Several dozens of works by artists from Odesa are exhibited in the exposition room of the Kherson Oblast Artists Union. After a visit to Mykolaiv nearby, the organizers of the exposition from Odesa decided to continue their trip across the south and make a stopover in Kherson. The presentation of some of the best examples of the Odesa art school in the neighboring regions aims at establishing a cultural dialog with colleagues and show the works of original artists exploring a variety of styles.
The exhibit “Odesa’s Artistic Traditions” enables the audience to see Odesa and the world through the eyes of the artists from this southern city. A large part of the exposition is made up by landscapes and sketches with perceptible influence of plein air painting traditions with an admixture of urban and marine motifs.
“The key trend of the art space of Odesa’s modernism is the maintaining of the artist’s individual perception of the world. The theme of existence became its leitmotif: the existence of man as a unique personality in the surrounding world, co-existence, participation, sympathy. In the conventional artistic space of painting and drawing, created by the artists, the authors’ mental and psychologic experiences are concentrated, embodied in universal, timeless ‘formulas’ or instant emotions. The expression of composition and color urges the viewer to sympathize,” says Anna Nesenko, Ph.D. in art history and member of the National Union of Artists, in an annotation to the exhibit.
