2 June – 23 July 2023
In the diversity of modern Ukrainian sculpture, the work of Mykola Bilyk can be called an indicative and at the same time original phenomenon. Distinguished by the breadth of its range - monuments to historical figures, sculptural compositions in the environment, easel works in various materials (bronze, marble, ceramics, wood), exquisite works of small plastic - it combines various stylistic components in its images and artistic language: academicism and secession, a wide range of directions of world modernism of the beginning of the 20th century and constant interest in Ukrainian traditions - from ancient times to folk art and national baroque. And also – the diversity of the plastic itself, where in some works the traditionality of the static volume and clearly delineated forms are preserved, in others – the texture of the surface and the expressive decorativeness of the silhouettes prevail. In the artist's work, there are both socially significant works and purely lyrical compositions, meaningful generalization and a certain "spatial narration", where the peculiarities of the sculpture are revealed during careful, unhurried contemplation. What is unifying? Perhaps, that "community in diversity", which is defined by a purely aesthetic dimension: harmonious integrity and balance, moderation and balance, a sense of the material and its imaginative possibilities...
The creative path of Mykola Bilyk, which began in the 1980s, included both the complexities of artistic self-determination that occurred in the late Soviet years and the innovative processes of "perestroika", which captivated the artist with a wide movement of sculptural symposia, of which he has been an active participant for the past decades, and involvement in restoration of monuments that return its lost pages to Ukrainian culture, and modern social processes related to the topic of national memory... The artist's creative position is characterized by a special "social component", which prompts him to join nationally important actions. Among them is the work on the monument to Mykhailo Boychuk's school - "Near the apple tree. In memory of the Boychukists", the project of which is presented in the exposition.
However, no exhibition of an artist, especially one who has been actively working in the public space for decades, cannot contain all his works, present all his ideas. The exhibition at the National Museum "Kyiv Painting Gallery" focuses on several themes that are central to the artist: national history, which he addresses in monuments and easel sculptures, nature as the basis of human existence, which is revealed through human figures and plastic forms, and sculpture itself is an amazing form of art that contains the range of the author's imagination and a special understanding of space, the "materiality" of the artistic expression and a strange "changeability", where the viewer, light and time become the co-author of the artist.
Curator: Halyna Sklyarenko.
The full price of the ticket is 200 UAH.
