The curator of the exhibition Ihor Oksamytny hosted a roundtable discussion where friends and colleagues of Lymariev talked about the complex, dramatic period in the history of national art in the 1970s and the 1980s, which was exhausted under the pressure of ideological dictatorship, about artistic honor and responsibility of Lymariev in artistic work and before laws of morality in such difficult situation.
After the exhibition in 1988 Lymariev’s paintings were preserved by Hanna – daughter of the master, and some “longed” in the funds of the Union of Artists. At last they are again on display. Lymariev’s sun was brought back to us. Sun is the main character of his paintings. Friends, who knew the art of the master in the 1970s, as well as the young generation of artists, and new audience, have been stunned with the high level of master’s professionalism.
Lymariev was a true admirer of sun. He died on November 6, 1985 as one of the victims of the era of stagnation. Works of the artist, their richness of color did not fit into boring canons of socialist realism. Authorities in the sphere of art in the 1970s and the 1980s brutally avenged master for independence of his talent. In art Lymariev’s pagan (heathen) worship of the sun mingled with the simplicity of banal plots. Women are stoning plums, an old lady is sitting on the staircase of the porch, while her grandchildren mess around in the dust heated by the sun. What could be more ordinary? In the shadow of the hay stack women are resting and mowers are dining. But on each canvas figures and landscapes glow with bright red and crimson colors, while blue paint and piercing emerald-green highlight the hot tones.
In the painting Village Breakfast (as well as in many others) the artist looks at the sun up close, he is in intimate relationship with the sun. It was not enough for him that active light and shade conveyed solar light in the room. It was not enough for him that he painted shadows with intense orange paint, it was still not enough for him that the illuminated details of the interior were painted in lemon, strontium color and the curtain on the window trembled from the tension of the pink and white-and-orange passionate stokes. This entire color splendor seemed not enough for Lymariev to convey a sense of the meeting of the figures in the paintings with the sun. With the fearlessness of a child, who is not afraid to get burned, he put the blazing orange sun into the upper frame of the window and he scattered the gold of sunrays over the modest group of people dining. Presence of the sun at the peasant table seemed so natural for the mind and magic paintbrush of Lymariev.
Lymariev at first worked in his native Donbas but in 1974 he debuted in Kyiv with his composition Spring. He was full of hope, joyful enthusiasm, and trust in colleagues. His spring landscape sparkled in the light and blue shades of the renewed world. Those who defined the fate of artists in Ukraine at that time, turned away from that window and from the spring of the artist with regret and annoyance. After all, next to his palette of colors the paintings of the “generals of art” looked like faded wallpaper.
Ordinary artists tormented him with isolation, humiliated him with lack of money, half-starved existence, and they also declared Lymariev to be insane. But he still painted every day! Tactical ideas and personal welfare were not important for him. Purity of his thoughts, his artistic position, and creative perfectionism were a constant reproach to those who worked on the principle of “what the authorities want?” Lymariev escaped into painting from the social cynicism and cruelty. “Let everyone know what he is responsible for in art,” often repeated Tosha (friends gave him this nickname). Current exhibitions and time – the cruel censor, have proved that Lymariev already then in the 1970s was responsible for the immortality of his own paintings.
He enjoyed working on his trips to Donbas the most. Sunburnt steppe and warmth of countrymen – shepherds, miners, and fishermen always inspired him. He painted their portraits and vast space over the grass of the steppes. Romantic artist, who was in love with the beauty of the land and the pristine purity of the color, was able to correlate one with the other. Lymariev is often called Ukrainian Van Gogh. We can talk about the testing and the tragic end of life, but first of all it is important to look at their combination in daring look at the sun, in the ability to create a “portrait of the sun.”
Those who frequently visited the Lymariev’s studio saw how the artist worked for many years on each composition, returning to it again and again. It was not even a dialogue, but an infinite love story with paintings, treating them like living beings. And at the same time, in every composition there is stunning looseness, almost impossible for any other artist limited with rules of some school or canons. Often the paint from the tube in pure form was transferred to canvas and then through magic work of the artist it turned not only into some color but it became alive, vibrant flesh of the world. Plot was simplified but the color palette was enriched.
Lymariev is unique as a very tense person, who individually felt the cosmism of the world, as well as the beauty of its small entities: rose shrub, acacia flowers, and modest stories of people’s lives. He never founded and, in fact, was not able to found a school because he was unique. Just like Vrubel, he himself was the beginning and the indisputable conclusion of his art. Lymariev presents a separate page in the history of art, a comet, a star, a phenomenon addressed to people. But his talent of coloristic boundless space now belongs to all of us in his canvases. And this will stay with us forever!
