The Ukrainian Applied Folk Art Museum hosts an exposition by Vasyl Korchynsky, member of the National Artists Union of Ukraine.
Vasyl Korchynsky is a professional painter and graphic artist, currently specializing in the traditional vytynanka paper-clipping technique. He inherited a fancy for it from his mother. She would often tell the boy take a closer look of what drops from a tree, it may turn out even better shaped than what you’ve just carved. Vasyl was the fourth child in a peasant family, but as he grew he would often visit museums and exhibits, showing special interest in folk art.
His latest works are especially expressive, combining the newest forms with the folk Ukrainian basis, manifest primarily in ornaments peculiar to the central Right Bank regions (southern Kyiv and Cherkasy oblasts, as well as Podillia), in balanced geometric, vegetative, and animal elements, and in oblong forms with openings in between.
His paper artworks are mostly religious, often portraying the Tree of Life, it being an age-old tradition in Ukrainian decorative art. Also, stars, the sun, domes and temples, grain, the tryzub (trident), Easter eggs, flowers. This explains why almost all of Korchynsky’s exhibits are titled “From Folk Sources.” He believes that people must be aware of the author’s concept and feelings; only then will every work be duly appreciated.
