Back

Landscape

Vasyl Poliovyi

Basic information

ID: Ж-7007
Author: Vasyl Poliovyi
Name: Landscape
Date of creation: 1972
Country: the USSR
Culture: Ukrainian art of the Soviet period
Technique: original technique
Material: fibreboard mixed media
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 77 x 120

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: landscape
Provenance: Handed over to the museum from Vasyl Poliovyi

Information about author

Author: Vasyl Poliovyi
Artist's lifetime: b.1936
Country: the USSR, the USA
Biography: Vasyl Poliovyi is a Ukrainian painter and graphic artist, one of the leading authors of Soviet Nonconformist art. He was born on April 22, 1936, in Kryvyi Rih city. The artist's father, Petro Poliovyi, worked as an engineer, and his mother, Oleksandra, was a mathematics teacher. With the start of hostilities on the territory of the USSR on June 22, 1941, the family was evacuated to the Sverdlovsk region (RSFSR). There Vasyl Poliovyi studied in school, and after completing his education in 1954, he entered an art school in Yelets. However, the artist later transferred to the Tavricheskaya Art School (Leningrad, RSFSR) and then to the Higher School of Industrial Art named after Vera Mukhina. After completing his studies, he moved to Moscow, where he worked at an art collective with his wife, artist Yuliia Podohova. He focused mainly on the monumental and decorative design of the interiors and the exteriors of public buildings and governmental institutions. At the same time, he was involved in the circle of nonconformist artists in Moscow and Leningrad, including Dmytro Krasnopevtsev, Anatolii Zverev, Mykhailo Shemiakin, Oleh Tselkov, Eduard Steinberg, Volodymyr Sterlihov, and the Lianozovo Group, as well as writers like Serhii Dovlatov, Yurii Mamleev, and Vladlen Gavrilchik. He participated in unofficial exhibitions, including those in the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, and Czechoslovakia. In 1965, while visiting his brother, the researcher and inventor Renat Poliovyi, the artist created a large cycle of thematic works about Ukraine. Some of them were exhibited in Moscow. Later he joined the Artists' Union of the USSR. In 1972, Vasyl Poliovyi moved to Lviv, where he worked on monumental and easel paintings. During this period, he interacted with the local art community, including Valerii Shalenko, Mykhailo Steinberg, Yurii Sokolov, Okhrim Kravchenko, Margit and Roman Selsky, Anatolii Semahin, art critics Hryhorii Ostrovskyi and Dmytro Shelest, and writer Ihor Klekh. In 1976, Vasyl Poliovyi was expelled from the Artists' Union, which made his professional activity practically impossible. As a result, the artist decided to emigrate from the Soviet Union to the United States, where he still lives and works in Greenville, South Carolina.

Object description

The landscape of mountains at night from the collection of Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery is a characteristic work of Vasyl Poliovyi from the early 1970s, with their inherent technical experiments. This has influenced the image's colouring scheme and optical qualities, which are visible only when viewing the original artwork from different lighting angles. Based on the specific shape of the depicted mountains and the probable viewpoint from which the sketch was made, this mountain range belongs to the Skole Beskids. To achieve a unique complex colour scheme, the artist used tempera-like paints and original emulsions with metallic paints of bronze shades. This suggests that the artist drew inspiration from historical examples of capturing special lighting during the dark hours, particularly in intense moonlight. Among the significant characteristics of the painting is the skilful execution of a "night" landscape with a particular colour temperature and, in addition, the formation of an emotionally intense and mystical atmosphere. The artwork reveals a monumental and almost epic approach to the narrative, with an anthropic dimension present exclusively from the author's perspective. The viewer is presented with a situation where the ability to co-create is a primary quality and allows the perception of the work to be derived from their own visual experience, as well as emotional and intellectual characteristics.

Inscriptions

In the lower right corner, there is a inscription: "ВП 72"

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Landscape

Other