culture.

The replicas of the works are courtesy of Ukraine’s National Museum of Arts