Liudmyla Bruyevych’s Graphic Art in the 1990s

Author

Lamonova Oksana

a Ph.D. in Art Studies, a research fellow at the Department of Visual and Applied Arts of the NAS of Ukraine M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics  and Ethnology

Liudmyla Bruyevych’s Graphic Art in the 1990s

Abstract

Female graphic artist Liudmyla Bruyevych is one of the most famous and popular domestic graphic artists. Yet, there is actually just beginning of scientifically studying the work of the new generation of Ukrainian artists, which has been fully formed after 1991. This article is in fact the first scientific publication on the L. Bruyevych’s work. In her graphic art, one can trace the influence of folk and naive art traditions, as well as the Ukrainian baroque, although at the same time, it is an organic, natural, and quite modern phenomenon. The artist’s favourite technique is etching; besides that, she also draws on watercolours.

Already in her early works of 1991–1992 (Night; A Girl with a Puppy; A Capricious Lady (all – in 1991); A Merry Song; An Evening Song; Anguish (all – in 1992), an original authorial style was formed, which combines epic and grotesque, poeticism and symbolism. Wherein an image is almost always supplemented by a calligraphic text, sometimes a quite large one. L. Bruyevych often refers to biblical images, but usually interprets them in a very original and unexpected way (The Holy Family (1991); There Was a Throne in Heaven with Someone Sitting on It; The Seventh Angel; The Whore of Babylon (all – in 1992); The Fourth Beast Was Like a Flying Eagle (1993) and others). The most complete of the artist’s early works is the etching Night (1992). In the mid-1990s, the female artist began to illuminate her etchings, using for this only four (sometimes two) watercolour paints (colours: alizarin crimson, emerald green, ochre, and gold). This added brightness and decorativeness to her works and strengthened their symbolic richness. In 1994, The Flower of Love was created, as well as the series Tranquility, which consists of five sheets (Cats; Mermaid; Three Fishes; Fish; and Vase). They can be considered the most characteristic works of Liudmyla Bruyevych. At the same time, in the artist’s subsequent etchings (Night Beast; Round Dance of Grass Snakes, or Infinity; A Prehistoric Animal, or Dragon (all – in 1997)), the tendency to geometrization gradually intensified, with the latter having finally prevailed in her etchings of the 2000s–2010s.

Keywords

Liudmyla Bruyevych, Ukrainian graphic art of the 1990s, etching, aquarelle.

References

1. TYTARENKO, O. «10 DESYATKA»: An Exhibition Catalogue. Kyiv, 2004 [in Ukrainian].
2. BORISOVA, Tamara. I Went Down to the Grove of Nut Trees (Intertextual Notes about Liudmyla Bruyevych’s Graphic Art). 1998 [online]. Available from: http://www.ofort.in.ua/LBrTexts/index.html [in Russian].
3. BRUYEVYCH, Liudmyla. My Trees Have Grown from Tiny Grains of Hope. In: Teodozia ZARIVNA, ed.‑in-chief, Kyiv, 2019, no. 1–2, pp. 184–188 [in Ukrainian].
4. BYCHKOVA, A. Freedom of Wandering Spirit. 2000 [online]. Available from: http://www.ofort.in.ua/LBrTexts/index.html [in Russian].
5. IVANOCHKO, Ivanna. The Combination of Green and Red is Indicative of the Temperament of Ukrainians. 2012 [online]. Available from: http://www.ofort.in.ua/LBrTexts/index.html [in Ukrainian].
6. LAMONOVA, Oksana. On the Verge of Beauty and Ugliness. In: Larysa IVSHYNA, ed.‑in‑chief, The Day, 2004, June 16 [in Russian].
7. LAMONOVA, Oksana. Travel through the Space of Soul. In: Volodymyr BURBAN, ed.‑in‑chief, Culture and Life, 2004, July 7 [in Ukrainian].
8. OSTROVSKYI, Ihor. Warm Wind of Memories In: Larysa IVSHYNA, ed.‑in‑chief, The Day, 2002, May 30 [in Ukrainian].
9. PANASIUK, Valeriy. Cats in the Opera. In: Art Line, 1998, no. 1, pp. 50–51 [in Russian].
10. PANASIUK, Valeriy. Because It Itself is A Nature’s Pattern... 1999 [online]. Available from: http://www.ofort.in.ua/LBrTexts/index.html [in Russian].
11. TARAN, Liudmyla. Rejoicing. 1998 [online]. Available from: http://www.ofort.in.ua/LBrTexts/index.html [in Ukrainian].
12. TARAN, Liudmyla. Prehistoric Symbols in Liudmila Bruyevych’s Etchings. In: Khreshchatyk, 2000, June 9 [in Ukrainian].
13. TARAN, Liudmyla. Dreams of Harmony and Time. In: Worker’s Newspaper, 2001, January 24 [in Ukrainian].
14. TARAN, Liudmyla. They Don’t Find Out, Who Are Head, Neck or Tail Here. 2002 [online]. Available from: http://www.ofort.in.ua/LBrTexts/index.html [in Ukrainian].
15. TARAN, Liudmyla. The Extraterrestrial Liudmila Bruyevych. 2002 [online]. Available from: http://www.ofort.in.ua/LBrTexts/index.html [in Ukrainian].
16. SHAPIRO, Olena. Childhood‑Inspired Symbols. In: Larysa IVSHYNA, ed.‑in‑chief, The Day, 2012, March 2 [in Ukrainian].
17. Available from: http://www.ofort.in.ua.