How a Ukrainian artist came up with a new painting technique, for which he was called "the genius of our time"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

You must admit that not many contemporary artists are at the mercy of critics, and an even smaller circle manages to achieve world recognition, honors and high titles during their lifetime. But, they still exist … And among them the name of the Ukrainian painter Ivan Marchuk stands in the forefront. He became the first Ukrainian to be admitted to the "Golden Guild" in Rome, and in the British rating "Top 100 geniuses of our time" he took 72 places. Now Marchuk is the most titled artist in Ukraine, Shevchenko Prize laureate, inventor of the author's style of painting. And today in our publication there is a unique gallery of the master's works, whose manner resembles the interweaving of many multi-colored threads on canvas. Watch and admire!

A few words about the artist

Ivan Marchuk (born in 1936) hails from the village of Moskalevka, Ternopil region, which at the time of the painter's birth was under the control of Poland. He was born into the family of a weaving master known throughout the region. From early childhood, the artist knew that his path was destined: - from the memoirs of Ivan Marchuk himself.

In 1956, Ivan graduated from the Lvov School of Applied Arts. The training in which gave young Marchuk tremendous knowledge of various decorative and applied techniques. Then he continued his studies at the Department of Ceramics of the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts. While still a student, he explored world artistic trends, fundamentally bypassing socialist realism. Even then, the young artist was fanatically looking for his own path, his own style and technique.

Creative way

And he always worked as the soul suggested to him, subtly feeling the beauty of his native land, and injustice, and pain for his people. Therefore, in Soviet times, Ivan was under the constant "gunpoint" of the authorities. And therefore, until 1988, the Union of Artists did not officially recognize the work of this master.

In 1979, his paintings were presented at the first collective exhibition of Ukrainian nonconformism, organized by the Ukrainian diaspora in Munich, Paris, New York, London. It was there that Western art critics drew attention to him. By the way, in the same year the first personal exhibition of Ivan Marchuk took place in Moscow at 28 Malaya Gruzinskaya Street.

In 1989, the artist emigrated to Australia, and from there to Canada and the United States. Abroad, long-awaited success and recognition came to him. At home, they also remembered and started talking about the painter. Ivan Stapanovich received the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine (1996), and a year later he became a laureate of the National Prize of Ukraine named after I. T. G. Shevchenko. Upon returning to Ukraine in 2002, the artist was awarded the title of People's Artist of Ukraine.

Today, Ivan Stepanovich Marchuk is a world-renowned artist who founded a new style in the art of painting, who created more than 5000 works and held more than 100 personal exhibitions in different countries around the world. Since 2006, according to the decision of the International Academy of Contemporary Art in Rome, he is a member of the "Golden Guild", in which there are only 51 artists from all over the world. And in 2007, according to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Marchuk was named a modern genius. And deservedly so.

- this is how the 84-year-old master comments on his long career.

"Give me a thousand years and I will paint the sky." Ivan Marchuk

As mentioned above, the artist is the author of more than 5000 works, which can be divided into twelve main periods: "The Voice of My Soul", "Colored Preludes", "Portrait", "Still Life", "Blossom", "Landscape", "Shevchenkiana", "New Expressions", "White Planet 1", "White Planet 2", "Dreams Come Out of the Shore", "Look Into Infinity".

Unique technique "pentanism"

Starting from the first cycle, the work of the master was named "The Voice of My Soul" and became the basis for all subsequent directions in the artist's work. It was from this period that Ivan Stepanovich's paintings appeared, created in the new author's technique "pentanism" (Ukrainian "plyontanism"). This definition was given by the author himself. It comes from the Ukrainian word "plontati", that is - to weave.

If you look closely, you will see that his canvases seem to be created by a unique interweaving of many multi-colored threads. A stunning, mesmerizing technique that attracts the eye and makes the viewer want to touch his hands and try to wind the threads into balls. The artist uses water-based paints in his work, the consistency is quite thick, which, lying on the canvas, has a voluminous texture, which creates the impression of lace weaving …

Most impressive are the incredible landscapes of the original master. At first glance, seemingly quite simple landscapes. But, light and color gamut plays an incredible role, giving the canvases additional meaning. For example, here is someone's house, bright and joyful, although a rickety fence indicates desolation. On the right, under the rays of the spring sun, an old tree is warming itself, the same decrepit, but no less significant for the color and compositional integrity of the picture. Life here fell into decay, but did not die out.

The artist's canvases depicting hut-huts cannot be attributed to dreary landscapes. The master revived them with certain details: splashes of sunlight or moonlight, glare of sparkling snow and overlay of shimmering shadows.

Marchuk's works are so magnificent that you can look at them for a long time, not getting tired of looking at the intricacies of the subtlest colorful strokes.

P. S. "I did not invent my pictures, they appeared to me, these are parable pictures …"

And in conclusion, I would like to note that in terms of political views, the eternal rebel Ivan Marchuk is again in opposition to power. He is immensely in love with the nature of his native land, with its character and ease, but with all his heart he despises the attitude of people to each other and the authorities to the order.

With great grief and heartache, he speaks of his homeland:

These are truly the words of a wise man who has lived a long, fruitful life and left behind a legacy that will live on for centuries.

Today I would also like to recall the work of the world famous American artist Andrew Wyeth, who was included in the list of the most expensive contemporary artists in the world of the 20th century, who for a long time was unrecognized and rejected by critics. His paintings, painted in a realistic manner, in the era of the rise of abstractionism and Art Nouveau, caused a storm of protest among art critics and a sea of admiration among the common public.