Collection

In Chornohora

Roman Selskyi

Basic information

ID: Ж-5163
Author: Roman Selskyi
Name: In Chornohora
Date of creation: 1971
Country: Ukraine
Culture: Eastern Europe
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 74.5 x 124

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: landscape
Provenance: Handed over by the Directorate of Art Exhibitions of the Artists' Union of the USSR, 1971
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Roman Selskyi
Artist's lifetime: 1903–1990
Biography: Roman Selskyi (1903–1990) is a renowned Ukrainian artist, the founder of the school of "Ukrainian colourism". Born in the Sokal region, he moved to Lviv in 1905. He received his first art lessons at the Lviv Gymnasium with Leon Dołżycki, visited the Free Academy (1918–1921) as a gymnasium student, where he first met Margit Reich. At the same time, Roman Selsky studied at the studio of Kazimierz Sichulski. Throughout the year, he visited the workshop of Oleksa Novakivskyi. From 1921 to 1922 studied at the Lviv Art and Industry School. Afterwards, he joined the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, where his teachers were Kazimierz Sichulski, Jozef Mehoffer, Jozef Pankiewicz, and Felician Kowarski. In 1925–1926 he made his first trip to France with Roman Turin to the studio of J. Pankiewicz, where he meets Margit Reich and attends the Fernand Léger Académie Moderne. In 1928–29 travels between Paris and Corsica with Roman Turin and Margit Reich. In 1929 he becomes the first president of the Artes Artistic Association and participates in its exhibitions. In 1931 he married Margit Reich. He was a member of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists from 1932 to 1939 and participated in its exhibitions. In 1937 he leaves for the last time with his wife for Paris. Since 1947 he teaches at the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts, in 1966 he became a professor. From 1940 to 1975 he takes part in exhibitions of the Union of Artists. 1969 – Exhibition "Artes" in Wroclaw. In 1976 he had his first personal exhibition in the Lviv Art Gallery. Roman Selskyi, being a teacher at the institute, had over twenty graduates of the institute's students in various fields. It is difficult to single out any particular style in the artist's work, there are influences of post-impressionism, mystical realism, surrealism, avant-garde and colourism. His plenary motifs have a special atmosphere – these are landscapes from the Carpathian Mountains, Crimea, Hel, the suburbs of Lviv. The artist had a remarkable talent as both artist and teacher, and not only for his students, but also for the many like-minded people who still call themselves "apprentices" without being his actual students.

Object description

Roman Selskyi is an exquisite colourist, who developed the school of Ukrainian colourism started by Oleksa Novakivskyi. Selskyi was distinctive for his national sense of colour, his attention to bright, intense and finely harmonized colours, related to the range of Ukrainian embroideries, carpets, scribbles. Flat colour patches are the main way of creating a composition. Different variations of colour harmony and contrasts reflect the change of moods in a painting. In the work "In Chornohora" in the foreground there are wildflowers, giving the impression that the landscape is painted through them. To the left, dry spruce is depicted vertically, and several green spruces are seen behind. A glimpse of a valley appears before the viewer, with grasses in hot shades of red-ochre to yellow-green; in the background there are several ridges of mountains, alternating and surfacing one after the other, change in colour; those closer are deep green, changing to greenish-purple and violet-blue. Above is a bluish-grey sky with pinkish grey clouds.

Inscriptions

Signed twice in the bottom - on the left "Selskyi R." and on the right - "Selskyi"

In Chornohora

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