Artist Yana Bystrova was born in 1966 into a family of Ukrainian intellectuals — sculptor Boris Bystrov and artist Valentina Kutsevich[mfn]Valentina Kutsevich works with painting. In 1965 she graduated from KDHI, and in 1973 — postgraduate studies at the USSR Academy of Arts.[/mfn] (1942). Bystrova’s grandfather, Volodymyr Adamovych Kutsevich[mfn]Kutsevich designed and built the House of Soviets in Khmelnytskyi; the complex of buildings and structures of the central entrance to the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of Ukraine in Kyiv; residential buildings in Dnipropetrovsk; he was also a co-author of master plans for such cities as Zaporizhzhia (1944-1950; participation); Stalino (1944-1950; participation); Ternopil (1944-1950; participation); Mariupol (1944-1950; participation); Kherson (1944-1950; participation) and others.[/mfn] (1917, Lutyshche — 2012, Kyiv) was a famous Soviet and Ukrainian architect, graphic artist, painter, sculptor. The artist recalls him as a person who influenced her and her worldview through himself and his surrounding world[mfn]From a personal interview of Yana Bystrova with Kateryna Yakovlenko dated 01.07.2017[/mfn].
She graduated from the Republican Art Secondary School named after T. H. Shevchenko in Kyiv and the Kyiv Art Institute. The artist herself, talking about her teachers, noted: “I want to highlight Zoya Lerman and Boris Oleksandrovych Lytovchenko. Both taught at the art school, both are excellent artists. My heightened interest in color comes from them. Then — Mykola Andriyovych Storozhenko, a ‘formalist.’ He not only taught but also cultivated a space for personal artistic growth. In his ‘monumental painting’ course ended up all those of my classmates who, at the time, in the third year, were tried to be expelled from the institute for open nonconformism”[mfn]Yana Bystrova. [Interview] / Buy Art Gallery [Electronic resource]. — Access mode: http://buyart.gallery/interviews/view/8 (accessed 19.03.2017) [/mfn].
At the end of the 1980s, Bystrova married the young artist Kostyantyn Reunov, whom she knew from the institute. In 1989, Reunov, together with artist friends Oleg Tistol and Maryna Skugaryova, moved to Moscow to a squat on Furmannyy Lane. Bystrova, who decided to finish her studies after all, lived practically in two cities at once — Kyiv and Moscow.
One of her first works was the triptych “Spring in Baryshivka,” created jointly with Tistol and Reunov in 1987. Each artist independently completed a part of the triptych.
The early period of active creativity falls on 1989-1990. At this time, Bystrova created large paintings that “corresponded to her inner mythology” — these were both personal life plots and reminiscences of art history and literature. Almost always her characters are women, depicted naked or barely covered. As Bystrova herself says, during her institute years she could not imagine anything other than the naked female nature. Interestingly, Zoya Lerman, whom Bystrova mentioned, mostly painted women and female figures. Openness and emotionality of painting are inherent to both artists — Lerman and Bystrova.
Important works of Bystrova’s early period are her expressive and emotional “red series” (1990) named after the color that acts as the form-building element on the canvas. The cycle of works was painted during a personal crisis — separation from her husband and artist Kostyantyn Reunov. The female nude figure becomes the center of the artist’s attention in each painting — heroines with disproportionate and often even plump bodies occupy most of the canvas. The main characters of her paintings are women, mostly her acquaintances and girlfriends. For example, Bystrova was often a model for artist Maryna Skugaryova, and Skugaryova, in turn, often posed for Bystrova.
Bystrova’s red is special; she uses gradation of this color from bright to dark purple. Manipulations with paints allow the artist to achieve a fluorescent effect on some canvases. The change and gradation of color emphasize the change of emotional tension — desire, passion, love, and hatred. Through color, Bystrova frees herself from political, social, and emotional tension. Her “red” is devoid of ideology; it has nothing to do with the semiotics of the color of the Soviet era.
In the early 1990s, Bystrova first participated in exhibitions, including abroad. At this time, she moved to Paris. Due to the lack of a studio and space, she switched to smaller formats — sometimes creating paintings mostly of erotic and intimate nature, making graphics — small sketches on the theme of female corporeality. In Paris, the artist began studying programming and design, experimenting with Photoshop. This allowed her to try herself in other types and techniques of art — serigraphy and photography. As in painting, she often turns to self-analysis. Using Photoshop, the artist fragmentarily reproduces her face several times. As the author herself notes, she was interested in observing the deformations. “The appearance of new techniques in my work was connected with the possibility of making collages on the computer. I was doing something like digital appliqué from fragments of photographs. I was interested in manipulating the image. I could engage in such practice endlessly,” — recalls the artist From a personal interview of Yana Bystrova with Kateryna Yakovlenko dated 01.07.2017.
In the mid-2000s in Paris, Bystrova set up a studio, which allowed her to return to painting. The main emphasis in the paintings of this period is also made on color. Bystrova’s subjects are increasingly related to nature — she depicts various fields and gardens, turns to Ukrainian themes, depicting chestnuts and sunflowers, or, as in the canvas “Home sweet home” — the Kyiv landscape.
Works of this period are distinguished by fleshy texture and decorativeness. “I pay great attention to the trace left by brushes on the canvas. For me, this became important from the very beginning of my work. For example, in my series of ‘Red’ works, I used round brushes that left a trace similar to a caterpillar; such a stroke could be very long but at the same time twisted. For example, I have in my arsenal flat brushes of 15, 20, and 35 centimeters“[mfn]From a personal interview of Yana Bystrova with Kateryna Yakovlenko dated 01.07.2017[/mfn], — noted the artist. Such a “rounded” trace is characteristic also of the landscapes of the early 2000s.
Bystrova “installs” these works in a certain sequence, in which each canvas is a separate element, but together these canvases form a holistic composition like a puzzle (Series “Blooming”).
“I get great pleasure from manipulating geometric constructions that describe abstract mathematical concepts. Here, probably, the architectural heritage makes itself felt. So, further work in painting is variations of answers to the above-described problematics“[mfn]From a personal interview of Yana Bystrova with Kateryna Yakovlenko dated 01.07.2017[/mfn], — notes the artist.
Comment type: Summary
Author: Kateryna Yakovlenko
