A Sketch of a Mosaic Panel for Decorating the Exterior of a House on the Brest Litovsk Highway in Kyiv 1968

Editor: This is Valerii Lamakh's "A Sketch of a Mosaic Panel for Decorating the Exterior of a House on the Brest Litovsk Highway in Kyiv," created in 1968, using mixed media for a mosaic. The color palette is so vibrant. What immediately strikes me is its blend of figuration and abstraction, with this almost dreamlike quality. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Ah, yes, Lamakh! To me, it feels like peering into a collective dream from the Soviet era. This wasn't just decoration, it was visual poetry embedded into everyday life. See how the cosmonaut ascends, framed by stars and then the suggestion of progress with the three figures in the lower plane: science, labour and progress all built in a uniquely Ukranian voice of defiance against the party line through abstraction and narrative. Isn't that exciting? How do you react to these points? Editor: The blend of tradition and this very modern subject of space travel is really intriguing, also your point about Ukrainian identity coming to the fore. Almost as if it wanted to escape the everyday realities of that time, searching for a way to make the regime’s narratives a bit more human, with feeling, instead of pure propaganda. Curator: Precisely! The piece pulses with that tension. The mosaic medium itself lends to the sense of something built, brick by brick but on dreams: isn't there an interesting dance between individual components and greater visions? Also remember at that point Soviet art and architectural theory advocated the synthesis of arts for communist aesthetics. So where is the feeling, in practice, of the mosaic? I see a push and pull, and isn’t the pointillist style unexpectedly progressive, too? Editor: It is unexpectedly vibrant, very much! I now think the pointillism amplifies that sensation of something built but simultaneously alive and energetic. I missed that the first time. It shows the possibilities in public art and how one could smuggle nuance and meaning past official narratives. Curator: Exactly, and a hopeful view for what’s to come. And now I think I am more interested than ever!