The exhibition opening will take place on February 10. This will be the gift of the artist for her own anniversary.
Numerous works by the artist are kept in museums of Ukraine and Great Britain, Georgia and Israel, India and Japan, in collections of the Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and the National Union of Artists, as well as in numerous private collections scattered all over the world from Osaka to Toronto through Amsterdam and Budapest.
It is very difficult to talk about professional priorities of Olha Petrova. She is an artist and cultural scientist, Ph.D. of Art Criticism and Doctor of Philosophy, professor at NaUKMA, author of five books and 750 articles. The artistic method of the artist Petrova is expressionism, metaphorism, and non-figurative art. Her creative credo is coloristic painting – direct path to the vision of the “spiritual eye.”
The exhibition consists of five sections: “Province,” “Spain without Bullfights,” “Sisters of Samurai,” “Ukraine – the Garden,” and “East – Horizontal.” Each of the sections is a result of travels, contemplation, and impressions of Petrova, who is very sensitive to other people’s lifestyles, traditions, system of relationships and is capable of combining on a canvas her own national culture with something new she had seen. Each of these exhibitions was presented at different time in different parts of the world to the connoisseurs of art. Today, all of them being gathered together and seriously complemented present themselves as a whole, as if the artist is sending us a message about uniqueness and unity of our small planet.
“The color of each of the exhibition halls is determined not so much by visual chronotope but mainly by artist’s cultural reflections, vibrations of her soul, caused by her journeys over spiritual landscapes,” said Volodymyr Lychkovakh, curator of the Modern Art Museum “Plast-Art.”
The French province inspired Petrova, just like it did to her great French predecessors, with Antibes blue sky, green grass and sun light of the endless fields of Provence, and gothic lace of wondrous monuments of medieval architecture.
The subject of Spain is always unique for an artist, whose initial impressions of painting were based on admiring paintings by Diego Velazquez and Francisco Goya.
“For me the works inspired by Spain are the portrait of happiness and also thankfulness for the possibility to communicate with the audience through color,” Petrova commented this exhibition hall.
Meeting Japan – a country of a completely different but amazing culture, are extended in time for Petrova and go back to the 1960s. Every time they are complemented with positive discoveries and dramatic events in this country (this refers to the tragedy at the Fukushima nuclear power plant). The exposition of Japanese hall is based on both romantic and sad perception.
A rave of color of our country inspired the collection “Ukraine – the Garden.” Ivan Dziuba shared his impression from this exhibition:
“Crucifixion of Vyshyvanka and right next to it the dazzling beauty of Hutsul Altar are the dramatic counterpoint to the image of Ukraine in Petrova’s exposition.”
“East – Horizontal” is an appeal to the roots of the spiritual cradle.
“Here, on the hot sand takes place the meeting of Me and You and between them there is either God, the Holy Spirit, or a sense of how time weaves a thick web of its ways delegating new opportunities to the reality,” said Petrova.
Anniversary exhibition of works by Petrova is so emotionally and artistically intense that it is an unrewarding task to try conveying the impressions of it. It is sure better to go to the museum and see it for yourself.
