The evolution of the imaginative and plastic concept of creativity by V. Prykhodko in the context of socio-cultural transformations of the second half of the 1980s to the 2000s

Abstract

The exploration of Vyacheslav Prykhodko's creative legacy within the context of regional and national artistic processes from the second half of the 20th to the early 21st century prompts the identification of leading artistic tendencies and the analysis of the master's creative issues. This study aims to uncover aspects of the dialogue with tradition that reveal the distinctiveness and representativeness of the artist's oeuvre. In the period of 1980-2000, V. Prykhodko's creative work witnessed the formation of an authorial imaginative and plastic concept characterized by the elevation of ordinary phenomena and processes to symbols and metaphors of life. It involved a departure from naturalistic-mimetic approaches to a transition towards generalized-conditional, imaginative-symbolic perception and reproduction. The construction of artistic imagery was guided by the principles of harmony as an aesthetic category and the foundation of worldview. This concept entailed the fusion of the rationality of the creative method and the structural integrity of pictorial representation with poeticism, color expression, and the dynamics of planes, lines, and shapes. Factors contributing to V. Prykhodko's creative evolution included the vibrant artistic life of Uzhhorod and informal creative communication, as well as his passion for music, theater, world literature, and exposure to information about global artistic trends. The artist's stylistic exploration was significantly influenced by modernist elements in Transcarpathian visual arts synergized with the decorative aspects of folk artistic traditions. Within the realm of Transcarpathian painting, V. Prykhodko's work belongs to the "innovative pole" of Transcarpathian visual arts and its "experimental direction," alongside other representatives such as E. Kremnytska, F. Seman, and P. Bedzir. A distinctive feature of the artist's body of work within this direction is the strong foundation of academic art education and the assertion of his creative independence through the exclusive selection of expressive means and the stylistic approach in his works.