VOLODYMIR TSJUPKO. SOLO EXHIBITION
The final exhibition of the project «Rik Mamayiv» fell on Volodymyr Tsyupko thus it seems to be even more symbolic.
Without a doubt, «Mamayi» played a unique role in the contemporary art of Ukraine, what is confirmed by the fact of holding the project itself in the «NT-art» gallery.
And this is symbolic because Tsyupko being 80 years old found himself in a difficult position for the artist but mastered his left hand and began to write with the other hand … and his paintings have become thinner in the color palette and even more. However, much thinner.
The shading in one light became vastly, the clearance is being applied – it is when another base or one could say savagery is being displayed. Looks like the strokes themselves became gentle.
Besides some of the paintings have gained the names (!), which allegedly contradicts the very ideology of abstract art. For example: the name «bigbord», I corrected automatically as «billbord», – but it is really the reduced «bigbord», because there are plenty of locations for other information or contents.
And the paint color. Look, bypassing the left exposure: here are 3 canvas: on the first one the white is cut/enclosed in greenish-blue mesh; the other one is with «almost circles» and the top of it looks like it is incised obliquely by the inscription, or «White dots on gold», where gold is not «gold» but gilding. There is a gentle sandy gray but it is not smooth. I`ll try to describe it as timid.
But immediately near is previous Tsyupko – bright, aggressive, such as an abstract expressionist should be. Red is divided there into carmine, karmazin, Indian red, cadmium, a little bit of legendary kraplak.
Then the canvas is either separated into four parts and each part is forced to play its single role or a tiny also red but of other colors contrasting square is inserted, «glued in», afterwards all the work is edged by yet different but still red color.
Here, as expected, the work is being done with visual perception of pure colors. The abstractionists color should work on its own, out of the symbolism, out of the associations such as the visual action.
History of Art reveals the fact that Camille Pissarro, over the years, began to lose his sight and therefore started writing even thinner and more expressive as a paradox.
For me personally, it looks very symbolic – it is placed as the central work where gentle lemon color is inserted in orange, actually «lemon inside an orange», but both are square-shaped.
For Volodymyr Tsyupko monumental painting was his bedrock: «The monumental painting has become a powerful impetus of creative achievements for Odessa modernists, a real laboratory of means and forms of modern art, the first liberated territory in officialdom»
Well and 80 years sounds like an anniversary!
Uta Kilter, art critic