“Provide the soul with necessary balance”
The Art-Donbass gallery in Donetsk is holding the spring exhibition of paintings
Colorful views of mountains and cities, seascapes, picturesque still lifes depicting nature as it is from early March to blooming May – all these are parts of the Art and Exhibition Center Art-Donbass’s new exhibition, named “Ukraine Covered in Spring Flowers” and celebrating the arrival of the first warm season. The exhibition presents about 170 works by 14 leading artists of Donetsk region, who depict unique nature of different regions of Ukraine, including Kyiv, Pochaiv, Sloboda Ukraine (Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions), and western Ukraine (Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions as well as foothills of the Carpathians).
The artists represented at the exhibition include People’s Artists of Ukraine Oleksii Poliakov, Polina Shakalo, and Yurii Zorko; Honored Artists Harry Ruff, Volodymyr and Valentyna Telychko, Borys Yeriomin, Hennadii Zhukov, Viktor Yevdokymov, and Larysa Dzharty; as well as members of the National Union of Artists Oleksandr Vorona, Raisa Malinkina, and Oleksandr Shpak.
Lviv streets, the mighty Carpathians, Crimean Tarkhankut landscapes, famed Khortytsia and Sviatohiria – the geographically scattered works create a real panorama of Ukrainian nature in different seasons, but the spring theme still predominates.
“Vorona’s painting Blossoming Apple Trees depicts fruit trees so skillfully that it seems that their aroma can be felt, too. Meanwhile, Yeriomin’s marinas combine tenderness and bewilderment,” the gallery’s art director Kateryna Kalinichenko told us.
The exhibition includes paintings created by artists from Donetsk region during international plein airs “Maxim” in Slavske (Lviv region), “Khortytsya through the Ages” in Zaporizhia, “Golden Horseshoe of Lviv Region” in Zolochiv, national plein airs “Kyiv as Seen by Ukrainian Artists” and “Viktor Tolochko Memorial” in the Crimean Tarkhankut, and Donetsk regional plein airs in Krasny Oskol and Sviatohirsk.
People’s Artist of Ukraine Hryhorii Tyshkevych presented about 20 of his paintings at the exhibition. He said: “It is the nature that gives the artist a vision of harmony, color, mood, and poetry. This exhibition, imbued with spring mood, can provide the soul with necessary balance when the nation is in dire straits. Harmony is the key to ensuring integrity of the people and the state, and artists are entrusted with unobtrusive mission to bring this wisdom to the public’s attention.”
Visitors favor Volodymyr Shendel’s painting Zaporizhian Sich, too, which combines historical heritage with eternal natural beauty, while delicate work The March Lace by the creative Telychko couple shows spring as it just wakes up after winter.
“On the one hand, these paintings’ plots seem to be quite simple, but let us recall the famous Sunflowers by Van Gogh – its story has become a global treasure. Many of the paintings from this exhibition deserve a museum place; they should continue their lives in galleries or private collections, and not stay on the shelves in the artist’s studio,” Tyshkevych remarked.
The exhibition “Ukraine Covered in Spring Flowers” will last at the Art-Donbass till April 20.
