Oleksandr Dubovyk: a Modern Master on Display in London

A special highlight of Kyiv Art Sessions, the June 28-30 festival at Old Sessions House in London, will be the exclusive exhibition of artist Oleksandr Dubovyk – a significant figure in the history of Ukrainian modern art and avant-garde.

The exhibit will present Dubovyk’s works from 2022 to 2024 – in particular the work “Postulate,” which decorates the poster for the London visual arts and music festival.

The festival, organized by the Ukrainian Cultural Center Dom Master Klass and the charity organization Art Shield,  aims to popularize Ukrainian art in Great Britain.

Dubovyk is a tireless ambassador of Ukrainian culture. He is an artist-philosopher, whose heritage belongs to the European artistic tradition.

Born in 1931, he received a classical academic education. In the mid-1950s, he attended the Kyiv Art Institute. After graduating from the institute, he became a realist.

“However, from the mid-1960s, serious transformations began to take place with me,” he told Kyiv Post.

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“I was required to receive pure joy from creativity. From the end of the ’60s, my works stopped being taken to exhibitions and this continued for several decades. So I was destined to focus on what I considered important for myself.”

It was a very difficult period for him. He discovered information about what was happening in the modern art world, engaged in self-education, found American, Japanese, Swiss, English, Italian art magazines which got through the Soviet information blockades.

“I formed an idea of the current artistic process,” he said.

At one point he tried to set fire to his works.

“But it wasn’t a protest action,” he said. “In the mid-’80s, when I moved from the workshop near the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to another workshop in Obolon, I stood at a loss in front of numerous canvases that had to be packed. I didn’t know where to store them... I just despaired of having to drag all this somewhere again. So I put them in a pyramid in the courtyard of the workshops and set them on fire.”

Fortunately, his wife Ira suddenly appeared and grabbed them from the fire.

Asked about the situation in Ukraine, Dubovyk said: “Everything that is happening now is both a challenge and a fantastic opportunity. We saw ourselves not as tiny ants, but as owners of our destiny. Our art, our way of seeing... I think Ukraine will pass this exam and a great future awaits us.”