Gurzuf 1981

Editor: Here we have Volodymyr Loboda’s “Gurzuf” from 1981, an acrylic painting. It immediately strikes me as a vibrant, almost aggressively joyful cityscape. All those sharply defined shapes...what’s your take on this piece? Curator: It is in these vibrant juxtapositions, in the geometric abstraction, that we can begin to decode Loboda's visual language. Note how he flattens the perspective, compressing the spatial relationships within the picture plane. What does this choice communicate to you? Editor: It feels almost claustrophobic, despite the open seascape implied in the center. The sharp lines create a sense of unease. Curator: Precisely! The tension you perceive stems from the dissonance between the representational subject—a coastal town, presumably Gurzuf—and the abstract forms used to depict it. He employs a limited palette: the primary hues dominate, heightened by contrasting blacks. Does this intense colouration remind you of any particular movement? Editor: It has a Fauvist quality, doesn't it? The way color is divorced from its descriptive function and used expressively… Curator: Exactly. And by breaking down the representational forms, the houses, the sea, the sky into geometric planes and applying colour in this non-naturalistic way, Loboda directs our attention not to Gurzuf as a specific place, but to the formal relationships between line, colour, and shape themselves. Editor: So, it’s less about the city and more about the relationships within the painting itself? Curator: Precisely. Loboda uses the recognisable form of the city as a armature upon which to explore the formal elements. Look closely, how does his method engage or depart from those early modernist approaches? Editor: That makes so much more sense. It seemed a little chaotic, but now I see a definite structure beneath it all. Curator: Indeed, seeing past immediate recognition, we arrive at something far deeper. The artist has done so much to allow viewers the experience the sublime through pictorial construction and composition.