In the late January of this year, “Profile,” a traveling retrospective exhibit of leading Transcarpathian painters and sculptors, was opened in Miskolc, Hungary (see The Day, No. 5, January 28, 2016). The exposition comprised 71 artworks by 31 authors who represent diverse varieties, genres, and styles, and are members of various associations. Among them are Volodymyr Mykyta, Ivan Brovdi, Ivan Shutiev, Zoltan Michka, Vasyl Svaliavchyk, Stepan Sholtes, Borys Kuzma, Olena Kondratiuk, Ivan Didyk, Frantsysk Erfan, Borys Korzh, Laslo Madiar, Vasyl Vovchok, Attila Kopryva, Natalia Sima-Pavlyshyn, Andrii Ivancho, and others.
Since then, connoisseurs of high style in three more Hungarian cities – Debrecen, Budapest, and Erd – have had an opportunity to see the works of the Silver Land’s outstanding maters of the paintbrush and the chisel. On September 10 this original traveling gallery reached its final point – Kosice, Slovakia, a city that bore the status of Europe’s Cultural Capital in 2013 together with the French city of Marseilles.
The Slovaks staged the exhibit at a modern gallery of the city’s Kulturpark art complex located in the former army barracks which architects had turned into an ultramodern culture park complex to host cultural events in 2013.
“The idea of holding this exhibit of Transcarpathian art in Hungary has long been in the air, but it became possible to realize it only now thanks to the efforts of Hungary’s Consulate General in Uzhhorod,” Frantsysk Erfan, director of the Transcarpathian Yosyp Bokshai Art Museum, writes in the preface to the specially published catalogue “Roots and Crown: a Profile of Contemporary Transcarpathian Art.” “It is impossible to overestimate the importance of such exhibits from the angle of free communication, as our artists are looking into the problems and achievements in the European Union’s cultural space and trying to see our place in it.”
“Cultural exchanges are very important events, for, except for personal links between some artists, there are almost no systemic and high-profile events that would help the nearest neighbors acquaint with one another’s contemporary art, and we must jointly work on this,” said Laszlo Vida, Hungary’s Vice-Consul in Uzhhorod, who opened the exhibit together with his Kosice counterpart. “In response to the presentation of Transcarpathian artworks, we are planning to show next year the works of graphic artists from Miskolc and postmodernist artists from Erd in Uzhhorod and Mukacheve, as well as in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Chernivtsi oblasts.”
The exhibit in Kosice will remain open until September 25. Meanwhile, Lviv and Chernivtsi have already expressed a wish to see this traveling exhibit.
Transcarpathia’s fine art gurus will be in the spotlight again on September 15. According to Borys Kuzma, head of the regional branch of the National League of Ukrainian Artists, Kyiv’s Central House of the Artist will host the opening of a festive exhibit organized by the League’s Transcarpathian branch to mark its 70th anniversary.
