The exhibition is part of the Open Air Painting in the Crimea project. Almost 100 works by 25 artists recall their experience in the summer of 2012.
“Our museum has conducted open air events time and again, but this year, we have managed to organize as many as three trips to the Crimea,” art critic Iryna Aleksieieva told The Day. “The Kyivites were first to come and ‘made camp’ in Plotynne, a quiet village near Bakhchysarai, while the second and third trips attracted a few artists from Kharkiv and one Leopolitan, Serhii Hai. All of them are famous painters. They lived and painted for two weeks in a beautiful neighborhood of Bakhchysarai.
The Crimean project increased by near a hundred artworks the Museum of Modern Art of Ukraine’s collection. You know, on our return to Kyiv we have discovered that the paintings are too many to be all accommodated in our halls! Nevertheless, we will put them all on display even so, and they will occupy the third floor. These open air painting trips aimed to increase the collection of modern masters’ paintings. Such events are now very popular in the world. We are pleased that all the participants called the Crimean trips well-organized. The events were sponsored by Serhii Tsiupko, the founder of our institution.
It should be noted that we did not restrict the artists’ self-expression in any way. They are experienced people, and the works reflect their moods, their very personal impressions of what they have seen, the fantasies that have occurred to them during conversations and meetings. Most artists have become interested in the natural world of the Crimea and transformed it into various creative images. Some were inspired by evening conversations and debates that arose from time to time during the two weeks of our open air painting teamwork. The Art-Plotynnos exhibition includes paintings by Petro Lebedynets, who is considered a master of artistic insights and revelations. He sees the color as the main and only element of painting that is substituted for picture, volume, perspective, chiaroscuro.
Let me remind you that our museum hosted his solo exhibition from the middle of May to the beginning of June this year, and his works were part of the First Kyiv International Biennial of Contemporary Art ARSENALE 2012. Oleksii Yesiunin, Volodymyr Khmelnytsky, Mykhailo Popov, Serhii Hai and some other painters participated in the open air painting events, too. I would like to mention also the Kharkiv artists’ contribution. Their very interesting and diverse paintings are displayed here. Our exhibition provides an opportunity for the Kyivites and guests of the capital to see the ‘workshop’ where the art is created, to learn how artists work nowadays and what are their concerns.”
