Kyiv sees Lviv’s artistic face for the first time in 40 years
The finest works of 20th-century artists from Lviv are on display at Kyiv’s Museum of Contemporary Art of Ukraine as part of the project “Art Map of Ukraine: Lviv” (the exhibit will remain open until May 11). The public now has an opportunity to see the works of five generations of artists, mostly painters, graphic artists, and sculptors — a total 60 artists, who represent the artistic face of Lviv.
It was extremely difficult to select paintings for the show because there are four art schools in Lviv, whose history and achievements were slated to be shown from the time of their founding until today. According to project manager Mykhailo Shevchenko, the selection was based on the high quality of works and their impact on the development of art. Among the works selected were those by Ivan Trush, Olena Kulchytska, Roman Selsky, Karl Zvirynsky, Liubomyr Medvid, and many others.
“It is a very challenging task to display a huge number of works by these Lviv artists in a small museum area,” explained Yevstakhia Shymchuk, an art critic and the curator of the show. “There is not a single second-rate picture among the exhibited works. Each one represents the acme of an artist’s work. This also applies to the masters of Ukrainian colorism — this is what I call the art school of Roman Selsky, which includes artists who work wonders with color. Their pictures are marked by a highly developed esthetic, and colorful and exquisite form. These marks unite artists from several decades, who in fact constitute what is known as the ‘Selsky school’ and the ‘Zvirynsky school.’”
Shymchuk said that the Zvirynsky school existed in the so-called age of the split personality: people used to say one thing and do something totally different. Several generations of artists lived in this dualism, which proved useful for them. According to the curator, once a moment of relative freedom arrived, many artists felt ill at ease. This uncertain situation encouraged them to reveal themselves. One of the representatives of this era is the sculptor Roman Petruk.
Kyiv art lovers can also view the paintings of Oleksandr Aksienin, a representative of the younger generation of Lviv artists, and Andrii Mentukh, who was an eyewitness of Operation Vistula. The leitmotif of Mentukh’s work is crowds of moving people. According to the art historian Mariana Musii, the show also features works by such young talented artists as Oksana Protsenko, Mikhai Tymoshenko, and Tamara Hridiaieva. Their work stands out by their original range of colors — they are more radiant than those seen in the works of older-generation artists — and their interesting artistic vision.
