Looking into soul... allowed
Kyiv contemporary art gallery Triptych ART presented the Self-Portrait project
The exhibition presented 32 works of Ukrainian artists, some of them created a long time ago, like Self-Portrait in a Fez by great Anatolii Kryvolap, painted in 1975. Some works were created specifically for the project.
“The idea to hold such an exhibition was there for a long time, but it was not possible to implement it before,” director of the Triptych ART gallery Tetiana Savchenko said. “When we offered people to take part in the exhibition before the New Year, many artists responded enthusiastically. The self-portrait is a panorama of the soul, a permit for ordinary people to look into the artist’s inner world.”
Serious, even severe, or happy and joyful – faces of dozens of men and women look at the viewer, become imbued with artists’ emotions, their energy. Artist Vladyslav Shereshevsky painted himself more than once.
“Self-portraits are easy to paint, since the artist knows themselves well. The artist portrays themselves often enough, because they want to record changes happening to them. Still, the artists paint themselves a little more beautiful than they actually are,” Shereshevsky smiled.
According to artist Olha Petrova, each self-portrait is written at a crucial moment of one’s life. Such works feature a person asserting or meticulously analyzing themselves. “Often enough, the artist ‘sacrifices’ themselves for the painting, surrenders to the plot and pushes their own personality away. The self-portrait is another matter. It reveals the artist’s naked soul,” Petrova maintained. “The Self-Portrait exhibition featured a very intimate, truly Kyivan atmosphere. The project reminds me of early 1960s exhibitions, which were held semi-legally, for example, in people’s apartments. Artists who exhibited then included Anatolii Sumar and Oleksandr Dubovyk who displayed their sincere, sometimes naive works. This exhibition is also very warm.”
Some of the self-portraits on show were ironic. For example, Oleksii Beliusenko attached to his portrait patch packages, which are covered with designs resembling the contours of the eyes. Artist Petro Lebedynets experimented by drawing himself with a ballpoint pen, although his element is painting. “I took part in a project once where pen drawing was a required technique. I liked it so much that resolved to do a self-portrait in this way as well,” Lebedynets told us. According to the artist, every time he makes a self-portrait, he learns something new about himself.
The chance to look at the artists through their own eyes is captivating. Self-portraits are discoveries even for friends and relatives of their makers. “We have been cooperating for 20 years with some artists who provided works for the project. I have long known these people, but after the installation of the exhibition, I caught myself thinking that I was finding something previously unknown in these artists,” Savchenko stressed. The gallerist is convinced that the artist is, despite all, honest with people, and even if they want to hide something, the true nature is revealed spontaneously.
