With the comprehensive support and personal initiative of the rector of the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”, Professor Volodymyr Onyshchenko, the personal exhibition of the Ukrainian-American artist, abstract artist as well as oil and gas professional Max Vityk “Warriors of Light” was opened in the Poltava Mykola Yaroshenko Poltava Art Museum (Art Gallery).
The event attracted the interest of many Poltava residents, artists, educators, representatives of the intelligentsia and guests of the city. Among the guests were Metropolitan Fedir, head of the branch of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine Yurii Samoilenko, employees of other Poltava museums, artists, and the scientific community. The audience was intrigued by the fact that in his works the artist explores both figurative and abstract art, inspired by his geological knowledge, they were interested in the place of abstract art in the future and even the materials with which the artist works. And the public is also attracted by an interesting fact – a Ukrainian artist who combines creativity with a rather specific profession as a geologist in the oil and gas field. Max Vityk does not have a traditional academic art education and works in the field of spontaneous painting, relying on the creative experience of iconic American, European and Ukrainian artists.
The official opening of the exhibition took place in the main exhibition hall of the museum. The installation of the new exhibition and the preparatory process were personally supervised by the director of the art museum, Olha Kurchakova, and the head of the scientific exhibition department of the Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Gallery of Art, the curator of the exhibition Andrii Rybka.
“After the successful charity project that we implemented in May at the Centre for Contemporary Art of the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”, when more than a thousand visitors saw “The History of the Planet Earth” and a series of author’s works called “The Outcrops”, Max Vityk discovered our wonderful city. And with great pleasure he returned with a new art project.
A mega cool event in the cultural life of Poltava took place! We did it!
“Warriors of Light” is an emotional trace from the Revolution of Dignity of 2014, imprinted in the artist’s mind. Max Vityk was amazed by the people’s explosive energy that reigned on the Maidan at that time. The series gained particular importance after the start of a full-scale invasion. The location of the paintings, the light, the atmosphere, the design of the space – it’s all worth seeing live and feeling the whirlwind of emotions that these impressive works cause, which, at first glance, seem simple, but in a moment make you look into the deep meanings of social upheavals.
Max Vityk broke into the artistic space of Ukraine at the end of the stormy 90s, after a brilliant geological career in the USA. Today, art critics call him a philosopher, symbolist, dramatist of the plot lines of all his works.
In my opinion, Max is a true revolutionary in art.
Thanks to everyone who came to the opening! I especially thank Metropolitan Fedir, who also visited the opening and gave his pastoral speech, affirming our unshakable faith that light will definitely overcome darkness.
I thank Max Vityk and everyone involved in this project. It is certain that, thanks to such creative cooperation, the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” once again confirms the status of a classical university, not only a powerful educational and scientific centre, but also an artistic oasis, where modern artists and our students feel comfortable, for whom the Centre for Contemporary Art is a true creative laboratory.
I am proud to be involved in the creation of artistic actions in Poltava and to open our city to creative communities! I invite everyone who wants to see the new modern Ukrainian art!” – commented the rector Volodymyr Onyshchenko.
“Artist Max Vityk created his cosmos. Translated from ancient Greek, “cosmos” means not only the world, but also beauty. Undoubtedly, pictures evoke primarily positive emotions. You want to look at them, consider them, they draw you in. I was especially impressed by the central picture – “Warrior of Light”. It is really impressive, my gaze always stopped on it.
I don’t understand anything about modern art. Perhaps this is the essence of modern art, that you don’t need to understand something, you should just perceive it emotionally.
Once, I was very sceptical of the painting “Black Square” by the Ukrainian artist Kazymyr Malevych. I thought it was some kind of mockery of the viewer when the artist just drew a black square. And when they explained to me what the issue was, I realized that it was a brilliant work. Each artist tries to recreate reality in his painting, perhaps looking deep in order to convey not only the external, but also the internal, spiritual side. The painting can be as close as possible to reality, but we understand that it is a canvas, paints, lines, and therefore the artist’s picture is not superimposed on reality, it is still a symbol. And what is the “Black Square”? This is a manifestation of the fact that reality and the artist’s symbols have coincided in the painting, this unity has finally been achieved.
It seems to me that in all these paintings the artist’s emotions were expressed most and most deeply, and they coincide with our feelings. What the author put into the picture coincides with what I felt.
Thank you for this event. It is very amiable that such events are taking place here, that our Ukrainians, living in America, think about Ukraine and create for Ukraine.
Today, all Ukrainians, wherever they are, should work, think and cogitate for Ukraine. And may God help us in this,” – wished Metropolitan Fedir.
Acquaintance with the painting style of Max Vityk took place in an open dialogue with visitors and during an autograph session with catalogues.
The artist himself called the exhibition in Poltava one of the best among those already held in different parts of the world.
“Today is a fantastic day. I am very pleased to see many people in this hall, it is nice to see this incredible exhibition. I want to thank from the bottom of my heart all those who helped me make this event in Poltava.
I’ll be honest, this is the best exposition I’ve ever had. I showed these paintings in many countries: in the USA – New York, Miami, Texas, in Europe. And this is the best one ever. I really like that these works are not on the walls, but seem to be floating in the air. That’s how I imagined it when I painted these works. I also like the idea of the arrow arrangement, that the works narrows and the focus goes to the central painting – “Warrior of Light”.
One of my dreams came true – I am here in Ukraine. These works were really written for Ukraine, under the influence of the events on the Maidan. It so happened that these works were exhibited outside of Ukraine and I dreamed of bringing them here and showing them to Ukrainian cities. And my dream came true. These works, just before the war, reached Ukraine. I showed them in Kyiv, Lviv, but my dream was to hold an exhibition in such cities as Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Lutsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, and in Melitopol, Mariupol when we liberate them. If you dream about something, it will definitely come true.
These “Warriors of Light” are charged with the same energy that I received on the Maidan. Art is a weapon, and the fact that these works are here now proves that it should be as so,” – shared the artist.
The main thread of Vityk’s fine art is the pathos of naive visions. In the “Warriors of Light” series, the artist “modernized” the archetypal mystical material in order to transfer modern events to the plane of the eternal struggle between good and evil.
Canvases from the “Warriors of Light” series were exhibited in various countries of the world, survived a missile attack on the historical centre of Kyiv during the exhibition at the National Museum “Kyiv Art Gallery” and returned to Ukrainian viewers. Twelve large canvases, created between 2013 and 2015, describe the revolutionary events that the author experienced during his stay in Ukraine, as well as being inspired by the “Arab Spring” in the 2010s. The artist said that while working, he thought about the people he saw in Kyiv at that time – “recklessly brave, naive and pure, almost like children”. Parts of myths, traditions and understanding of universal non-mythological whimsical images of people, animals and plants can be guessed on the canvases.
It should be recalled that in May, Max Vityk’s charity art project “History of the Planet Earth” was held at the Polytechnic, and before the opening of the “Warriors of Light” exhibition, the artist staged a performance at the university.
Recently, the university held a charity historical festival “LEGIO Historica”, the participants of which mastered the techniques of creating Kahovka “stone vyshyvankas” during a workshop at the Poltava Polytechnic.
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