Content and Color – Indivisibility
The search for inspiration of the Ukrainian artist Oleksiy Shovkunenko in the Crimean lands.
The search for inspiration of the Ukrainian artist Oleksiy Shovkunenko in the Crimean lands.
Watercolor landscapes "Crimean Landscape" (1949) and "Sea near the Coast of Crimea" (1949) by Oleksiy Oleksiyovych Shovkunenko are exhibited in the Literature-Memorial Museum-Apartment of P.H. Tychyna in Kyiv, in the bedroom. Overall, most of the pictorial heritage in the museum-apartment belongs to the brush of Oleksa Shovkunenko. At every opportunity, Oleksiy Oleksiyovych presented his friend Pavlo Tychyna with his landscapes and still lifes, and these two watercolor works were no exception. The friendship between the artist and the poet began in 1935, a year after Pavlo Tychyna returned from Kharkiv when the status of the capital was transferred to Kyiv.
Oleksiy Shovkunenko arrived in Kyiv from Odesa to take up the post of professor at the Kyiv Art Institute. The two artists were friends with their families and vacationed together — this is evidenced by mentions in the poet's diary and numerous photographs. It is possible that the artists could have vacationed together in Crimea. Oleksa Shovkunenko is the author of two portraits of Pavlo Tychyna, painted in 1941 and 1966 on the occasion of the poet's 50th and 75th anniversaries.
O. Shovkunenko, "Sea near the Coast of Crimea" (1949); paper, watercolor
LMMK of P.H. Tychyna in Kyiv, KV 358 MR 380
Oleksiy Oleksiyovych Shovkunenko (1884-1974) is a representative of the classical school of painting, a master of watercolor, portrait, and landscape. Born in Kherson, he took his first steps in painting in an icon-painting workshop in his native city, and later studied at the Odesa Art School (1901-1908) under teacher Hennadiy Ladyzhenskyi. He received further education at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in the workshop of professor of historical painting Vasiliy Savinsky. During his studies under Vasiliy Savinsky, he became interested in the technique of watercolor painting, which was encouraged by his teacher.
Later, this technique would become the leading one in his work. A large number of watercolor works of the artist are presented in the museum-apartment. Oleksiy Oleksiyovych loved watercolor precisely as a "wet material." As the poet Hryhoriy Donets recalled (during his stay at one of Shovkunenko's open-air sessions): "...Once it was damp, an autumn drizzle. Poetic. But everything flowed in nature, and it flowed on paper too. Looking at this, Oleksiy Oleksiyovych said: 'Well, let it flow, only where we need it to.'"
O. Shovkunenko, "Crimean Landscape" (1949); paper, watercolor
LMMK of P.H. Tychyna in Kyiv, KV 336 MR 358
The presented Crimean landscapes harmoniously blend with other watercolors in the interior of the apartment-museum of Pavlo Tychyna, and through incredible symbolism recreate the images of beautiful poems from the "Crimean Cycle" written by the poet during his vacation in Crimea in 1926.
"...It has been evening for a long time. Features are like carved engraving. Fire burns above, and silently the cypresses loom..." ("Ai-Petri" 1926, Alupka)
"...Such wavelets, such rippling, - it seems, it seems, it seems, just now! - a shadow - and it is gone, only traces: a fish like a bow-arrow from the water..." ("The Beach" 1926)
The information was prepared by the head of the scientific department of collection and exhibition work at the Literary Memorial Museum-Apartment of P.H. Tychyna in Kyiv, Nesterchuk D.V.