The Ukrainian Weekly, New Jersey, USA, December 1990
ART REVIEW: Halyna Nowakiwska paintings at Toronto foundation
By Christina Welyhorsky Senkiw
Once again, Toronto artist Halyna Nowakiwska has presented us with a treasure trove of visual delights. Her show of 32 medium-sized oil paintings opened on October 8 at the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation in Toronto. The works in this exhibition are executed with the skill and confidence of a mature, fully developed talent. Halyna Nowakiwska is an established artist who brings to her art a lifetime of experience and dedication.
Ms. Nowakiwska combines her personal interpretation of Expressionism with an eclectic mix of influences from Classical and Byzantine Art, Impressionism, and Ukrainian folk art. The result is the creation of a distinctive vision informed by the past, but totally contemporary in tone and style.
A striking characteristic of Ms. Nowakiwska's paintings is her meandering brushstroke. It is unique in that it serves not only as an outline, but also as a shadow, modeling forms in three dimensions. Her curvilinear brushstroke is perfectly suited for depicting natural forms, such as, flowers ("Gladioli"), grasses ("Evening Grasses"), and weeds ("Thistle"). Through the use of exaggerated curves, the leaves, stems and petals of her subject matter acquire a heightened emotional presence.
When used to describe human forms, in portraits and crowd scenes, Ms. Nowakiwska's line effectively recreates the irregular, unidealized shape of everyday bodies and imbues them with vibrating movement. Even inanimate objects, such as wood ("Flowers"), tapestries ('Irises") and pavement ("Rain") when touched by her paintbrush radiate energy.
The forms created by this brushstroke are variable and imperfect. Their frayed edges and patchy interiors ("Thistle") interact with and intensify the emotional expressiveness of the line. The constant flux of their boundaries ("Autumn") and doubtful solidity of their surfaces ("Two Venuses") reflect the inherent instability of the natural environment where the process of birth, death and rebirth is repeated into infinity.
Ms. Nowakiwska's compositions - still lives, landscapes, cityscapes, and portraits - exist in a relatively shallow pictorial space, reflecting her interest in Expressionism as well as her training in theater design. The apparent distances between foreground, middle- ground and background are dramatically reduced.
Flat surfaces, such as tabletops ("Café"), are tipped forward. Forms and figures are pressed so closely to the frontal plane ("Conversation") that heads, arms and objects are often cropped. Landscapes ("Winter") and cityscapes ("Rain") are arranged on a raked, stage-like surface.
The illusion of space is created not by linear perspective but by line, form, color and texture. Thick lines, large forms and bright, warm colors advance, while thin lines, small forms and dark, cool colors recede. Textures create movement within the pictorial space and thickly painted areas move forward, while transparent washes remain in the background. Ms. Nowakiwska also uses three-dimensional modeling in a very generalized way to suggest broad areas of light and shadow.
Ms. Nowakiwska has created a distinct and sophisticated style by taking lessons from the past and adapting them to her unique and contemporary sensitivity. The result is a personal artistic vision that is enriched by both her Ukrainian and Canadian backgrounds. It is a vision that strives to rise above the chaos of this century to create an imaginary, internal world of harmony and peace.
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