Tetyana Honcharenko
Foreword by The Ambassador of Ukraine
The exhibition of the paintings by Ukrainian artist Petro Magro in Great Britain is very important for art lovers. Petro Magro, who celebrated his 80th birthday on 22nd June 1998, is a representative of the traditional landscape painting of Ukraine. His paintings have been admired during previous exhibitions of "Art from Ukraine" in Great Britain.
It is another meeting of the British public with Ukraine – a country that culturally, politically and geographically has been a part of Europe from ancient times. But its connection with the European culture was artificially disrupted with the invasion by Tatar-Mongols and the decline of ancient Ukraine-Russ; Ukraine was divided between several European countries. Rich and original Ukrainian cultural heritage during the long period of lost sovereignty was hidden or enlisted to another culture. In spite of this, Ukraine has always preserved its cultural identity. The jovial paintings by Petro Magro are the evidence of this.
With best wishes in creative success to the artist and thanks to Danusha Fine Arts, the organiser of this exhibition, for its noble endeavour in the promotion of Ukrainian art in Great Britain.
Volodymyr A. Vasylenko Ambassador, Embassy of Ukraine
Petro Magro by Tetyana Honcharenko
Most people, in order to escape the stress of their whirlwind lives, seek respite in the open air. They travel to romantic sea shores, to mountains, to tranquil lakes and gently flowing veers in the countryside. These are the places where they can recover balance and restore heir peace of mind, to enable them to return to the affairs of everyday life, taking with them some remembrance of the simple beauty of nature...birds singing, blue skies and the sweet fragrance of flowers in a meadow...
So it was perhaps, many centuries ago, that people began to create still-lifes and landscape paintings, so that they could decorate their homes with these 'nature portraits' to relate to their thoughts and needs. This powerful impulse still prevails and the desire to recapture the simple yet profound beauty of nature is Petro Magro's passion.
Magro was born 22nd June 1918 in Dnipropetrovsk in the southern part of Ukraine. At the age of 12 he graduated from Dnipropetrovsk Art College, having benefited from the eaching talents of artists like Olexandr Kuko, Volodymyr Korveyev and Mychailo Panin who himself was an apprentice of Ivan Repin. The college had a very high regard for realism in all its forms, particularly drawing and painting.
From 1948 onwards he actively participated in various exhibitions, changing media as the years progressed. Around 1960 he was to be found working in pastels, yet from 1985 he returned enthusiastically to oil painting.
Petro Magro is a highly regarded and distinguished artist and has exhibited widely in many countries, and his paintings can be found in museums in Ukraine and Russia, as well as in private collections in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, USA, Canada and Australia. In 1964 he became a Member of USSR Artists and received the title of Honoured Artist of Ukraine in 1996.
The Ukrainian School of Landscape Painting, of which Magro is a celebrated member, was formed in the second half of the 19th century and is closely linked with the names of Volodymyr Orlovskyi, Serhiy Svitoslayskyi, Ivan Pohitonov, Petro Levchenko and Serhiy Vasilevskyi. They all created epic landscapes which demonstrated an impressive ability to make colour really express moods and feelings.
The development of Ukrainian landscape painting was driven more by a desire to create images than merely to provide a photographic record. This approach is frequently seen in the works of 20th century Ukrainian painters like Volodymyr Kostetskyi, Karpo Trochymenko, Oleksiy Shovkunenko, Illya Shtilman, Dmytro Shavykin, Lev Kramarenko and many others.
As for Magro himself, he is essentially a lyrical artist who finds a form of poetry in everyday life, his views of nature being simple and spontaneous rather than contrived. As a master of the emotional, Petro Magro believes that the main purpose of the artist is to faithfully reflect the conditions and moods of Mother Nature herself. We see quiet evenings, radiant summer mornings and autumn scenes amidst a veil of rains. All is peace and calm. The painter's skill with perspective allows him to solve the timeless problem of rendering wide open spaces within the confines of canvas.
On the subject of colour, Magro tends to avoid the more active aggressive hues, choosing instead the soft connections of close colours. Winter scenes are painted in silver, blues and soft mother-of-pearl tones. He is inspired by the almost fairy-tale like delicacy of each branch, and bushes and grass have a frosty silver lace-like quality. Another aspect of nature that is meat and drink to Magro is its very drama, the endless transitional nature of weather, the sea before the storm, the steppe before the thunder and his favourite theme – the first snows of winter. In these paintings we see bright yellows, green, and crimson flashes of colour – the leaves that areas yet unconquered by the awesome power of winter and have yet to fall into the waiting blanket of grey-blue snow.
Water is yet another love of Magro. There is water, water, almost everywhere in his pictures – images of the Dnipro and Sura rivers or quiet coves with ponds and overgrown reeds. And when it comes to capturing the true quality of the sky, he never sees it just as a background, always endeavouring to feel the uneven and turbulent states of the sky in order to further intensify the emotion within his landscapes.
People and animals are also important to the artist, and it's almost as if Magro cannot imagine a landscape without them. Fishermen tending their boats, horses with their owners slowly dragging carts and sledges filled with hay.
Petro Magro's chosen method of working regards sketches as merely drafts, important but only as a means to an end. According to the master, all pictures begin their existence in the imagination, and in the traditions of Ukranian landscape painting, the aim is never to simply copy nature. To Magro, the sketch is the raw material from which the finished masterpiece is fashioned, just as a rough diamond is carefully cut and polished to perfection by a master craftsman.
The theme of everyday village life occupies a special place in Magro's heart and in his work. Looking carefully at his 'village pastorals' one can sense the deep significance of human life within them, particularly the depiction of the beautifully open-hearted Ukranian people. In fact, this almost poetic image of village life has its roots deep in history as we are reminded when studying the works of past-masters such as Ivan Sokolov, Mykola Pymonenko and Konstyantyn Trutovskyi, who were all fascinated by the folk customs and everyday life of the peasantry.
Then there are the still-lifer. Petro Magro breathes new life into this most familiar of genres. In the true tradition of the old masters he creates large compositions filled with images such as 'Odes Flora', where he skilfully interlaces grape vines, leaves, flowers to reflect the fragility of the flower itself, the shear silkiness of its petals and the flexibility of the vine.
The year 1998 was Petro Magro's eightieth birthday and his work continues to be both strong and creative.
*Art historian, member of the Association of Ukrainian Artists, Head of Art Funds of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts.