Hare And Wolf 1988

Curator: Oleg Holosiy created "Hare And Wolf" in 1988 using oil paint. It's a fascinating composition. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: Brooding. Definitely evokes a sense of foreboding with that shadowy landscape and the creatures' almost menacing expressions. I see fragility and latent aggression, all swathed in murky colors. Curator: That resonates. Holosiy came of age in the Soviet Union during Perestroika. So, it’s critical to understand that cultural context. It shaped how artists related to historical themes, using them to examine shifting power dynamics. Editor: Exactly. The figures here—ostensibly a hare and wolf— feel like symbols loaded with allegorical weight. The darker colors and brushstrokes lean into a style echoing German Expressionism which means that these are no innocent animals but projections of inner states and cultural anxieties. Curator: I think you're spot on. The "Hare And Wolf," might reference longstanding cultural narratives but with a twist that reflects the anxieties of that time. He studied stage design at the Kharkiv Art Institute and it definitely has the feel of a theatrical production about it. Editor: Right. And I am reading an updated parable here: that the predator/prey relationship is perhaps not so simple, that these two creatures share some kind of fate under this heavy, yellow sky. Look at how similarly they are depicted – almost like distorted reflections of each other. Curator: And both encircled, perhaps trapped within their roles? He's questioning fixed social hierarchies, using the traditional landscape genre as a stage to set up these existential dramas. There is certainly an element of societal commentary embedded in the use of universally recognizable figures. Editor: Agreed, that their shared circumstance speaks to a potentially destructive, overarching force that shapes their identities. There's this sense of something inescapable bearing down on them and it also makes me wonder what this work tells us about ecological anxieties relevant then and now. It is definitely powerful. Curator: Absolutely, it brings us into a powerful exploration about what was coming, as well as the ways identities can be shaped by historical forces. Editor: A striking visual encounter and great reflection about a time that was anything but quiet.