Avant-Garde Inspirations in the Art of Ukrainian Monumentalists of the 1960-70s:

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to introduce into scientific circulation the results of documentary reconstruction and art analysis of the lost monumental panel, which was created by a tandem of talented artists in the Palace of Culture of the BilotserkivMAZ plant in Bila Tserkva. The research methods involve a combination of art analysis with methods of documentary reconstruction and interviews with the author of the studied artifacts. Scientific novelty consists in the introduction into scientific circulation of a previously undescribed and destroyed monument of monumental art – a panel in the Palace of Culture of the BilotserkivMAZ plant in Bila Tserkva. For the first time, the stylistics of the execution of an unexplored object of monumental and decorative art were analyzed. Through a personal interview with Oleg Yerzhikivskyi, a direct participant in the process, the circumstances of the order and execution of the work were recorded. For the first time, a photo from a private family archive was made public, and an attempt was made to reconstruct the panels based on individual photos. Conclusions. As a result of the artistic analysis of the work, the ideological inspirations that manifested themselves during the execution of the large-scale panel were established. Despite the isolation of the Soviet artistic environment from world artistic currents, the dosage of information coming from the West was enough for Ukrainian artists to create their own interpretations of seen foreign or banned domestic samples. Sensing this on an intuitive level rather than being in the full context of theoretical and art history discourse, the best representatives of the process managed to create a work of decent quality, the execution of which was financed by the state of that time. Despite the presence of Soviet symbols in the work (as a tribute to the totalitarian system for the opportunity to work in the field of art at all), the monumental panel is made at a high artistic level and is valuable for its innovative approach. As it follows from the results of the research, the effort to adapt samples of Western European art to the realities of the orders of the Art Fund of the Ukrainian SSR was not the least important in this process. This became possible thanks to the high level of specialized art education in higher educational institutions, as well as the personal self-improvement of each author-performer and his personal giftedness. In addition, the mentioned works were created by Ukrainian artists on Ukrainian territory and they are far from glorifying the regime.