Oleh Stukalkov’s one-man show, now on display at the Ukrainian Culture Fund, features landscapes. The artist is also a monumentalist, the author of books on architecture, a designer, and an architect, who was involved with the Independence Monument.
Yet, judging from everything, painting is his long-standing love. Stukalov’s landscapes are so crystal-clear that they could be described as photographic, if not for the negative meaning of this term, which is usually understood as cold torpidity rather than accuracy.
This is not true of Stukalkov’s work. On the contrary, his landscapes are filled with warm lyricism and enticing mystery (Old Villa and Old Park). Some of the themes that enchant the artist were found during his long travels abroad (Lisbon Courtyard, Renoir’s Garden, Paris, A Street in San Lorenzo). His other landscapes portray scenes closer to home (Dacha, Windmill in Romanivka), while others are right in the neighborhood (Ruzhyn Sink), reports Oksana LAMONOVA.
