Does contemporary art need a plot?

Mykyta Kadan’s one-man show at the Dim Mykoly [Mykola’s House] gives its own answer to this question. Defenders of the nonfigurative art would be disappointed with the presence of some narration in the works. However, they cannot deny the author’s advanced sense of color: all color spots in the paintings are perfectly coordinated. The artist also plays with textures: the canvas is either covered with many layers of paint or scratched to the prime coating. Though those willing to look into the plot of Kadan’s painting might blame him for treating it carelessly, they still cannot say that there is no plot at all. The author’s point is that we shouldn’t use strict alternatives but seek sense in another dimension.

It would be more appropriate to view the world through the eyes of a child, whose integral view notes the most essential things. Not by accident the Bible says, “The child’s mouth tells the truth.” The eyes of such an observer are present in almost every Kadan painting, providing it with transparent infantilism. They look at an equestrian portrait (what happened to its Napoleon-like magnificence?), or architectural sight with something recall portraits (some of them sticking out their tongues), or Rubens-style Baroque luxury powdered with dust. The author unambiguously claims his connotation to the established culturological signs, which he involves into almost game situations.

There is nothing openly farcical or entertaining here. Perhaps the seriousness of what is going on in real life, no matter how much chimerical its face, is the truth coming straight from the artist’s heart. A formal cause for this talk was a 1953 [Soviet] cookbook On Tasty and Healthy Food. The cooking theme has long moved on from books to more modern media, filling television channels and Internet sites and insisting that precisely this is the humanity’s major cause. “Is it?” the child asks in surprise, being spoon- fed with useful food and useful ideas.

One might say, what’s the big deal if the artist accidentally spotted this antique? I wish the fact of using the totalitarian materials was also a coincidence, but the art is more complicated than that. One could jocularly call the exhibition Totalitarian Cookery or say that now everything is different, with our welfare growing and democracy flourishing... However, the little boy from Mykyta Kadan’s painting doesn’t trust his own eyes, staying perplexedly next to a luxurious still life with bright-colored vegetables, fruits, and roast pig and not daring even to touch it.