Apart from the key benevolent mission — with some of the proceeds of the sales of canvases being used to assist Ukrainian orphans and Chornobyl victims — the charitable auction also turned into a major cultural event and yet another serious project in a series undertaken by L-Art Gallery to represent Ukrainian art in Europe. For the gallery and its manager Liudmyla Bereznytska, the auction would become the last step for quite some time in featuring a traditional figurative creative trend, since Ms. Bereznytska had made up her mind to focus on Ukrainian contemporary art.
How did you conceive the idea of holding that auction in Ostend and who organized it?
Bereznytska: We have been taking part in the LineArt Show, one of the major events of its kind, held in the Belgian city of Ghent. This display has attracted considerable public attention, which meant that holding other art exhibits in Belgium was quite logical. After several years of being active in Belgium this way, we made friends and found enthusiastic audiences. They encouraged and financially supported our idea. Among our partners were the Rotary Club of Ostend, Flemish Senator Didier Ramud who likes Ukraine, and of course the Ukrainian embassy in Belgium as well as the Ukrainian mission to the European Union. The auction was organized by Peter Luks, owner of the largest Belgian auction house. In all, the exposition featured 100 small realistic canvases, including genre compositions, portraits, and landscapes contributed by Yefy Vasburh Petro Slieta, Yury Tolpekin, Yury Zorko, and other artists.
Was the auction a success?
Bereznytska: We sold one- third of the pictures on display, a good result in Belgium as well as in Ukraine. Also, considering that the pictures painted by artists unknown to the Belgian public were offered prior to the bidding, one might say the auction proved to be a spectacular success: the very fact of all those canvases being purchased signifies the international recognition of Ukrainian art. Two weeks before the auction, the lot of canvases was presented at one of Ostend’s largest art galleries. This Belgian resort city attracts thousands of guests and tourists from all over the world. For many it was the first opportunity to familiarize themselves with Ukrainian art. In other words, L-Art Gallery once again reaffirmed its status as a full-fledged representative of Ukrainian art outside Ukraine.
For the gallery, the Ostend auction was an extremely important event. We represented our art in Belgium and our gallery had made quite some progress focusing on that particular creative trend over the past decade. We returned to Ukraine satisfied with the outcome and immediately proceeded to transform the gallery as a contemporary art venue.
So you did, a quick and dramatic change. How would you explain it, considering that L-Art Gallery won its popularity precisely because it had dealt with socialist realism, a trend being the direct opposite of contemporary art, the latter known for having proposed innovative trends, sometimes precisely the opposite to certain traditional thinking about the tendency of the movement in art?
Bereznytska: I won’t deny the importance of socialist realism in terms of museums and private collections; moreover, I’m sure that it will become even more popular, but I also know that time never stands still. The situation on the art market has undergone a fundamental transformation during the decade of our work. Increasingly often, we meet people in our nation’s financial and political elite that is being formed, people who seem determined to surround themselves with contemporary artistic values, ideas, and objects. That’s precisely why I think we should continue to produce works of contemporary Ukrainian art, helping it reach outside its narrow-professional creative environs and win broader audiences. The gallery has patterns of dealing with various art agents, and we’re making adjustments, considering our new tasks. Besides, I don’t intend to reject working with realistic art; in fact, I’m planning shortly to open an L- Art Classic Gallery on Andriyivsky uzviz.
All right, but we all know that most Ukrainian collectors habitually trust traditional art trends more, as the costs are not only determined, but also seem to always appreciate. How do you propose to persuade them to trust contemporary art?
Bereznytska: It all depends on a given collector’s preferences. If he wants to buy an objet d’art just to add to his assets in the future, there’s little chance of guiding him into the contemporary art vein. Collecting contemporary art is more of a gamble in terms of investment. The twentieth century presented us with a multitude of examples when chancing to acquire a canvas by a contemporary artist made the owner a millionaire and a provincial artist into a world star. However, our arguments in defense of contemporary art touch on something else. We tend to seek devotees eager to adopt a modern lifestyle, something you can’t have without modern ideas that often manifest themselves in various contemporary artistic forms. Take, for example, Mamontov and Tretiakov who shaped their collections using contemporary artists.
Which Ukrainian artists do you intend to cooperate with?
Bereznytska: Only those we’ll have reason to regard as promising creative and sufficiently professional individuals. The rest will depend on us, on how convincing we are in representing their attainments at world contemporary-art-oriented institutions.
I am also aware that art galleries alone won’t be enough. We intend to enlist other full-fledged art agents, as well as critics, patrons, managers, and experts.
Our gallery, acting in its new capacity, started the new season with a retrospective exposition dedicated to the Ukrainian trans- avant-garde classic Oleksandr Roitburd. His is a universally acknowledged name these days, so we regard the carrying out of this project as an extremely important milestone for us. Dealing with accomplished artists is not the only path to follow. Even now gallery experts are busy looking for new names.
What other projects does your gallery intend to present after Oleksandr Roitburd?
Bereznytska: We have practically finished preparing our exposition schedule to the end of the year. As for subsequent projects, we are negotiating several and we’ll try to combine sponsored projects and one-man shows. I won’t mention any names at this stage. The main thing is to create a situation in which contemporary will be able to reach beyond its narrow professional boundaries, becoming something broad audiences will be interested to explore.
We’ll present the Recognition of Carmapa project in October. It is meant to prove that dialog is possible between ritual Buddhist art and modern Ukrainian artistic reflections dealing with the subject.
