Robert Lisovsky’s graphic design during the Prague period of his work

Abstract

The problem of the receach of Robert Lisowsky’s graphic design within the European context, in particular, during his stay in Prague, where the artist spent more than sixteen years, is still relevant nowadays. The driving force in the development of his creative concept was the training in the workshop of the reformer of Ukrainian graphics - Georgy Narbut. The artist came to Prague after finishing his studies in Berlin, and receiving an invitation to the position of Professor of Graphic Arts in the newly created Ukrainian Studio of Plastic Art. The Prague period of the artist’s creative career, along with artistic and pedagogical work, is characterized by active social participation. The favorable conditions of democratic Czechoslovakia were fortunate to the fate of the Ukrainian immigrant culture. At the initiative of the President of the Republic, T.G. Masaryk, a plan to assist the emigration from the former Russian Empire was developed at the government level, which became a unique phenomenon of world diplomacy due to its active humanism. In this favorable atmosphere, a wide avenue for self-realization opened up to artists and creative intelligentsia. The Ukrainian art community actively integrated into the artistic environment of Czechoslovakia. Lisovsky’s graphic design works of this period represent impeccably thoughtful, balanced and integral compositions, the presentation of which retains the inherent refinement, nobility and virtuoso performance. The modernist interpretation of national-romantic motifs permanently penetrates the whole graphic work of the artist and, in fact, stylistic fluctuations towards expressionism or constructivism could be typically seen in the book covers of the 1920s-1940s. Regardless the appearance in these works of a whole range of the contemporary European art’s style innovations and formal-content searches, this colossal graphic design work demonstrates the priority of the "national" form in the artist’s creativity. Applying styles that are close and understandable to the Western European viewer, R. Lisovsky steadily appeals to the bearers of historical memory, motifs and symbolic images of folk and church art, to the culture of the Baroque era, the charms of ancient Ukrainian traditions, the strength of which took on a new era of new forms and modern sound. As an artistic phenomenon, the pre-war design of Lisovsky did not fall out of the general context of the development of Ukrainian Art. Moving to Prague was R. Lisowsky’s first significant step towards final emigration to the West. The artist’s active involvement in public and pedagogical activity did not affect the quality and quantity of his graphic design. At the same time, the artist’s physical detachment from Ukraine did not radically touch his artistic concept. It is impossible to interpret R. Lisowsky’s work beyond the context of the Narbut School.