Paintings from Odesa flood Donetsk

The ArtDonbas art exhibition center is hosting the “Odesa School: Traditions and Contemporary Relevance” exhibition. It has brought together works belonging to a rich variety of styles, ranging from the mid-20th century realism to the recent so-called ‘contemporary’ art. This unusual project is a joint venture of the DymchukArtPromotion Gallery of Odesa and the ArtDonbas. The center’s art director Kateryna Kalynychenko maintains the exhibition is unique: “Many 30-year-old and 40-year-old works are coming on show here for the first time ever. This striking collection includes about 300 paintings by 60 artists of different eras.”

The Odesa School exhibition took just three months to organize: “The idea came from Hennadii Chyzhykov, President of the National Chamber of Commerce, who prompted us to get acquainted with works by the Odesa painter Kostiantyn Skoptsov, but we do not host personal exhibitions. Therefore, Skoptsov himself went to propose including the other Odesa artists’ works in the program, we contacted the DymchukArtPromotion Gallery, and the project went ahead,” Kalynychenko says.

The gallery’s owner Anatolii Dymchuk is pleased with the outcome of their cooperation: “We want to show an extensive range of works.” According to Dymchuk, exhibits have come from his own collection and the painters’ family collections.

The painter Skoptsov, who was among the initiators of the project, had been to Donetsk before in July 2012 to participate in the exhibition “Life after EURO.” His recent works include two Sufis, combining the Zen graphics and Persian miniatures: “I think it is a start of a new series, as I want to illustrate Dante’s works and visualize them using this technique,” the artist says about his plans.

The presentation of the exhibition catalog will be held separately. According to Kalynychenko, it will be of interest to art historians and university students, containing biographies of artists and texts on the works’ creative history. The exhibition center’s art director herself prefers the classical styles: “I was very impressed by the Academician Bozhii and painter Synytsky’s works, while Albin Havdzynsky presented striking still life paintings featuring melons and watermelons against the sea background, which were very naturally and easily done, with everything looking air-saturated.”

The exhibition will run till May 10.