Avant-Garde of Life
Lavra’s Koliory Gallery hosts a one-man show by Kyiv’s noted artist Ruslan Pushkash, featuring monotypes and oils.
As was to be expected, the exhibit’s general atmosphere is a blend of late spring and early summer emotions. There are two determinants: time (on display) and manner (paintings and prints), although it is difficult to say what is cause and what consequence. In other words, whether the works selected for the exposition were meant to befit the season (meaning not only the weather conditions in which the artists objects and characters exist, but also the author’s mood), or Ruslan Pushkash is that kind of man; he can plunge into the joyous May-June maze even on New Year’s Eve and translate it into the language of the fine (or graphic) arts. The latter seems more probable.
Without doubt, Ruslan Pushkash is a romantic artist, but in his own way. His world is very poetic and at the same time very disturbed. Everything here, from a bouquet to a mysterious beauty fleetingly appearing like a short dream, is permeated with a varying degree of inner tension, if not uncertainty. It is not like a dream that comes as quickly as it drifts away, so you can calmly shut it out of your mind. The more so that it is not daily routine suddenly showing the artist its bright side. Most likely a dream desperately struggling to become a reality, going to painful compromises and concessions. In a word, a good old fairy tale scared stiff to look old-fashioned.
In any case, this avant-garde of life is made up of the sea (Sail), fair ladies (She and Diana), and even moonlit flowers (The Moon and Flowers).
