Union of Artists celebrates its 75th anniversary

The annual All-Ukrainian Artist’s Day Exhibition, traditionally launched at the Central House of Artists on the eve of the official holiday, will mark one more pleasant date in 2013, as the Union of Artists celebrates its 75th anniversary. On this occasion, all lovers of the art will get an exhibition on an unprecedented scale.

“Big as it is, the exhibition project tempted us to follow the time-tested way of doing things and form a significant part of the exhibition out of works from the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (NUAU)’s collection, pieces of undeniable artistic quality,” the project organizer Svitlana Som commented for The Day. “But, given the large number of works proposed to the exhibition committee by our partners from all over Ukraine, it seemed more appropriate to show at it precisely these, modern, actual achievements of our artists.”

The final selection for the exhibition includes more than 500 works of all the fine arts, most of them, of course, paintings. According to the organizers, Kharkiv and Odesa branches of the union will be prominently displayed at the event, as they celebrate their 75th anniversaries this year, too.

“I want to emphasize that large all-Ukrainian events in general, as well as the annual Artist’s Day exhibition in particular, reflect creative practices of the vast majority of our artists, and very often serve as the only large-scale platform where artists from all over Ukraine can present themselves. It is worth noting that age of participants varies widely,” the director of the NUAU’s Exhibitions Directorate, art critic Ihor Voloshchuk remarked.

The exhibition is divided into conventional blocks. Block of contemporary artists’ works is the largest and most important one, representing all geographical areas and schools of Ukrainian art. Sculpture group “History of Art through the Time” deserves special attention. It shows the most famous representatives of all schools of art from the 1930s to the 2000s, as seen by colleagues and portrayed in plaster, marble, clay, and wood. The “Flow of Time” installation presents unique photographs of open-air sessions, creative meetings, and art events, with the oldest of them dating from the creation of the union.

A major part of the exhibition is a project by the SF-Group (SlavaFrolovaGroup), being an artistic marathon: 20 days, 10 artists – each artist displaying their works for two days.

The project’s opening ceremony, to be held on October 11, will see the presentation of video selection Faces of the Decades, an encounter of sorts with the artists who established the union, created its history, and enliven it today.

A series of workshops to uncover artistic talent in each visitor will be held during the exhibition in the rooms of the House of Artist.

Latest information and schedule of workshops is available on the NUAU’s Exhibitions Directorate’s refurbished website www.dvnshu.com.

The exhibition will run at the House of Artist, at 1/5 Artema Street till October 27, opened from 12 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday to Monday.