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The Ukrainian Weekly, New Jersey, USA, December 1990
ART REVIEW: Zenon Holubec - Works in Wood
By Christina Welyhorsky Senkiw
Zenon Holubec exhibited his most recent works in wood at the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation in Toronto from the 12 to the 24 of May.
Holubec was born in Lviv, Ukraine. From 1946 – 1949, he studied art at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and subsequently, from 1954-58 continued his studies at the Chicago Art Institute. Holubec has had 9 solo exhibitions in major art centers such as New York, Chicago, Washington and Toronto. He has also participated in numerous group shows throughout the northern United States. Zenon Holubec is a master of many artistic genres and has worked in graphics, illustration, photography, architecture and design. The artist currently resides in Glen Spey, New York, where he creates his works in wood in a beautiful studio situated on the shores of a secluded lake deep in the woods of the Catskill Mountains.
Zenon Holubec's exhibit was greatly anticipated in Toronto, and it did not disappoint. It was an impressive show of 54 beautifully executed low-relief works in wood designed to hang on the wall. Stylistically, the works range from overtly representational ("Roksolana") to almost pure abstractions ("Nature Study"), while thematically they encompass a panorama of Romantic preoccupation including subjects such as mythology ("The Poplar"), history ("The Princess"), nature ("Tree"), religion ("The Holy Trinity") and the female nude ("Aphrodite"). In such works as "A Woman of Lviv" and "Chornobyl Madonna", Holubec also addresses contemporary political and environmental issues.
Relief carving is a very ancient art form. Some of the oldest existing examples date back to Assyrian times. Traditionally, an artist carves directly into a material such as wood or stone, creating a composition characterized by a dramatic play of light and shadow over its flat, almost pictorial, surface. In the 20th century, both Alexander Archipenko and Jean Arp revolutionized this traditional approach by constructing and assembling work rather than just carving.
Zenon Holubec has created an original process of his own. He combines traditional subtractive carving and modern constructive techniques with an initial step of dissection. In order to establish the lines, which become the infrastructure of each composition, Holubec first sections the wood according to a previously designed pattern. Then each piece is individually carved so that its grain and three-dimensional proportions enhance the overall composition. Finally, all the pieces are fitted together not unlike an elaborate puzzle.
Zenon Holubec creates an absolute unity in his constructions through the rhythmical repetition of similar geometric shapes. Some of his favourite shapes are: crescents ("Bloom"), triangles ("Marine Composition"), elongated forms ("Tree"), wave-like shapes ("Nature Study") and chunky, cubist forms ("Still Life I").
Zenon Holubec's passion for wood strikes a responsive chord in every viewer. Wood is a material with deep historical resonances in the collective human psyche. Over countless millenia it has provided not only the essentials of life, but also has served as a universal medium for artistic expression. Numerous civilizations have explored the aesthetic possibilities of wood in an almost infinite variety of ways.
Zenon Holubec has chosen to emphasize the warm, organic nature of wood. The majority of his works are simply stained and polished to reveal the natural color and grain. The artist uses many different woods - cherry, chestnut, poplar, cedar, etc. - carefully matching the unique characteristics of each wood to the demands of a given composition ("Tango"). Some of Holubec's strongest works are those where he abandons literal subject matter and allows his material to speak for itself ("Nature Study Ill").
In a few of his constructions, Holubec uses a thin coat of earth-colored paint, dabbing it on selectively, to intensify the surface rhythm and draw the eye to a special focal point ("The Magic Fern I"). Other works are covered in a thick layer of black ("Black Lilly") or red ("Chornobyl Madonna") paint, which totally conceals the configurations of the grain. This allows the eye to concentrate more intently on the interplay of light and shadow created by the shapes and alignment of the pieces themselves. The black-painted constructions acquire a heavy, stone-like appearance and make a dramatic, brooding impact similar to Louise Nevelson's black "altars".
The art of Zenon Holubec epitomizes the dichotomy inherent in the works of artists with dual cultural roots. On one hand, the soul of Holubec's work is essentially East European, or more specifically, Ukrainian. His love for historical and literary themes, his lyricism and mystical attachment to nature, his perpetuation of icon art, are hallmarks of a traditional Ukrainian Romantic sensibility, which he inherited at birth. On the other hand, technically, the work is Western. Through his education and environment, Holubec has absorbed the analytical and experimental tradition of Western art. His pursuit of originality in the act of creation and his intense interest in the formal and material elements of his work are characteristic of modern 20th century art. By blending these two artistic traditions intelligently, Zenon Holubec successfully resolves the tensions of cultural duality and presents us with an exhibit of original, highly professional work.
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