Mundane Romanticism

A one man show featuring artist Volodymyr Holovanov (1924-1990) has opened at Children’s Arts Academy in Obolon.

Volodymyr Holovanov was primarily a watercolorist, but an unusual one. He boldly introduced methods of painting and even monumental arts into his technique, which became a synonym for poeticism and usually is associated with tenderness, transparency, and at the same time subtle mutability of an image. As a result, his scumbled watercolor technique appeared, in which he created his best work, believes Oksana LAMONOVA.

An indisputable romantic, Holovanov tirelessly and avidly admired life in its most mundane manifestations. This is where the roots of the majestic solemnity of his industrial series lay. Many of the artist’s works are devoted to the theater: costumed portraits, touching and humorous scenes from behind the curtain. Volodymyr Holovanov was author of many portraits in various techniques. His models were children, students, athletes, scholars, and musicians. He preserved solicitously not only their faces but also their names. However, perhaps best among Holovanov’s portraits are his Strangers, mysterious and beautiful women painted in coal in a remarkably refined and easy way.