DATELINE NEW YORK: Ukrainian art works brighten area galleries (03/05/00)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Ukrainian art works brighten area galleries

by Helen Smindak

Like luminous stars in the celestial sphere, the work of Ukrainian artists continues to light up and brighten galleries around New York. Since the beginning of this season, one exhibition after another has revealed diverse talents, facets, styles, moods and media.

Last fall, Liuboslav Hutsaliuk's enchanting oil paintings, gouaches and watercolors of French landscapes and florals graced the Ukrainian Institute of America, taking viewers through five decades of this artist's work in Paris and New York. Historian/author Alexander Motyl's intriguing views of Manhattan were exhibited at Columbia University, where he recently completed a long stint as associate director of Columbia's Harriman Institute before joining the department of political science at Rutgers University. An exhibition of 122 photographs by the renowned scholar and art historian Hryhorij Lohvyn at The Ukrainian Museum documented many Ukrainian Baroque and wooden churches, church interiors, paintings, public buildings and castles created in Ukraine between the 10th and 18th centuries.

The work of artists born in Ukraine (but rarely described as Ukrainian) is included in the inventory of such prestigious galleries as the Lillian Heidenberg Gallery on Madison Avenue and the Leonard Hutton Galleries on East 57th Street. The Heidenberg handles works of the modernist sculptor and painter Alexander Archipenko (who, it should be noted, never severed his ties with his countrymen) and Kyiv-born sculptor Louise Nevelson, who constructed huge walls or enclosed box arrangements using found objects, cast metal and odd pieces of wood. Leonard Hutton spotlights the art of two Kyiv-born artists: painter, designer and theorist Kazimir Malevich, the first modern painter to work in a purely geometric, cerebral, non-figurative manner, and the avant-garde stage designer Alexandra Exter; as well as the Constructivist painter and graphic designer Vasyl Yermilov, who was born and educated in Kharki.

The artistic sensibilities of two sisters, Arcadia Olenska-Petryshyn and Chrystya Olenska, were highlighted in a two-week exhibit of riveting paintings and sculptures mounted at the Ukrainian Institute of America last month by the institute and the Daria Hoydysh Endowment for the Arts. Earlier in February works by several contemporary Ukrainian artists, among them Anya Farion, Peter Hrytsyk, Alexandra Isaievych, Yuri Lev, Olga Maryschuk and Stephan Tur, were included in the Gogol-Hohol festival initiated by the Yara Arts Group (see "Dateline," February 20).

Christina Saj's contemporary interpretations of Biblical themes from the Old and New Testaments, portrayed in large paintings executed in a wealth of bright colors and rhythmic patterns, formed the essence of the "Painted Portraits" exhibit that ran during February in the James Memorial Chapel at the Union Theological Seminary (Columbia University).

An exhibit paying tribute to one of Ukraine's most significant artists and architects, Vasyl Hryhorovych Krychevsky (1873-1952), is currently on view at The Ukrainian Museum. The show, which includes 79 oil paintings and watercolors, part of 300 works donated to the museum by Krychevcky's stepson, Vadym Pavlovsky, will run through March 26.

The treasure chest of art works for this season is far from depleted. Walter Hoydysh, the UIA's art curator, reports that an exhibit of recent paintings and works on paper by Serhij Haj and Ivan Tverdun of Lviv is planned for March 8 to 15, a weeklong showing of works by Orest Polischuk of Maryland will open on March 18, while an exhibit of work by Volodymyr Kovalchuk of Kyiv, now a resident of Toronto, will begin on March 29.

Shining ahead like an immense star is the promise of the Scythian exhibition and its extraordinary golden artifacts from Ukraine now touring the United States and scheduled to open at the Brooklyn Museum in October.

Krychevsky, an innovator

Paintings full of sunlight and air, characterized by a harmony of light and transparent hues, a joyous, sometimes pensive mood and a sense of intimacy, form The Ukrainian Museum's exhibit of Vasyl Krychevsky's artistry. Though small in size - they range from 3 3/4 inches by 5 1/4 inches to 7 inches by 12 3/4 inches - these landscapes of Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula proclaim the great love that Krychevsky felt for the beauty of Ukrainian scenery.

Through his favorite media, oil and watercolor, Krychevsky depicted village scenes, views of rivers, lowlands and steppes, cityscapes in Kyiv and Odesa, a potter at the market, daybreak on the Dnipro River near Kaniv - all distinguished by a decorative quality and typically local color. The majority of the works on display are oils executed on cardboard, board or paper, accompanied by a dozen watercolors and colored pencil items, some photos of architectural works and a few personal mementos.

Krychevsky's glowing miniatures are a treasured addition to the museum's bounties, for relatively little of the artist's prolific oeuvre - close to 200 large paintings, several hundred in medium format and several thousand small studies - has been preserved. Most of Krychevsky's best works were destroyed by fire in 1918, and later works were lost in the turmoil of the second world war, except for several dozen large works and some smaller works held by art galleries and museums in Ukraine, as well as a number of paintings in private collections in Ukraine, France, England and Germany.

A master of several painting techniques, Krychevsky also contributed greatly to the development of Ukrainian culture as an architect, scholar and teacher. Catalogue illustrations and introductory notes by museum director Maria Shust and Mr. Pavlovsky point out that Krychevsky's influence was felt through innovations he brought to various fields. He introduced distinctly Ukrainian design elements in modern Ukrainian architecture, such as the Poltava Zemstvo building (later known as the Poltava Regional Museum) and 19 other buildings, and set new trends in graphic design with his designs for bookplates, bank notes and the state emblem of the Ukrainian National Republic.

Believing that a book cover should be a composition in harmony with the book's internal appearance Krychevsky broke with the tradition of "pictorial" bookcovers, founding design principles that have been followed by other prominent Ukrainian artists. He also made an important contribution to cinematography, as art director for such historical films as "Zvenyhora" (1928) and "Sorochynskyi Yarmarok" (1939); designed sets for a number of plays and operas produced by the Sadovsky Theater and the Ukrainian National Theater, and created designs for kylymy, block-printed fabrics, decorative embroidery and other objects.

In addition, Krychevsky taught at the Ukrainian State Academy of Arts and the Kyiv Institute of Architecture, collected and studied examples of Ukrainian folk art, explored sources of Ukrainian folk ornament, and served on various committees dedicated to the preservation of historical monuments and the study of ancient Kyiv, yet still found time to write reviews, articles and several works for publication, including a textbook on Ukrainian folk art.

Two remarkable talents

Two sisters, one born in Ukraine and the other in Germany, both reared and educated in the United States, developed outstanding artistic careers that brought them critical acclaim and international attention.

Arcadia Olenska-Petryshyn, who studied with the renowned artists Robert Motherwell and William Baziotes at Hunter College, where she received an M.A. in art history (she taught the subject there and later at Douglass College), exhibited at the Bodley Gallery in New York during the 1960s and 1970s then internationally for more than 20 years. Her work is found in permanent collections in this country (Carnegie-Mellon University, the George Peabody Museum and the New Jersey State Museum) and in Ukraine (the national museums of Ukrainian art in Kyiv and Lviv, and the Dnipropetrovsk Art Museum), as well as in major public collections in the United States and in many private collections throughout the world.

Her younger sister, Chrystya Olenska, won fame from her teen years through a variety of creative pursuits, beginning with colorful papier-maché jewelry that was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York and reproduced in such leading national magazines as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Life and Look. Later, in her career as an artist/journalist/publicist, she was the art critic for Metromedia-TV News, then a reporter specializing in ethnic and international affairs for WPIX-TV News. Her publicity work included writing and developing features for The New York Times, the Daily News, Women's Wear Daily and numerous magazines. In the last years of her life, she focused her artistic endeavors on painting still lifes and landscapes, and creating expressive, grotesque papier-maché sculptures. Her work is permanently represented at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington and the Pepsico World Headquarters in Purchase, N.Y.

Many persons who attended the formal opening of the Ukrainian Institute's "Two Sisters" exhibition on February 11 recalled the two women with fondness and admiration. Both artists passed away in the prime of their lives: Chrystya at 38 and Arcadia at 62, leaving behind sorrowing friends.

Their mother, 90-year-old Maria Olenska, who came from Glen Spey, N.Y., to attend the opening, confided that she did not know where her daughters had gained their enormous talents, for neither she nor her husband had ever shown any artistic ability. Unperturbed by the throngs of viewers, she sat in a chair, proudly and calmly greeting visitors and chatting with old friends.

Ms. Olenska-Petryshyn's paintings included bold geometric oils depicting dwellings, shutters and cityscapes, and abstract works interpreting a crystalgazer and concepts such as escape and conversation with splashes of color. Her major works - oversized renditions of trees, plants and foliage that became her signature style, especially the cacti foliage of the American Southwest, which awed her - were stacked side by side around a large room, surrounding viewers with a makeshift jungle.

Ms. Olenska's work, mostly oils on canvas or wood, was characterized by intense, arresting images and dark, brooding colors, whether interpreting dreams and nightmares, or portraying floral and fruit still lifes. An exception was a work titled "Mother," an oil on canvas showing a young Mrs. Olenska in a bright red kimono seated beside a table holding a vase of bright yellow daffodils. In a work titled "Selfportrait," the face of Chrystya as a child peers through a dressing-table mirror adorned with papier-maché figures and jewelry.

A separate room was devoted to Ms. Olenska's life-size painted papier-maché figures - the haunting life-like figures of "Woman on a Swing," "Nude" and "Flasher" and smaller figures like "Baby in Play Pen." Regrettably, only two pieces of the painted papier-maché jewelry for which Ms. Olenska was famous were on display, although one of the two catalogues that accompanied the exhibit carried several illustrations of her exotic papier-maché dresses, as well as a bodice, necklaces, a chandelier and a wall mirror.

Ms. Olenska graduated with honors from New York University's art program, having entered as a Regents Scholar and a National Arts Council Scholar. She also studied at several private schools, including the legendary Alexei Brodovitch Design Laboratory.

Painted portraits

For artist Christina Saj of Bloomfield, N.J., reinterpreting traditional icons is a challenge that is part of her cultural heritage as well as a longtime personal fascination with spiritual objects and universal symbols. Using the formal and structural elements of icons as a departure point, she creates paintings in which symbols can be recognized and reinvented to reflect the character of the present time.

Nine of her contemporary interpretations of Biblical themes, on view last month at Columbia University's Union Theological Seminary on upper Broadway, gleamed with mystic Byzantine spirituality in the James Memorial Chapel. Filled with vibrant hues and grids of shimmering color that evoked the texture of ancient mosaics, the large abstract paintings stood out against the gray stucco walls of the gothic chapel.

To assist viewers' imagination, each work was accompanied by an illustration of the traditional icon and the Biblical reference that inspired it.

"Annunciation," a classic composition depicting the Angel Gabriel visiting the Mary, was rendered via oil on canvas in muted pastel tones and delicate patterns of light and shadow, reflecting the innocence, expectation and joy referred to in Luke 1:30-33, when the angel told Mary she would conceive and bear a son. "After the Flood," interpreting verses from Genesis through oil on canvas, depicts the moment when Noah's dove leaves the ark, a red-gold sun burns brightly in the sky and the flood waters have receded into the blue-green sea. In the 4-foot-by-8-foot painting "Eden," Ms. Saj utilized mixed media to portray a lush tropical landscape where Satan stands next to the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve having been banished from Paradise.

Hung above the altar place was a depiction of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, in the posture of prayer as it is portrayed in early frescoes and mosaics - the "orans" gesture, with both arms upraised - and with the medallion of Christ on her breast, also with his hands raised. This mixed media work, "Virgin Orans," portrayed Mary in blue and green robes against a yellow-gold background.

The exhibit received special attention during the seminary's noontime prayer service on February 8, when Ms. Saj joined parishioners, director of worship Dr. Troy Messenger, Jeanne Merkel and the gospel choir, directed by Mark Miller, in an inter-denominational "walking" meditation in the chapel. Hymn singing, scripture readings and responses centered around three works, "Transfiguration," "Virgin Orans" and "Faith Healers." Offering reflections on these paintings, Ms. Saj noted that she incorporated x-ray images of skeletons into the 4-foot-by 8-foot work "Faith Healers" (one of her earliest explorations into the realm of contemporary icons) as a reminder of ancient reliquary and a means of conjuring images of early prophets.

Previously, Ms. Saj's work was exhibited in New York in solo exhibitions at the Lobby Gallery and the Ukrainian Institute of America and in group shows at the American Bible Society and the A.l.R. Gallery. She has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in New Jersey, Washington, Chicago and Toronto. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College with a master of fine arts degree from Bard College, she has also studied at Oxford University's Wadham College and the Cleveland Institute of Art/SACI in Florence, Italy.

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