The Originality of the Artistic Search of the Volyn Artist Oleksandr Valenta

Abstract

The multifaceted culture of the Volyn land is distinguished by a colorful palette of prominent figures in the field of art, including fine art, and their creative achievements. A Volyn artist Oleksandr Valenta (1944–1997), was well-known far beyond our country. He was a master of the still life and landscape genre, which combined features of post-impressionism, cubism, pointillism. At the same time, the artist had highly distinct, specifically Ukrainian, namely Volyn individual handwriting, marked by folklore motifs, decorative motifs, ornamental construction of the composition, which are still not studied by art critics and are still waiting for their scientific understanding. This article is the first to introduce factual and analytical materials into scientific circulation, the authors cataloged the creative works of the master, which will help in further scientific practice of research of little-known creative heritage, and highlighting his creative methods and techniques. The authors proved that the peculiarity of O. Valenta’s paintings is a peculiar image of space composed of small particles. They are painted lush, colorful, full of light and freshness. The Ukrainian color of his paintings is revealed by the peculiarities of the image and color palette. The artist often painted his canvases using different variations of one shade, striking the bold combination of colors, conciseness, decorativeness, and symbolism of the image. As a result of the research, it was established that a significant number of the artist’s works are the property of private collections (collectors) of Poland, Germany, Israel, some are in the collection of the Volyn Museum of Local Lore, and the study revealed the artist’s appeal to the historical genre in particular, attention is focused on the theme of glorifying the work of Lesya Ukrainka.