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 robably,
every Master looks in his own way into the eternal mystery called the human
heart. Ivan Marchuk is a Master. Looking at his paintings you discover in
every one of them facets of your inner world. Ivan Marchuk’s pictures are
landscape-meditations that open another reality in our everyday world. His
still lifes - all those pears and pots - remind one of the hypothesis that
the Universe has originated from a female source. Marchuk’s pictures touch
new strings in one’s heart and make them vibrate gently and anxiously, excitedly
and movingly. |
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.Ivan Marchuk is a philosopher in painting, a painter who works hard. He believes that every day of work is the greatest gift given to man by the eternity. He continues to turn out pictures at a rate that has led some observers to call him “Ukrainian Picasso.” Marchuk’s own attitude to such comparisons is nonchalant, even ironic. He thinks that Marchuk should be compared only to Marchuk. He executes his paintings using a technique that he has invented himself. He calls his own style “dabbing-on.” When he sees raised brows of the person who hears this “term,” he explains: “I take a canvas, I take paints and brushes, and begin dabbing the paint onto the canvas with a brush. I keep dabbing on until I get a picture completed. I build it in a manner similar to the way a house is built.” Ivan Marchuk has been living in the United States for the past ten years. Two times a year he comes to Ukraine but does not stay long in Kyiv as he spends most of the time in travels going to many places in Ukraine, particularly to his native land of Ternopilshchyna. He is a devoted traveller, indefatigably itinerant. Paintings he has created in America are full of emotions. He groups them into cycles: New Expressions, Colourful Preludes and others. They resemble stained glass compositions on canvas, present forms without definite shapes. Only at the first glance these pictures seem chaotic. Marchuk does not view the world as being chaotic, there is another world that can be perceived in his paintings, the world of his thoughts, his subconsciousness. Every onlooker may find something that others would not see. Marchuk is very annoyed if someone asks him: What is it that you wanted to express by this picture? Ivan Marchuk considers his Voice of My Soul cycle of paintings to be his main artistic statement, his philosophical reflections in the form of paintings about life and destiny of man. Each painting is like a philosophical short story. A human figure that appears in some of the paintings always looks melancholy, forlorn and tired. Probably, the painter also believes that it is through doubt and through overcoming obstacles that we attain truth and lucidity? The artist confided to me that he liked all women, regardless of their age. Probably, that is why practically in all of his paintings one can see - or feel - the presence of Woman who gives life, joy and love, who inspires men to perform heroic deeds. His Blooming cycle of paintings seems to be a subtle hymn to womanhood. There is a sad note though that can be discerned in the paintings: they remind us that flowers and beauty will bloom when we will no longer be there to see it all. Every time he comes to Ukraine he brings over an exhibition of his paintings. |
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His last visit to Ukraine was not an exception in this respect. This year’s autumnal exhibition season opened with an exhibition of Ivan Marchuk’s paintings shown at Andriyivsky Uzviz. Looking at these pictures one feels the open or hidden presence of his native land. In many pictures one can discern hands emerging from the intricate interlacing of lines and colour patches. They are the hands of a creator, of a potter, of a sculptor, of an artist who creates a unique and chimerical world. The creator and his creation become one, inseparable. Marchuk and the virtual reality of his pictures are integrated into one whole. He invites us to take a trip through his world. Hromovytsya Berdnyk, a Welcome to Ukraine correspondent talks to Ivan Marchuk: WU: Mr Marchuk, you have created more than a thousand paintings,
it’s quite a lot. You must be working very hard. Do you paint only in
your studio? Do you wait for an inspiration? |
 Lost Flowers. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x90 cm. |
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Each of these places has its own
full set of all necessary things but the environment is different and it
gives me different moods. If inspiration comes to me when I’m travelling
I pull out my sketch book and make sketches. Some of them are realized later
as paintings. WU: What do you appreciate most in travelling - meeting new people, getting to know new culture, new customs, or the actual movement from place to place? Marchuk: No, definitely not travelling for travelling’s sake. I wish I could get from one place to another in a second. A spaceship would be an ideal vehicle for me. As is known, an artist gets new information through the eyes rather than through other senses. I love walking the streets and staring at the buildings, studying their architecture. I don’t care to go to museums. When I was in Paris I did not feel like visiting any museum, even the Louvre. I enjoyed looking at the architectural marvels of Paris. It’s such a wonderful city that I would not be able to live there. You can’t live in a wonderful dream, can you? WU: Was your decision to go to the United States and live there a whim or a purposeful move? How has the new environment affected your life and work? Marchuk: I went to the United States because in the Soviet Ukraine I was continuously subjected to harassment, I could not stand it any more, I wanted to find a place where I would be able "to hide and lick my wounds." It was a challenge. I did not know English, I did not know much about America, I had no friends there. But I managed to survive using my head and my hands. Now I can tell you that the United States and Ukraine are worlds apart. In America one begins to think of rest when one is well over fifty, everybody is working hard before that, and in Ukraine everybody seems to be having a rest. The same happens with me when I come to Ukraine - I can’t work. People come to visit me, I go to visit someone. Socializing with friends, sitting in the cafes, staring at beautiful women - and no work. |
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do nothing but work. But I can’t help being nostalgic. WU: You’ve been to many countries, you’ve seen the world. Where did it feel best? Marchuk: It felt best in Australia where I stayed the shortest time of all the places I lived in. I had been told over and over again that I’d become in no time the number one painter in Australia and indeed when I got there my works did have a great success. But I was not after money, I was not interested in making a smooth career. I wanted freedom, I wanted to see and to learn as much as possible. And I moved on, and it so happened that I dropped anchor in New York. Still my life style remains quite different from that of most Americans. I have my own life style, I enjoy independence and freedom. And I keep creating. WU: Does it mean that your style of painting has been affected by the United States? Marchuk: No doubt it has been affected. Firstly, I began using new media, new materials, and this in itself is conducive to starting a search for new creative possibilities. Secondly, there were a lot of new impressions from what I’d seen and experienced. My “dabbing-on” style I began developing in Sydney, continued in Toronto and completed in New York. WU: What do you think we, human beings, live for? Marchuk: Too difficult to answer a question like that. I know what an artist lives for. An artist has a special mission on this earth. He’s no right to live for the sake of just living. An artist is a beacon lighting the way and showing the direction. An artist is called upon to fill people with purity and beauty. Ivan Marchuk the painter and Ivan Marchuk the human being are two different creatures and Ivan Marchuk the human being has been sacrificed to Ivan Marchuk the painter. I’ve not married in order to devote myself entirely to my art. I’ve carved a niche for myself where no one can bother me and nothing can distract me from my work. That’s how I live in New York. WU: If you were offered to paint a picture which should be a sort of a message to all the people on Earth, what would it be like? Marchuk: Well, it should be a picture done in light shades, permeated with a spirit of purification that might help people get closer to the divine. I’ve always had an ambition to create a sort of a pantheon to which all kinds of criminals, washouts could come to get a spiritual uplift, and become purified. WU: If you had a chance of talking to the most important figures of our time, what would you tell them? Marchuk: Frankly, I don’t care to talk to any "figures." I like reading books, looking at paintings. I love talking to charming women even if I’ve never met them before. WU: And what’s your ideal of a woman? Marchuk: Every woman is an ideal. But I personally like socializing with clever women. |
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If a woman is beautiful like a doll with very few brains, even if she’s
a Miss Universe, I will not find her interesting enough to talk to. My
ideal…my ideal is a woman whom I’d wish to paint now, tomorrow, ten years
from now, fifty years from now, always. |
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