By Olena YAHODOVSKA, art critic
An exhibition of works by sculptor Anatoly Valiyev opened last Thursday
at the Soviart gallery. His sculptures combine the dignity and completeness
of the classics with the thinking of a modernist. The themes are highly
variable: from angels to dancers, and from Vrubel and Dante to Zerov and
Diaghilev. The geography of exhibitions and monuments he has left to cities
extends from Ravenna to Melbourne via Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo. On the
way, he got right into the history of modern world art by erecting a monument
dedicated to the memory of a Kyiv genius Oleksandr Arkhypenko.
The bronze, stone, wood, and marble of his sculptures harbor the imaginary,
rather than tangible, features of romanticism. The sculptor always finds
precisely the main plastic motive - a centripetal dialogue of shape - in
a soft and picturesque interpretation of form, the proportions and execution
of details, and general movement. The plastic concept of each of his sculptures
tries to resolve the eternal conflict between things, improvisation and
completeness, analysis and intuition.
Gothic and art nouveau, constructivism and postmodernism have
brought into his creativity the effect of complete conventionality, and
the sculptor's language of style has been enriched by "natural" rhythms
and "vitality." As an artist, Anatoly Valiyev rapidly overcomes the boundaries
of the influences that formed him, relying on the "sigh" of the last phase
of the expiring twentieth century and trying to remain the mouthpiece of
its plastic ideas.
