A meeting of Rembrandt and Van Gogh

Works by artists aged five to 30 were presented at an exhibition, which also included a performance. Young students from one of the art schools in Cherkasy recreated works by renowned artists and presented different artistic trends and movements. The list of artists included Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Francisque Duret, Rene Magritte, Kazimir Malevich, Raphael, and Francois Boucher. Thus, it featured representatives of different periods.

The specificity of this exhibition was that one could see where the young artists started from and what they finally achieved. One could see how the artist’s works changed as they matured. The majority of paintings presented at the exhibition was made by the students of the art studio Gloria. There were also works by students from the Cherkasy National University and graduates of Lviv and Kyiv art schools. The organizer of the exhibition Asia Hontsa told The Day that the idea of this project appeared when a young father brought his little daughter to the art studio Gloria and asked whether teachers there remembered how 20 years ago they were little kids themselves and how they began drawing.

“In these years a new generation has grown up, the country changed. But real values never change. Teachers always remember their students. The sun always shines on children’s paintings. The most important is that every year new talents knock on the doors of art schools,” Hontsa said.

The exhibition was set in the main hall of the museum. There are paintings, graphics, photography, and sculpture. By the way, together with sculptures made of bronze and wood there also were sculptures made of paper and thick felt. While paper sculptures would not surprise anyone in Cherkasy, as Hontsa has done many solo exhibitions where she presented her mastery in that branch, the sculptures made of thick felt caused widespread amazement.

Yevhenia Ruda, an artist from Kyiv, has been making bright things of thick felt and wool for two years now. By using soap, water, and wool she makes hair accessories, bracelets, and also small sculptures. She says that she learned this on her own and only looked for information on the Internet. The technique she uses is called felting.

“I became interested in this technique. But in the process of mastering it, I added some things from myself. For example, I began to look for other forms and discovered that at one point felt becomes similar to clay. One can use it for modeling. When it is felted and wet it becomes very yielding and easy to model. Then it is easy to mold it into any form, and it will become tender when it dries up, but it won’t lose its form,” Ruda explained.