Ivan Marchuk is one of the few Ukrainian artists whose name is known even to people who are far from art. The painter is known all over the world – the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph once ranked him as one of the Top 100 geniuses of today. Many are fond of the works Marchuk has painted in his own technique known as “pliontanism” (from the Ukrainian “pliontaty” – “weave, knit”) because these pictures seem to have been made with closely interwoven threads. On the whole, the exhibit “Ivan Marchuk: a Genotype of Liberty,” now held at Mystetsky Arsenal, comprises about 120 very diverse artworks, including characteristic landscapes, philosophical and abstract pictures.
“AS IF I BROKE THROUGH THE SKY WITH MY HEAD...”
Ivan Marchuk compares his art to a tree: “The linchpin of my oeuvre, ‘The Voice of My Soul’ cycle, is like a tree stem. ‘Landscape’ is the first branch of this tree. Then I invented a technique and began to use it in painting. The second branch, ‘Blossom,’ is totally different. The third is ‘Colored Preludes.’ Then come ‘Portrait’ and ‘Still Life.’ I hated this genre, but I began to paint still lifes in my own style, which nobody else could do. Then came ‘New Expressions’ – the 500 works I did in America. They were followed by ‘White Planet 1,’ ‘White Planet 2,’ ‘Dreams Burst their Banks,’ ‘The Tenth Marchuk,’ a very integral 10th cycle ‘A Look into Immensity.’”
IVAN MARCHUK’S LANDSCAPES ARE PERMEATED WITH LIGHT. PICTURED: THE SPRINGTIME SUN COMFORTS US PAINTED IN THE AUTHOR’S OWN TECHNIQUE OF PLIONTANISM
The new cycle’s abstract works are not pliontanism. The author says it was difficult to do them because the technique is a true filigree: the spectator will see neither a brush stroke nor any lines – everything looks mysterious. Marchuk muses over his “Look into Immensity”: “About 50 works were done in the same style and technique. I even hang them next to one another. It looks as if I broke through the sky with my head and saw a big and fantastic picture. I ‘cut’ this picture into pieces and did this cycle.”
“I AM BOTH AN ARTIST AND A CURATOR”
The heroes of Marchuk’s figurative pictures often seem to be immersed in themselves and be reflecting on their existence – and the spectator begins to do this together with them. Requiem, The Birds Have Flown Far Away, Lost Flowers, We Walked without Knowing the Way – the very titles speak for themselves. His philosophical works sometimes move audiences to tears – the author himself likes to see people cry at his exhibits.
Marchuk’s landscapes are permeated with mystical lunar or joyous solar light. Thousands of touches weave, like thousands of tiny threads, into a single picture – pliontanism perhaps shows the author’s link with his father, a skilled weaver. “Ivan Marchuk has long wished to put on an exhibition at our place. He has painted a lot of winter-theme pictures, which somehow fits the mood of people after Christmas holidays. We had not planned this project well in advance, but we happened to have an opportunity to carry it out and Marchuk also wished to do this,” Mystetsky Arsenal director general Natalia Zabolotna says. “It took us about a month to prepare it. Marchuk was doing everything by himself, for he is always an artist and a curator at the same time. In principle, all that he suggested is now on display.”
“MY DREAM IS TO FALL IN LOVE”
The artist, who is going to turn 80 this year, is full of artistic plans. “The secret of my energy is that I have no family or a woman – I am very free. I eat salubrious, rather than tasty, food,” Marchuk says smiling. “And my dream is to fall in love. I’ve never been in love – my whole life is ahead of me.”
LOST FLOWERS (1995) IS A PICTURE FROM IVAN MARCHUK’S PIVOTAL CYCLE “THE VOICE OF MY SOUL”
The artist’s credo is the slogan: “I exist!” Absolute freedom and creation of a world of his own are Marchuk’s main principles in art. “It is only in my student years that I was a bit under the influence of others. Then I threw all this out and began to create my own art,” the artist emphasizes. Yet art is both happiness and drudgery for Marchuk. The artist once said he was chained to the easel like a slave to the galley and could not live a day without painting. This devotion and fanaticism is perhaps what gives Marchuk a full artistic freedom.
The exhibit “A Genotype of Liberty” will remain open at Kyiv’s art and culture museum complex Mystetsky Arsenal until January 31.
