Ukrainian postmodernists are increasingly tuning into a different range, changing the character, language, reference points of names, and typological coincidences. The recent semi-conscious attraction to F. Clemente, S. Kia, E. Cucchi, or D. Schnabel weakens in favor of a growing and almost unaccountable interest in E. Fischl, L. Freud, or I. Kabakov (in the guise of a simulator of the plot painting of socialist realism)… The paintings of O. Holosiya, A. Hnylytskyi, A. Savadov, and H. Senchenko, V. Tsagolov from the first half of the 90s, as well as the canvases of authors just beginning then – M. Mamsikov, D. Dulfan, A. Kazandzhy, I. Husev, I. Chichkan, while sometimes still reproductive, nevertheless lose their former baroque style, heavy expression, mythological verbosity, excessive colorfulness, and texture. Neo-baroque compositions become increasingly restrained, sometimes almost minimalist (“Squirrel” by A. Hnylytskyi) and ultimately completely break away from the deconstruction of art history. Paintings, to use the well-known diagnosis of H. Gadamer, increasingly “go mute,” and consequently, the painting itself, depersonalizing and “descending,” seeks support either in object inclusions, or in “cinematography,” or directly in the word. Previously ignored text now acts as an important component of the pictorial fabric: both as a deliberate tautology of the plot, as if taking on the function of a label with a title (in the canvases “Lepa is Dead” by D. Dulfan, “Rattling,” “Katya’s Eyelashes” by A. Kazandzhy, “Pistet” by I. Husev, and others), and in the meaning of fragments specifically literary parallel to the visual row (in the painting cycle “Rubber of Feelings” by V. Tsagolov). It is also not surprising that painting increasingly leaned toward monochromy until it appeared entirely in black and white (“Chu,” “Lisa is Crying” by A. Hnylytskyi, “Dawn at Sea” by O. Holosiya…), and then, closer to the middle of the decade, if not disappearing completely from the toolkit of contemporary Ukrainian art, it definitely lost its former privileged status for a long time. The tragic symbol of the “painting break” today is also perceived as the absurd death in January 1993 of O. Holosiya – the most pronounced romantic of the new Ukrainian painting.Comment type: Published comment
Author: Oleksandr Solovyov
Sources: Solovyov A. Art of Ukraine in the 90s (reflections). Ukrainian art and the “general scheme” [Electronic resource] / Oleksandr Solovyov // Art Journal, No. 28-29. – 1999. – Access mode to the resource: http://www.guelman.ru/xz/362/xx28/x28015.htm.
Bibliography:
Solovyov A. Art of Ukraine in the 90s (reflections). Ukrainian art and the “general scheme” [Electronic resource] / Oleksandr Solovyov // Art Journal, No. 28-29. – 1999. – Access mode to the resource: http://www.guelman.ru/xz/362/xx28/x28015.htm.
