The master of landscape

Serhii Shyshko is often called a master of landscape. The image of nature that was formed in his art, stands as a metaphor of our whole life. Meanwhile, the life – eventful, busy, and throbbing – is reflected in the artist’s works. That is why man, with his spirit, love, pain, and character, is in­sepa­rable from those canvases.

Serhii Shyshko, People’s Artist, honorary citizen of Kyiv and winner of Taras Shevchenko Ukrai­nian National Award, was born on June 25, 1911, in Nosiivka, Chernihiv oblast. He studied at the Kyiv Institute of Fine Arts (in Fedir Krychevsky’s class). He graduated from the Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture at the Russian Academy of Arts in Leningrad in 1943. Starting from the next year he moves to Kyiv. Shyshko plunges in the whirl of painting, exhibits, and teaching, and he also takes inspiration trips to the Carpathians and the Crimea, or to Chernihiv and Zaporizhia regions. The artists he­ri­tage includes portraits as well as still lifes. But Kyiv, to which Shyshko dedicated more than 40 years of his life, remains his favorite subject.

Shyshko painted his first cycle of Kyiv studies in 1945, and since then he often came back to portraying the city, especially working on the series “Kyiv, My Favorite City.” It included more than 100 paintings and sketches dating back to the 1940s-1980s, which have become a chronicle of the Kyiv of mid-20th century. In 1987, his first big personal exhibit named “Kyiv Suite” was held in the capital, and the following year the author himself presented the museum with 60 cityscapes.

“Once Shyshko made a portrait of myself. Just 45 minutes, some paper and charcoal – and voila! I was astonished, I would not have dreamt of anything better than have my portrait painted with the brush of a brilliant artist,” re­col­lects Vira Kovshura, Merited Artist of Ukraine, who had long been friends with Shyshko. “Also, we would often go to Lukianivske Cemetery. He showed me the graves of our great painters: Oleksandr Murashko, Mykola Pymonenko, and Viktor Palmov. He even wanted to use his own mo­ney to publish a guide following the routes of the great men, but unfortunately, he wasn’t able to.”

The anniversary exhibit at the National Art Museum of Ukraine is the most complete presentation of Serhii Shysho’s paintings over the recent years. “Without Shyshko’s works one cannot even imagine the world of artistic Kyiv. We have come a long way… Each Shyshko exhi­bit is a step towards the implementation of this grand project,” said the curator of the exhibit, Liud­myla KOVALSKA. “This anniversary exhibit presents more then 100 works by the author. The exhibits include more than 100 Shyshko’s paintings, brought from our National Museum, the Museum of Russian Art, the Museum of Kyiv’s History, as well as the collections of the Directorate for Art Exhibits of Ukraine.”

The exhibit will last till December 4. By the way, on that very day the rooms of the museum will host an extended exhibit of the works by Transcarpathian artists who are to celebrate their anniversaries this year: Yosyp Bokshai, Adalbert Erdeli, Anton Kashshai, Andrii Kots­ko, and Volodymyr Mykyta.