On October 8-14 the Kyiv-based Bottega Gallery hosted the exhibit “Seeing in Colour,” organized by the British Council in Ukraine. The gallery’s guides explained that the works were selected from a vast collection of British artists’ works. The exhibit’s bright colors produces quite a strange impression on you, as you enter it after gray and drab streets. I, for one, felt like visiting some faraway land with shiny sandy beaches, though definitely not the British Isles. Neither the eyes nor the mind were prepared to see such art. Obviously, it was the intention of the organizers to produce this effect — to make the audience understand what one can be deprived of. “Seeing in Colour” showed a colorful world of images, which the British artists presented in quite an abstract manner.
At the same time, the exhibit roused ambiguous feelings. Some works were considered primitive by many visitors. During our talks, we mentioned galleries in London which are of quite a different scale. Homo post-sovieticus takes life too seriously, which is why visitors were drawn back to The National Gallery in London, where such colors could be found as well. Yet there is a good cause: “This is what we missed. At least twenty years of such art. It was graphics and colors which were absent in recent domestic art works,” explained the guide.
That being said, the paintings on display reminded those created by kindergarten-age children. Can we appreciate kids’ works and develop their skills? Can we understand the truth that children’s eyes see in color? This is what the quest for the Truth encourages us to do, and this is what the British artists prompted us to do with their art. Free the child within you and visit this exhibition in Lviv on October 18-24, at the Center for Urban History, 6 Bohomoltsia Street. On October 17 at 4 p.m. the center will also host a lecture by Amy Pettifer.
