NEW YORK – The exhibition “Prints and Paintings by Bohdan Borzemsky: Retrospective” at The Ukrainian Museum celebrates Bohdan Borzemsky (born in 1923 in Kolomiya, Ukraine) by showcasing a selection of works that represent the various styles and aspects developed by the artist during his long and prolific creative career. Curated by Olena Martynyuk, Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers University, the exhibition will be open to the public from September 17 through February 25, 2018.
Over the years, Mr. Borzemsky developed several distinct styles that have become facets of his creative aesthetic. His solid education in painting and drawing – received both in Ukraine and in the United States – enabled the artist to become fluent in a wide range of themes and techniques: from portraits to still lifes and landscapes in oil, acrylic, and watercolor, as well as woodcuts and color prints produced using his own paper-cut technique.
A moderate modernist, Mr. Borzemsky balances a decorative approach and pure painterliness with certain realistic details in his expressive images of flowers, birds, mountains, wood churches and Hutsul people dressed in national attire.
Untitled seascape (1960, oil on canvas, 18 x 28 inches, collection of the Ukrainian Museum and Library of Stamford).
Mr. Borzemsky was always true to his regional Carpathian culture, but he was also devoted to the preservation of the larger Ukrainian cultural heritage, which is not accidental given his instruction by Mykhailo Osinchuk at the Lviv Academy of Art during World War II.
Byzantine icons, at once universal and modern, and mosaics, widespread in the Byzantine-rite churches of his Ukrainian youth, were both sources of inspiration for Mr. Borzemsky. The influence of this ancient and exquisite art form was particularly evident in Borzemsky’s work after he moved to the U.S. in 1947 and graduated from the graphics department of The Cooper Union in New York in 1951.
“Cat on a Table” (1957, oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches, collection of Chryzanta Hentisz).
The Borzemsky retrospective includes paintings and prints on loan from the Ukrainian Museum and Library of Stamford, Conn., works on loan from the artist and other private collections, and from the permanent collection of The Ukrainian Museum.
The Ukrainian Museum is located at 222 E. Sixth St., (between Second Avenue and The Bowery), New York, NY 10003; telephone, 212-228-0110; e-mail, [email protected]; website, www.ukrainianmuseum.org.
“Grasshopper (1968, woodcut, 11.5 x 17 inches, collection of the Ukrainian Museum and Library of Stamford).