The Soviet system tried to stifle Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Dubovyk, but he and his work outlived it. Now, at the age of 84, Dubovyk is one of Ukraine's most sought-after artists internationally, with Ukrainian and Western critics calling him "the father of Ukrainian avant-garde."
His works are on display in the Zimmerly Art Museum in New Jersey, the Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum Würth in Künzelsau, Germany and Russia’s Tretyakov Gallery.
In the Soviet Union, the officially sanctioned art style was socialist realism that glorified communist values and the proletariat. Other styles were likely to be censored.
Dubovyk started out as a realist, soon became a professor at the Kyiv School of Applied Arts and a member of the Soviet Academy of Arts and started exploring other styles. His abstract works didn’t fit Communist Party policy. Consequently, he was frozen out of the Soviet art world and none of his work was exhibited between 1967 and 1988.
“That’s the worst thing that can happen to an artist – that people won’t see his work. And I hadn’t had any exhibitions for 20 years,” Dybovyk recalls with sorrow.
Dubovyk created his unique style – palimpsest. It is a combination of different art styles are layered over each other and influence each other.
But the ban also gave him time to refine his concept of art.
Dubovy combines various styles – realism, abstractionism and avant-garde in a style he calls palimpsest. The word refers to a page of manuscript from which the text has been either scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Dubovyk’s style emphasizes that, despite changes in art styles, they are layered over each other and influence each other.
Dybovyk’s work can seem unusual for the uninitiated, but he says even they are fascinated by the bright colors and shapes and styles. In contrast, for him art is not about form, but concept.
Dybovyk and his wife Iryna live in a cozy apartment in the center of Kyiv. Long bookshelves stretch along its walls, which are also covered with the artist’s paintings. They met at a party in the Kyiv art academy, where Dubovyk was one of her professors. They have lived together ever since.
Dubovyk’s works now grace a number of private collections around the world. He doesn’t like to speak about the prices of his paintings, although in an interview with the Ukrainian newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia in 2012 he said a recent work had sold at auction for €16,000 – a good price for the Ukrainian art market.
Dubovyk doesn’t like auctions, describing them as a “big business, where big money sets art trends and determines an artist’s popularity.” He regrets that many young artists become victims – at first they have brilliant ideas, but then try to make more money by using the same concepts and wear them out.
Dubovyk says being a Ukrainian artist can be a disadvantage. “Ukraine doesn’t promote its artists like European countries do,” he complains.
Other countries choose domestic artists for their top exhibitions, while Ukrainian galleries are less interested in the work of local artists, he says. But artists “create – despite the circumstances,” he says.
The upside is that it’s still possible for an unknown but talented artist to win fame in Ukraine.
Dybovyk says the secret of success in the art world is simple yet elusive. The world has millions of artists, he says, but only few of them manage to become successful. It’s usually those who create their own original style instead of emulating famous painters.
“We’re all born with some idea that makes our essence,” Dubovyk says. “To discover this idea is the only way to create something outstanding.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Anna Yakutenkocan be reached at [email protected].
