Playing the game of life
Ukraine’s Museum of Modern Art continues to host an exhibit of paintings from the Assortment project by Ukrainian painter Vladyslav Shereshevsky
Painter Vladyslav Shereshevsky started painting when he was four. He says with ironic pride that by now he has so many paintings that they would cover the walls on all three floors of the Ukrainian Home. “And if you take also my early and unfortunate paintings, perhaps all four,” he adds.
On his business cards, there is a graphic self-portrait and next to it stands an inscription which reads, literally, “A painter from God,” meaning “a born painter.” Of course, it appears to be playful at first glance, but there is a grain of truth in every joke, as is known. Indeed, Shereshevsky is an absolutely extraordinary figure in the Ukrainian artistic world. First, he is continuing a great artistic dynasty. But this is just a beginning. This painter wondrously combines the loftiness of artistic work with natural, even naturalistic irony.
“Shereshevsky, who is 49, is an extremely prolific painter and has developed his own distinct style. Moreover, he has created in his works a special world populated with touching, playful, ceremonious and extremely infantile characters,” art critic Svitlana HAVRYLENKOVA says. “Shereshevsky’s characters are most children and teenagers of unknown age who are surprised to find themselves in adult bodies. They are playful, curious, naive and all-knowing. Pushkin and Van Gogh may be found among them… It is essentially always a kind of puppet show with a touch of buffoonery. These paintings are about playing life with a promise of peace and happiness. This happiness simply emanates from the works of this hedonist painter, dispelling gloominess in viewers.”
The Museum of Modern Art has put over 300 paintings by Shereshevsky on display. It is a true assortment comprising representative works from every artistic period of his life. Visitors have a positive reaction to what they see. As they look at these works, people usually start smiling and some even roar with laughter. This is a very useful reaction – as children, many of us were more curious and wiser. At the same time, the subjects depicted in Shereshevsky’s paintings are often serious and more fit for adults than children. Behind the smokescreen of caricature and brutal collapse hides the irony of the highest standard. The majority of characters in his works feel close, but they are not our contemporaries.
“Indeed, I have a lot of subjects drawn from the images of the fin de siecle, a time when rapid mechanization, all these cars, planes and computers were not yet there. Then, time began to advance at a crazy tempo, and I think things began to change for the worse. Back then, one still had things to ponder and profound images to depict. Twentieth-century man is less interesting to me.”
It seems that in Shereshevsky we have a mocker, but there is a highly professional painter hiding behind this mockery. He has his own worldview and knows how to “package” it into a game he plays with viewers, a game that promises enlightenment. His characters are alive. They seem to engage in dialogue with us contemporaries and often joke and make fun of the modern way of life. The tonality chosen by the painter permits him to raise very serious issues. “I try to move people with my paintings. They are surprising, but that’s why they make people stop and force them to think. I quote a lot, and not everyone understands it, but those who need it will understand,” Shereshevsky admits.
The Assortment exhibit will be open in the Museum of Modern Art until April 28.
