The exhibition of the legendary master, the well-known “sixtier” Iryna Levytska was launched at the Museum of Modern Art of Ukraine. More than 50 works in different techniques are on show in two rooms. This is the 26th solo exhibition of the painter, and it will last until the end of June. The exhibition includes the artist’s most recent works, mostly painted this spring: Apple Blossom, Siren, Irises and The Apple Tree Viewed from a Window.
Her earliest works are the most distinct. These include Levytska’s earliest series of paintings Kyivan Rus’ (with the ancient gods Veles, Perun, and Yarylo painted on cardboard) and several more recent oil paintings. To start this project, the artist had to visit many Orthodox churches in Ukraine and Russia, beginning with the Solovetsky Islands. The exhibition also includes series of paintings Reading Lina Kostenko, as well as works that were created during Levytska’s travels. Two series stand out: the first was painted during her stay in Germany, while the second was inspired by the music of Schubert, Mozart, Wagner, Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Leontovych, as well as writings of Gogol and Hoffmann.
“All my life, I have favored the subject of Gogol and Hoffmann,” The Day was told by Levytska. “Although the distance between the two authors is one hundred years, their psychology, life preferences, financial poverty coupled with the creative wealth, mystery and mysticism of their works — all this makes both masters very similar in my opinion. So, I have used the painting of Hoffmann’s cat Murr for my exhibition’s poster. This painting is my grandson Danylo’s favorite, it is also the best representation of the exhibition’s diverse topics.”
Let’s recall that Levytska began her career as a monumental artist. Though some may have forgotten it, but it is her vivid panel that decorates Poshtova Ploshcha subway station; she embellished Kontraktova Ploshcha and Lisova stations of the Kyiv Metro, too. Levytska’s stained glass panels are on show in the museums of Lesia Ukrainka, Taras Shevchenko, Maksym Rylsky and several others.
On the whole, the master has created more than two hundred monumental works that decorate public buildings and museums throughout Ukraine. She worked in hard times. As a fragile girl she had to spend hours working on walls, even when the frost hit. She describes these times in her book Carmina Burana: Wheel of Fate, or 30 Years of Hard Struggle for Monumental Art. This is Levytska’s second book, the first one, All That’s Mine I Carry with Me, was an autobiography. To have All That’s Mine I Carry with Me published, the artist’s daughter, chief designer of the National Opera of Ukraine Maria Levytska had to spend her entire Shevchenko Prize. The painter’s family has lived in Kyiv for three generations. Her grandmother and mother were actors, and Iryna also appeared on the scene as a child. During World War II, Levytska experienced the terrible Nazi occupation. Along with many other Ukrainians, she was taken to Austria against her will... Levytska started her studies at the Kyiv Art School before the war and resumed them at the end of hostilities at the School of Applied Arts in Vienna in 1944 through 1946. In Ukraine, she continued to hone her professional skills at the monumental art department of the Lviv Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts (now the National Academy of Arts), where her teachers included the great Bokshay, Sylvestrov and Selsky. Subjects that the artist once worked on for her monumental productions, she then developed in painting and graphics. Levytska created series of watercolors, lithographs, and linoprints History of Kyivan Rus’, as well as paintings that reflect on the works of Nikolai Gogol, Taras Shevchenko, Lesia Ukrainka, Mikhail Bulgakov and other classic authors.
In recent years, the master began painting portraits, landscapes and flowers. Many of her paintings represent a philosophical view of life, which is sometimes fantastic but also, a bit mysterious.
“I saw a lot of completely new works here,” the artist’s daughter Maria Levytska says with surprised look. “My mom is very good and modern painter. Only look on her shades of purple! I can’t do this! My mother has so many works left at home that one can host another exhibition. And how many more she would have painted if she had not spent 30 years creating monumental art! I am proud of her skill and talent.”
Indeed, the exhibition presents only a few of the artist’s works. Levytska has donated a lot of them to museums and exhibition halls. Thus, the Kurbas Center keeps a portrait of the legendary director painted by Levytska, while the Museum of Performing Arts has as many as 35 of her works! These are portraits of Ukrainian and Russian stage directors and actors in iconic roles. The artist received the International Hulak-Artemovsky Prize for these portraits. By the way, she donated to the Museum of Modern Art six works which are on show at the exhibition. Despite her age, the artist continues to work in various techniques of painting and graphics. “If one is able to create, they are still young,” Levytska stresses. “I work almost every day. I want to die like Titian did, 90 years old and still painting!”
