Vasiliy Ryabchenko

Vasiliy Ryabchenko (born 23 July 1954, Odessa, USSR) — painter, graphic artist, photographer, author of objects and installations. Ukrainian postmodernism representative, one of the leaders of «New Ukrainian Wave».^[1]

Personal life

Vasiliy Ryabchenko was born on 23 July 1954 in Odessa in the family of the Soviet graphic artist Sergey Ryabchenko.^[2]

His art education begins in 1966 in an art school.

In 1969, he entered the painting faculty at Grekov Odessa Art School.

Vasiliy Ryabchenko. "Flowering time", 70 х 75 cm, oil on canvas, 1987

Vasiliy Ryabchenko. "Samson". From the "Heroic babies" series, 80 х 60 cm, oil on canvas, 1989

From 1974 to 1976, studying as an auditor in the Mukhina School of Art in Leningrad, and on his return to Odessa - acquaintance and friendship with Valentin Khrushch and the Odessa "nonconformists". During this period, he actively experiments with photography. The main subjects were non-stop objects still-lives,^[3] later - a combination of objects and bodies,^[4] in the layout of which the artist used the "voidness" and asymmetry inherent in the Eastern tradition.^[5]

From 1978 to 1983 he studied at the Ushinsky South Ukrainian Pedagogical University at the art-graphic faculty, where his teachers were Zinaida Borisyuk and Valery Gegamyan^[6].

In this period he starts actively participate in artists group that appeared in Odessa: Lykov, Nekrasova, Roitburd, Ryabchenko, who declared themselves in the late 1980s with the exhibitions "After Modernism 1" and "After Modernism 2". The group, little known in the official artistic environment and unrelated to the unofficial nonconformists group, held two major resonant exhibitions on the territory of the state institution - Odessa Art Museum. Large formats, themes and subjects of the works did not remain any visitors indifferent. There was effective support among urban intellectuals, journalists, young entrepreneurs who created and maintained the first Tirs Contemporary Art Center in Odessa.^[5]

In 1996, Vasiliy Ryabchenko founded the creative association "Art Laboratory". In the same year he received the prize and the title of "The Best Artist of Ukraine" following the results of the first All-Ukrainian Art Festival "Golden Section" in Kiev.

Vasiliy Ryabchenko lives and works in Odessa.^[7]

Art

Vasiliy Ryabchenko. "The Death of Actaeon", 200 х 300 cm, oil on canvas, 1988

Vasiliy Ryabchenko. "Big Bembi", installation, barrels, linear lamps, deer horns, 1994

Vladimir Levashev (in Russian) singles out several periods in the work of Vasiliy Ryabchenko. The artist's early works, dating from the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, are distinguished by the synthesis of "western" and "eastern" approaches to pictorial art - almost "english" aristocratic asceticism the language organically flows into the Chinese "dance of a brush", restraint is balanced by freedom and ease.^[5]

In the second half of the eighties Vasily Ryabchenko imbued with the transavantgarde ideas. But if in general the Ukrainian transavantgarde appealed to the aesthetics of the Baroque, Ryabchenko's works at this period of time could be more simply described as the "new Rococo". For "transavantgarde" Ryabchenko, peculiar by programmatic emptiness and adjusted aestheticism, frivolous playfulness and mechanistic combinatorics. As an example of the works of the second half of the 1980s - "Cats", a story about two cats-rivals. In the subsequent version, made during the period of the final aggravation of relations between the two superpowers that led to the collapse of the USSR, the plot changed its semantic context due to a change in the size, color, manner of writing and title - "Deterrence".^[8]

The "Rococo line" is also traced in Ryabchenko's subsequent works, up to and including which were made recently. The artist is still committed to the passions of the nineties. It seems that the "inspirationally irrational "recomposition" of the motives of his own yesterday's creativity" acquires the character of a delusion. However, obvious changes are taking place within the narrative. It becomes more emotional and slightly confused. There are notes of irrationalism and anxiety. Pastoral carelessness sometimes gives way to reflection and growing drama.^[9]

Selected exhibitions

The list of exhibitions is given according to the artist's website, 2018^[10]

Museums and collections

Vasiliy Ryabchenko. "Daphne", 200 x 150 cm, oil on canvas, 1989 (Odessa Fine Arts Museum Collection)

References

Bibliography

1. Museum collection "Ukrainian Contemporary Art 1985-2015 from private collections" / Art Arsenal - Kiev, 2015. - p. 52 - 53
2. Contemporary ukrainian artist. - Rodovid, 2012. - p. 136 - 143
3. Myth. Ukrainian Baroque / National Art Museum of Ukraine. - Kiev, 2012. - p. 39, 161
4. All-Ukrainian Triennial of Painting, Kyiv - 2010 / National Union of Artists of Ukraine. - 2010. - p. 37
5. Ukrainian New Wave / National Art Museum of Ukraine. — Kiev, 2009. — p. 164 - 171
6. Visual art. From avant-garde shifts to the newest directions. The development of visual art of Ukraine of the XX-XXI century. — Modern Art Research Institute — Kiev, 2008. — p. 119
7. Modern art of the times of independence of Ukraine: 100 names. - Mysl. - 2008. - p. 536-539, p. 640
8. Odessa Regional Organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine. - Grafikplus, 2006. - p. 117
9. Farewell to arms / Art Arsenal. — Kiev, 2004. — p. 67, 121
10. Portfolio. The art of Odessa in the 1990s. Collection of texts / Soros Center for Contemporary Art-Odessa. - Odessa, 1999. - p. 13, 15, 22, 24-26, 36, 52-53, 60-65, 164-167, 294-301, 312
11. Ukrainian art of the 1960s - 1980s. - Soviart. - Mammens Bogtrykkeri A / S. - p. 9 - 20. p. 88 - 89

External links

• Official website
• Vasiliy Ryabchenko at the WikiArt
• Vasiliy Ryabchenko at the homepage of the "Golden Section" auction house, Kiev, Ukraine
• Vasiliy Ryabchenko, participant of the exhibition "Cold Faith", Invogue Gallery, Odessa, Ukraine, 2017
• Interview of Vasiliy Ryabchenko for Khudkombinat, 2016
• Interview of Vasily Ryabchenko for ArtUkraine, 2011